Page 63

Penny

IT’S THE FIRST DAY OF SENIOR YEAR, AND PENNY HAS SPENT MOST OF it stalking her ex–best friend.

She walks by Naomi’s locker between classes. She sits at their old table at lunchtime and spends extra time hovering around the art classroom, hoping Naomi is taking another painting class. But she never shows up. Penny wishes she could text her. Could Naomi be sick? Or is her schedule really that different from years past?

After the last bell, Penny finally gives up. As people are packing up and migrating toward the parking lot, Penny pushes into the girls’ bathroom, sits in a stall, and finally lets herself cry.

She wants everything to go back to normal. Except what is normal? Before this summer, “normal” was Penny and Alonso never speaking. It was picnics at the cemetery with Penny’s mom. It was Naomi always texting back.

Penny did everything she could to keep her life the way it was. And now it’s unrecognizable. She isn’t even sure what she’s longing for anymore.

She stays in the bathroom stall until the halls outside grow quiet. But when Penny opens the door, she freezes—because Naomi is there, reapplying liquid lipstick in the mirror.

“About time,” she says. “I’ve been in here for twenty minutes.”

“You have?” Penny whispers.

“Yep.” Naomi glances at her in the mirror. “You’ve got a dried booger on your cheek.”

Penny retreats into the stall and slams the door. As she cleans her face, Penny blurts out, “I miss you.”

Naomi sighs. “I miss you, too.”

Penny opens the stall door. “But you blocked my number.”

“Yep.”

“And I’ve been such a bad friend.”

“And maybe I have, too.”

Penny’s eyes well up again. “No, you haven’t.”

“I mean, I haven’t been as bad.” Naomi holds out her arms. “Hug?”

Penny starts sobbing again, and she basically throws herself at Naomi, crying into her shoulder and mumbling, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Naomi holds her tightly and wards off anyone who comes through the door with tactful side-eye.

Eventually Penny steps back, and she grabs Naomi’s arms. “I should’ve told you everything from the start.”

“True, but we both went through a lot this summer. I was thinking about it, and—god, Penny, I don’t know what I would’ve done in your situation. But!” She points a finger in Penny’s face. “If there’s any more magic going on, you are obligated to keep me informed.”

“Right.”

Naomi examines her. “You’re making a face that says there’s more magic going on.”

This time, Penny tells Naomi the truth. After she explains the basics, Naomi looks mildly terrified. “Are you sure you want to do that? What we saw last time, in the woods… it was scary , Penny.”

“I’m sure.”

Naomi nods. “Then I’m helping.”

“Naomi—”

“Remember that argument we had about letting me make these decisions for myself?” Naomi slings an arm over Penny’s shoulder. “This is one of those moments.”

That evening, Penny writes Corey a long text detailing her plans to cross the Veil. She tells him about the blood oath. About the plan she’s created with Milton. That they’re going to do the spell during the football game in two days—and that they need him.

Penny presses send and waits to hear back. And waits.

But Corey ignores her in math class. He moves past her in the hallway without making eye contact. At lunch, he doesn’t even glance up when Penny walks by his table.

Whether Corey joins them or not, they’re doing this spell, so Penny distracts herself from his silence with preparations. She buys a pure silver necklace on Etsy with her emergency credit card. She soaks her mom’s ward in honey. And she repeats the words to five different unraveling spells until she has them memorized, in the hopes that one of them will sever the link between her mom and the curse.

And then, on the day of the football game, she’s walking to homeroom when she gets a text. It’s from Corey.

I’m in.

Penny presses the phone to her chest, breathing out a sigh of relief. Now they need one more person to make their circle.

Penny knows exactly who to ask.

It might be foolish, but the spell will be easier if they have another witch. And, unfortunately, there’s only one other coven in Idlewood.

At lunchtime, Penny waits at Dylan Mayberry’s locker.

“This is a surprise.”

Dylan is in her maroon-and-white cheerleading outfit, sticky gems on the outer corner of each eye. She stares at Penny with enthusiastic disinterest.

“So much school spirit,” Penny says.

Dylan narrows her eyes. “Did you need something?”

“Yes, actually.” Penny fills Dylan in on their plan. Dylan’s expression stays grumpy the entire time.

“I could sabotage you,” Dylan says when Penny is done with her speech.

“True.”

“So why ask me? Seems like a bad idea.”

“Because, deep down, you’re—”

“Please don’t say a good person.”

“Never! I was going to say you’re a witch.” Penny leans in. “You wanted access to spells, right? This time, you don’t have to send any nudes to strangers on the internet.”

“It was foot pics.” Dylan rolls her eyes. “Never thought Penny Emberly would be the keeper of my darkest secrets.”

“There’s no way that’s your darkest secret.”

“Ooh, she’s got jokes.”

“You don’t have to help if you don’t want to,” Penny says, though her heart is racing. “See you at the game.”

Penny starts to walk away. Behind her, Dylan sighs. “Hey.”

Her expression hasn’t changed, which makes the next word she says even more surprising:

“Sorry.”

Penny gapes at her. “For…?”

“You know what for.”

“Right.” Penny considers her. “You look like you’re in pain.”

Dylan ignores her as she opens her locker. Penny takes the hint: Their conversation is over.

But as she walks to her next class, she feels a little lighter. Because she has a feeling that Dylan will be on their side tonight.