Page 74

Alonso

ALONSO REMEMBERS THE FIRST TIME HE SAW PENNY.

They were in preschool, and she was on a swing, going so high that she blocked out the sun. He remembers the way she used to smile at everyone but him. Now Alonso is at Penny’s side, and she’s making a sound like her heart is being torn apart inside her chest.

The heart monitor is off. The nurses are somber and quiet. Penny is on the floor, clutching her mother’s hand, and her cries are so loud. In that sound, Alonso hears someone else’s voice, too—Milton’s.

If given the choice, I will give my life to save others from this curse.

That’s what Alonso wrote in the blood oath. And the only reason he didn’t die was because, deep down inside him, it was always true.

In some dark place in Alonso’s head, a switch flips. A memory takes over and suddenly, he’s somewhere else.

The woods.

Alonso is seven years old again. His tiny legs have taken him off the beaten path. The trees are closer together here, and that’s why he likes it, because he feels so small. Like he could get lost forever. In front of him, sprawled across the dead leaves with her head twisted at a funny angle, is Nimble.

Then Alonso is back in the hospital, staring down at Anita Emberly’s body, but his mind is in the woods.

There’s a way to bring Mrs. Emberly back.

The spirits will come for him, though. And Alonso isn’t powerful enough to bring a human back. Is he?

Alonso reaches for Anita and grabs the ward around her neck. He closes his eyes and there’s a tightening within him as his soul, his essence, detaches from his body.

The Veil appears before him. There are no spirits on the other side. No poltergeists. No Giovanni.

In a few quick steps, Alonso crosses into the Second World. He’s in another hospital room. It’s empty except for a soul hovering there, right across from him.

It’s Mrs. Emberly.

Alonso can only see her head and arms. She doesn’t even have the strength to move. The rest of her body is in the giant mouth of the Shadow, a mouth meant to consume and destroy. It’s chewing slowly. Now that the connection between Mrs. Emberly’s soul and body is broken, Anita is becoming part of the Shadow forever.

First step: Alonso needs to re-create that connection.

Even though he’s never read a necromancy spell in his life, his lips move with words that feel natural in his mouth. It’s not a spell written in any book; it’s instinct.

He reaches out to Anita, but the Shadow notices him. Its long fingers form into claws—but something else gets to Alonso before the Shadow has a chance.

“I was wondering when you would pay me a visit,” whispers a voice choking with malice, and then a hand wraps around Alonso’s throat and lifts him off his feet.

In front of him, Giovanni De Luca grins with black teeth.

In the Primary World, Alonso is still clutching the ward. He holds up that same hand, hoping it will repel the poltergeist—but Giovanni doesn’t even flinch. How is that possible? It should at least throw him off.

Except this is the poltergeist of a powerful witch. Could Giovanni be stronger than other poltergeists? As exceptional in death as he was when alive?

“You knew this would happen,” Giovanni says. “You love that girl too much, and that will only bring you trouble.”

There’s a roar, and then a strange creature—part cat, part darkness—is at Alonso’s side.

“Nimble,” Alonso chokes.

She looks up at him with eyes ringed by double irises. This isn’t the Nimble Alonso knows. It’s the Nimble that saved Alonso the day he brought her back to life. Her body is long and her claws are like knives. Her fur has turned from gold to pitch black.

Nimble roars again and dives for Giovanni, who is caught off guard. He takes a step back, loosening his grip enough that Alonso falls to the ground.

“Keep him busy,” Alonso tells Nimble, and she snaps her jaws in reply. Then he turns back to the Shadow.

All that’s visible now is Anita’s hand. The rest of her has disappeared inside the monster.

Alonso runs directly at the Shadow. He lifts the hand that’s touching the ward in the Primary World, and its residual magic is just strong enough. The Shadow is forced back, out of Alonso’s reach. As it moves, Alonso grabs Anita’s hand and pulls.

After an excruciating moment, she’s free, gasping and dazed.

Alonso’s magic reaches for Anita’s physical body. Words spring into his mind, arranging themselves into an incantation that leaves his lips repeatedly until the sounds melt together.

“ New ties, new life, connect the body, bind the soul ,” Alonso says over and over again.

Did he speak these words when he brought Nimble back and he doesn’t remember? Have they always been hidden in his mind, locked away until he needed them again?

No. The truth of it swells like a wave, and it’s terrifying.

It’s not the incantation that matters right now. Alonso could speak any words and imbue them with meaning, with magic , and he would succeed. Because his power is impossible to measure. It can’t be contained by his bones, his muscles, his skin. It’s aching to get out.

This is how Alonso’s magic broke free when he was young. It’s not simply part of him. It’s wild, like a wolf with no master. And if Alonso doesn’t learn to direct it, to make it bend or go silent, it will do terrible things to everyone around him.

Nothing like learning under pressure.

Alonso rises up, taking the reins of his power, demanding that it listen to the spell and to his intent. His magic flares as if bristling against his authority. But Alonso doesn’t back down, and finally, the spell takes what it needs from him.

The blow is intense enough to knock him on his ass for a decade. He falls to his knees as the spell drains him, but he doesn’t let go of Anita’s hand.

A pure white thread appears, connecting Anita to her body, unseen across the Veil.

“Go!” Alonso shouts, and Anita jumps through the door he opened in the Veil. He’s about to follow her when Nimble cries out.

She was holding Giovanni down with her front paws, but he managed to shift, and he’s sinking his black teeth into her right paw. She cries out again and lets go, and Giovanni launches himself toward the Veil.

He’s going to take Alonso’s body.

Alonso reacts the way he always does when he’s backed into a corner: He uses the last bit of his magic to give Giovanni a magical punch in the face.

The poltergeist flies back, but that second of time is enough. Alonso jumps through Veil. But at the last second, he feels it—a rumble so deep, so painful, that he can’t breathe. And he suddenly can’t fit in his own body…

Because Giovanni made it through. He tried to enter Alonso’s body at the same moment that Alonso did, and they’ve collided.

Alonso tries to push him out, but Giovanni pushes back. Alonso holds his ground and because his body knows him, pieces of himself are snapping into place.

But Giovanni won’t give in. Nimble injured him, and he’s almost weak enough that Alonso can push him out completely…

Until suddenly, Giovanni disappears.

Alonso’s magic grasps around for him, looking for a sign that the poltergeist is still there. But he can’t find him.

The Veil closes again. Giovanni is gone.

Alonso won.

Relief floods through him, and Alonso focuses until he’s fully settled in his own body. Then he opens his eyes.

He’s in the Primary World again. In the hospital room.

And when he looks down at the bed, Anita Emberly’s eyes are open.