Page 61

Penny

THE CLOCK TICKS, THE HEART MONITOR BEEPS. OCCASIONALLY THEY sync up before drifting apart again, filling Penny’s ears with an anxious chorus. Her backpack sits on her cot, where she’s been sleeping most nights since the gala. Penny usually reads out loud to her mom, but she hasn’t been able to force herself to open Practical Magic today. It’s one of her mom’s favorites, but the last thing Penny wants to think about is magic.

Instead, she’s free to dwell on the fact that tomorrow is the first day of senior year.

Will Naomi walk right by her in the halls? Will Corey acknowledge her? And worse—will Penny ever stop looking for Alonso around every corner? Tomorrow is the day he’s supposed to move. Or maybe he’s already gone.

Penny sighs, burying her face in her hands. She can’t sit around anymore; she’s been doing that for days, and she’s rotting away. She forces herself to take the elevator, get into the Prius, and turn on the engine. She tries to think of somewhere she can go where memories won’t haunt her.

She pulls out her phone, opening her photos. There are screenshots of articles from SkyCat. A photo of Penny playing bike polo, sent to her by Alonso. One discreet candid photo of Alonso and Corey in the café in case Penny ever needed proof they could be civil to each other.

And then, there’s the photo. The one that shows Giovanni De Luca at the Barrions’ gala, standing behind a smiling Charles and Ellie Barrion.

Penny pauses, staring at Ellie’s face. Because there’s one thing she hasn’t tried.

She googles the Thompson family, and sure enough, they’re still around. They own a bunch of storage units on the outskirts of town, and they’ll be open for another hour.

Penny puts the directions into Google Maps, and then she’s driving to the outskirts of Idlewood.

There’s a reason the curse-breaker didn’t work. Alonso said so himself after the spell was over—they were missing something. It’s a long shot, asking Ellie’s family what they remember and hoping it will give Penny the clues she needs. But what else is there to try?

The sun hangs low behind the storage units, which are deserted as Penny pulls up. The only sound when she opens the car door is crickets, and she tugs her jacket tighter around her as she looks for anything resembling a front office.

A door slams somewhere, but nobody appears. There’s an office next to the nearest unit, and fluorescent light cuts through the blinds. Penny walks over, knocking before she opens the door.

Country music plays softly from a speaker, and the computer monitor is bright with spreadsheets. The chair behind the front counter is empty.

“Hello?” Penny says, but there’s no answer.

There are two corporate chairs, so Penny sits in one of them, pressing her fingers into her knees and trying to look like she has honest intentions. But what questions is she going to ask? How will she explain her curiosity about a long-dead woman?

As the minutes pass, nobody appears. Penny looks out through the blinds, but the evening outside is quiet and empty. She gets up and wanders over to the counter, searching for one of those service bells. But there isn’t one.

Penny leans on the counter and rubs her temples. Her head has started to pound—how long has it been since she’s had a drink of water? She almost laughs. If she can’t even hydrate, how was she ever going to break a curse?

“What a joke,” she says. She shouldn’t even be here. She turns around, heading for the door.

Then there’s the tinkle of keys and the sound of something falling to the floor.

Penny whips around, hoping whoever has appeared didn’t hear her talking to herself. But there’s nobody at the counter.

Her heartbeat is suddenly in her ears. Will she go through life wondering if every unexplainable event is because of magic? She needs to calm down.

Slowly, Penny leans over the counter. On the floor, next to the desk chair, is a key ring with a single key and a name tag. Penny walks around the desk and picks it up. She’s halfway to setting it down when she reads the name on the tag: ANNIE THOMPSON . A relative of Ellie’s?

Penny shifts the key ring, examining the key. It looks too smooth, like it’s only half made.

But it’s not half made. It’s a skeleton key, which must mean it will open every single storage unit.

Penny clutches the key to her chest.

“Ellie?” she says. “Are you here?”

She turns around, half expecting to see the Shadow standing in the corner. But the only shadows are cast by the harsh overhead light and the cheap IKEA furniture.

