Page 56

Penny

THEY STUMBLE OUT OF THE WOODS RIGHT WHEN THE AMBULANCE arrives. The lights wash the De Luca home and the Barrion mansion in pulses of red. Penny and Naomi are holding Alonso up, while Dylan flags down the EMTs. Alonso leans into Penny, and she can smell earth and blood on him.

When the EMTs walk up, words flow from Penny’s mouth like water. “He hit the back of his head, and it’s bleeding a lot, and—”

“I’m fine,” Alonso mutters for the hundredth time, but he lets the EMT shine a light in his eyes.

“Any ringing in your ears?” the woman asks.

“Yeah, but I already have tinnitus.”

“He could barely talk a second ago,” Penny says.

At Alonso’s old Victorian home, Vera De Luca appears on the porch. “Alonso?” she cries.

He salutes her.

Alonso’s mom runs down to meet them. His aunts appear moments later, both in mismatched pajamas and long lace robes.

“What happened?” Alonso’s mom grabs his shoulders and looks him over. “Are you hurt?”

“I fell and hit my head. I’m fine, I can barely feel it.” But even in the dark, his eyes look glassy, and the ends of his hair are matted with dried blood. Penny has seen enough medical dramas to know head wounds bleed a lot even when they’re not deep, but that doesn’t make the sick feeling in her stomach go away.

Alonso’s mom looks at Penny. “He fell. That’s the story?”

All the secrets Penny has kept this summer feel like ghosts, and they’ll continue to haunt her if she keeps them to herself. She’s about to admit everything to Alonso’s mom, but Donna De Luca speaks before Penny has the chance.

“James called us, Alonso,” she says. “You can stop pretending.”

Emilia is crying, and her voice catches as she says, “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“I asked him for help,” Penny says. “This is my fault.”

Alonso’s mom takes a shaky breath. “My family will be paying for this for a long time.” She says it without looking at Penny, but Penny knows the comment is meant for her. Look what you did. You’re going to cost us the only magic our coven had left.

“Who’s coming with him?” an EMT calls, and then Alonso and his mom are being ushered into the ambulance. Emilia and Donna De Luca are huddled off to the side, the former crying in silence and the latter puffing on a cigarette.

The EMTs try to lay Alonso on the stretcher, but he waves their hands away. His eyes find Penny, and she wishes she knew what to say. Then the ambulance doors close, and the emergency lights speed off into the night.

Donna De Luca sighs and crushes her cigarette underfoot. Then she walks over to Penny. “You tried to break the curse?”

Penny nods.

“And did it work?”

Penny squeezes her eyes shut. “No.”

Donna sighs. “There was only a slim chance, but I’m glad you tried, anyway.”

“You are?”

Donna leans closer. “It was brave. I would’ve done the same thing. I hope that helps you sleep at night.”

“It won’t,” Penny says, her voice ragged.

Donna De Luca considers Penny. “Your mom needs peace. At this point, you can’t give that to her.” She turns around, letting Emilia grab her arm as they walk inside.

“Hey,” Naomi finally says, “look at me.”

Penny does, but it hurts. Because Naomi’s expression is hard. This is the way she usually looks at people like Dylan—people who don’t know her, or whom she doesn’t want to know.

“That was magic,” Naomi says. “What you were doing back there. With the wind, and the incantation, and the ropes disintegrating.”

Penny nods.

“Because magic is real.”

Penny nods again.

“Which means all of those stories about the De Lucas being witches are…”

“They’re true,” Dylan says, and she steps in front of Naomi. She’s glaring at Penny, her eyes molten. “You put something in my drink that night we went to the pharmacy, didn’t you? I didn’t remember at first. I thought it was a dream. But I said all this stuff to you about my family and my life…” Dylan shakes her head. “I guess I’m not the only one who likes to know people’s dirty secrets.”

Penny stares at the ground. There’s nothing to say.

Dylan turns her glare on Meredith House. “I always knew something was wrong with the Barrions. I just never thought it was a curse .”

Naomi’s face is drawn, suddenly gaunt. “Anita?”

And then, because it’s much overdue, Penny tells Naomi the truth.

She tells her about the curse. About her mom and Helen Barrion. About the drag show, and the truce between Corey and Alonso. Penny tells Naomi that magic is real, that she’s done spells, that she’s worked with a member of a famous witch family. That the Barrions have found them out, and there’s no hope for Penny’s mom anymore. It’s over.

When Penny is done, Naomi’s eyes are wide and shining with tears. Dylan is glaring at the grass. And it occurs to Penny far too late that this news doesn’t just change Idlewood as they know it—it changes Dylan’s entire life.

Dylan laughs, and it turns into a choked sob. “I was right. Corey never loved me at all.”

This whole time, Penny has always seen Corey as the bigger person compared to Dylan. The one who had to deal with so much pain and loss, and who was only doing the best he could. Now, seeing the look on Dylan’s face, Penny isn’t so sure.

Dylan turns on her heel and marches away from them, toward the King Ranch parked way down the street. Then Naomi goes off like a bomb.

“What the fuck , Penny? How could you keep all of this from me?”

Even as Penny tells her the truth, it sounds like a weak excuse. “I was afraid that if you got too close to this, you’d get hurt—”

“So you cut me off. And while you were running around having magic fun times with Alonso and Corey, I was worried sick about you. I was saying your mom would get better soon, and I even believed it! How can I call myself your friend when you’ve been carrying all these secrets, and you couldn’t even be honest with me? I could’ve helped you, even if it was just listening .” Naomi backs up, her face twisted in anger. “And meanwhile, I was heartbroken over Kyla, and you barely checked in on me. Even the occasional text would’ve been enough, but all I got was radio silence.”

Penny’s chest is tight with barely restrained sobs, but she doesn’t know what to say. Because Naomi is right.

“You know, I…” Naomi’s breath catches on a sob. “I lost my virginity to Kyla this summer.”

And once again, the world turns on its head. “Naomi—”

“I tried to call you four times that night. You never returned one of them.” Naomi wipes her eyes. “I love your mom, too, you know. You’re not the only one who’s losing someone.”

Penny is crying, too. She has never been this tired and helpless in her life. “I know. I got so caught up in all of this. I just wanted things to be the way they were before.”

“When are you going to understand that’s impossible?” Naomi says. “You have to change. You have to let me change. We can’t be kids forever, Penny!”

A car horn honks. Ron is in front of Meredith House, waving at them. “C’mon, Cinderellas! We gotta get home before I turn into a pumpkin.”

Naomi puts on a smile and waves, but she doesn’t wait for Penny as she walks back to the car.

So that’s it. They didn’t break the curse. The Barrions found them out. And now Penny has lost Naomi.

“Penny Anne?” Ron says. “You comin’?”

Penny swallows her emotions, and they land like a rock in her stomach. Then she gets in the car.