It’s a stretch. Maybe the Shadow isn’t trying to tell Penny anything. But she’s here, and she has the key, and she could peek at the computer and see if the Thompsons have a storage unit. What if they kept any of Ellie’s things? Breaking and entering isn’t on her bucket list, but she’s just dehydrated and desperate enough that it sounds reasonable. She’s not going to steal anything after all. She’ll only look around.

Penny grabs the mouse and starts clicking through the spreadsheets, looking for a list of the tenants. But they’re all budgets or accounting reports.

“Come on,” Penny whispers, minimizing all the windows so she can look through the documents on the desktop.

There. A customer log, updated yesterday.

Penny scrolls through the list, past many names she recognizes and a few that she doesn’t. None of them are Thompson. She scrolls through a second time to make sure, and one row catches her eye.

Not for rent , it says.

Then Penny is out the door. Gravel crunches underfoot as the buildings loom on either side, silver garage doors dull in the evening light. The unit is at the end of the farthest row, near the woods. Penny fumbles with the key, but it slides easily into the lock. The sound of the door sliding upward is like a scream, so she only opens it enough so she can crawl inside.

In the storage unit, Penny turns on her phone’s flashlight, which reveals a room the size of a walk-in closet. There’s an old dresser, a coatrack filled with purses and a dusty winter coat, and lots of disintegrating boxes. She holds her light to the labels on each box.

DENNIS/OLD FISHING GEAR.

SCRAPBOOKS—BETHANY.

HIGH SCHOOL CLOTHES FOR AMOS THOMPSON.

Thompson! Penny’s heart lifts. So this is their family’s unit after all.

She goes through the labels more carefully, looking for “Ellie” or “Elena.” But this is where her luck runs out, because none of them have Ellie’s name.

Then Penny sees a familiar purse on the coatrack.

It’s in the shadows, so she almost misses it. But the light from her phone catches on a painted blue flower, and that’s when Penny remembers.

In her visions, Ellie always carried a shoulder bag with blue flowers.

Outside, the cicadas get louder. Penny takes the purse off the hook and shines her light on it. It’s made of vintage-looking leather. The painted flowers are flaking off, but it’s unmistakable: This is the bag that belonged to the woman who has been haunting Penny all summer.

Penny opens it and a cloud of dust emerges. Inside is an old compact with disintegrating face powder. A wallet full of yellowed photographs. Penny looks through them. They’re mostly of two young kids, both blond. Penny recognizes the baby boy’s smile, because it’s exactly like Corey’s. These are photos of James and Helen Barrion. There are no photos of Charles Barrion.

Interesting. But not helpful.

Penny is putting the wallet back when her finger brushes a zipper. There’s a small pocket on the back of the purse. She tries to undo the zipper, but it’s rusted shut. She presses her fingers to the pocket instead, and it bulges with something. Maybe paper.

Penny sucks in a breath and pulls at the zipper with all of her strength. It budges one inch. Two inches. Almost three—and then the zipper pull comes off.

But it’s enough. Penny digs into the pocket and gently frees an envelope.

It’s yellowed and crinkled. Penny swallows as she opens the flap, which threatens to disintegrate in her hand. There’s a piece of paper folded into thirds, and a small scroll that feels soft to the touch.

It’s animal skin.

Penny scrambles to open the letter. It’s written in messy cursive, and it reads:

Darling Ellie,

You’ll never read this letter. Maybe you haven’t read any of my notes in a long time, but I had to try.

You know by now that my magic has helped your husband’s company over the last three years. You also know that it wasn’t enough. I’ve done everything I could to tame his greed, but I failed. I kept my promise to you, and I never used magic on him, but I’m regretting that now. Why keep a promise if it only hurts you?

Whatever happens next, he’s going to blame me for it. Your family needs to know the truth. Now that they know what I am, they’ll know that I can prove my innocence.

I hope you find peace. I’ll be searching for the same.

Gio

Penny rereads the letter, trying to make sense of it. Then she takes the scroll in her hands and slowly unrolls it.

These words are written in a different ink. It’s messier and lighter in color than the rest of the letter. It’s almost dark red—

Is this blood ?

It reads:

By the power of my blood, I will shine light on the truth.

When I was fifteen years old, I cast a love spell on Elena Thompson. I continued to feed the spell until I was twenty-two. I never cast another spell on her again.

I have not and will never use magic to harm the Barrions.

I swear this on the moon, on my ancestors, and on my life.

Giovanni De Luca

August 17, 1979

Penny reads it one more time. Then she pulls up Ellie’s obituary, her eyes searching for the date of her death.

August 18.

Ellie died the day after Giovanni wrote this blood oath. And Giovanni didn’t die by any magical means—he shot himself. Which means he was telling the truth in this blood oath.

She squeezes the skeleton key to her chest. She was meant to find this. Because this means Giovanni didn’t curse the Barrions—and it changes everything.

Penny tucks Ellie Barrion’s purse under her arm and crawls out of the storage unit. She locks the door and drops the key into the gravel, silently apologizing to Annie Thompson and hoping she finds the key sooner rather than later.

As she makes her way back to the car, Alonso’s words from the night of the gala come back to her. He told me… it wasn’t a curse…

The face of Charles Barrion appears in her mind. The way he threatened Giovanni De Luca. His condescension toward Penny. His self-satisfied air that night at Elkie Lake.

Penny doesn’t know the details, but Corey’s grandfather must’ve had something to do with this. Penny will figure that out later. Right now she needs to talk to Milton Pierre.

As soon as she gets back into her car, Penny dials the number. The phone rings and rings and then goes to voice mail. “Hi, you’ve reached Second World Emporium, your number one source for herbal treasures and antique religiosity. Please leave a message—”

Penny hangs up and calls again. And again. And again. She’s seriously considering a drive to Bloomington when the line clicks to life on the other end.

“Second World Emporium, this is Milton.”

“Milton! This is Penny Emberly. Do you remember me?”

“Penny?” Milton says, and then he lowers his voice. “Hey, hold on, hold on.” There’s some shuffling, and then he says to Penny, with theatrical volume, “Yes, miss, we have witch hazel mixed with lamb’s blood. Which concentration are you interested in?”

Penny doesn’t answer until he clears his throat. “I want… strong. All the lamb’s blood.”

“Cool, yeah, cool. Let me check the back for you.”

Suddenly Penny is listening to jazzy Muzak. After a few seconds, it cuts off, and Milton speaks in his regular voice. “It’s fine, my grandma left. Had to check the stockroom to make sure. Sometimes she uses the phone in there to listen in on our calls so she can give us ‘performance reviews.’” He sighs. “I’m guessing you heard about the De Lucas. I’m sorry about Alonso’s magic. I really respect what y’all did, and I wish I could’ve—”

“Milton, I have to show you something.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“Can I FaceTime you?”

“One sec.”

A few seconds later, Penny’s phone rings with a FaceTime request from an unknown number.

“Did you use magic to get my number?” she asks as soon as Milton’s face appears on the screen.

“Caller ID. Magic straight from the 1990s.”

“Right.” Penny flips the camera. “I just found this.”

After Milton has a chance to read the blood oath, there’s a long, pained silence.

“This is bad,” Milton mutters.

“No, it’s great! It’s…” Then she realizes what he means.

“The whole Council…” Milton sighs. “We punished the wrong people.”

“But nobody knew this blood oath existed. Now that we do, you’ll do something about it, right?”

“Yes,” Milton says. “I’ll make sure of that.”

Penny’s heart soars. Alonso will get his magic back, along with the rest of his family.

“But, Penny…” Milton’s tone is dark. “This means that we don’t know where the curse came from.”

Penny glances at Giovanni’s letter to Ellie Barrion. “Is it possible for a mortal to curse someone?”

“It’s complicated,” Milton says.

“Now would be the time to let me in on it.”

Milton sighs. “This is sensitive info, so don’t go spreading it around. But a mortal can kill a witch and drink their blood. They’ll get access to that witch’s magic for a few minutes, but that’s a short window. Even then, that mortal would have to have access to spell books, and if they want to curse someone, they’d have to write their own incantation. That’s a delicate process, as you now know.”

Penny bites her lip. “What if it wasn’t a curse?”

“What else would it be?”

“I don’t know.” She picks at a thread on the frayed hem of her denim shorts. As soon as she pulls it free, she freezes, staring at it.

She has an idea.

“Alonso said the curse-breaker was supposed to cut the ‘threads’ of the curse,” Penny says. “So is there anything stopping us from cutting a single thread?”

Milton pauses. “Explain.”

“What if we could save my mom without breaking the entire curse?”

“Nah, impossible. Someone would have to cross the Veil, cut the connection between the curse and your mom, and get back to the Primary World. And the curse has that Shadow protecting it. That thing will be way more powerful across the Veil, and it’ll come for whoever is messing with its power source.”

Penny pictures Ellie’s face. “What if the Shadow is on our side?”

“Wait, what? How do you mean?”

“Remember how I asked about the Shadow? About why it might appear in dreams? It’s because I’ve seen the Shadow in mine. It’s happened a few times now, and the last two times, it’s shown me some stuff.”

“Some stuff ? The Shadow was communicating with you?”

“I think it showed me memories involving Corey’s and Alonso’s grandparents.”

Milton breathes out. “Shit. You should’ve told me sooner.”

“What does it mean?”

“Sounds like you already have an idea.”

Penny considers Giovanni’s letter. This confirms that Corey’s grandfather blackmailed the De Lucas, which means everything Penny saw was probably real.

“It felt like Corey’s grandmother was trying to tell me something important.”

“If this is true, it would mean that Corey’s grandma found a way to rebel against the binds of the curse. Her spirit is controlled by it, but she’s pushing the limits. That’s not normal, but I guess it could be possible if there’s enough emotion behind it. She must be one powerful spirit.”

“Hear me out,” Penny says. “What if I cross the Veil and try to… I don’t know, communicate with Ellie Barrion? If I got the Shadow to stand down, would we be able to cut the thread between the curse and my mom?”

“It’s a great idea if you don’t mind the strong possibility of dying.”

“But is it also possible that I would survive?”

“Man,” Milton mutters. “Yeah, it’s possible. But crossing the Veil is different for mortals. It’s easy for you to lose your way back to your physical body. You would need to cross the Veil with a ton of living people around you. Like at some sort of event. Their energy will act like a beacon to lead you back to the Primary World. That alone will make the spell—or spells plural— more complicated. It could work, but the odds are against you.”

“Maybe I can use a protection spell across the Veil? Something like the ward?”

“I don’t have time to make another one.” Milton presses his fist to his mouth. “There’s a workaround. You’d need to find a pure silver necklace. I don’t care if it’s hundreds of dollars, just buy it and return it later. Then soak your mom’s ward in honey so that it absorbs some of its magic. Put the honey in a vial and hang it from the necklace. It’ll protect you, but not for long.”

“And you’ll help me cross over?”

“If you’re determined to do this, I can’t stop you.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

“Fine.” Milton groans. “Consider this my penance for binding Alonso’s magic. That li’l bitch is never gonna let me hear the end of this.”

In the distance, a figure appears outside the office. It’s a young woman with short dark hair, not unlike Ellie Barrion’s. She looks around, and when her eyes land on the Prius, they narrow in suspicion. She starts walking over.

“I’ll call you back,” Penny says, hanging up before Milton can ask any questions.

Penny should stay. She should tell the woman where her key is. But she has Ellie’s purse sitting in the passenger seat.

So Penny turns on the car and speeds out of the parking lot. The girl runs after her for a moment, but soon she’s out of sight.

There’s this idea that summer changes people. A few months out of school and you can come back shiny and new. People will watch you walk down the hallway, wondering who you’ve become. Because they can tell you’ve grown.

This summer has changed Penny. But she’s not sure if it’s changed her in a good way, because she no longer feels like herself. Instead, she’s made of desperation.