Plot Summary
Enemy at the Keg
Penny Emberly1 spends the Fourth of July at Corey Barrion's3 lakeside party the way she spends most social events: hovering at the perimeter, watching. The atmosphere shifts when Alonso De Luca2 arrives, blue hair catching firelight, the crowd parting around him like water around a stone. He finds Penny1 directly, asking if she read what he wrote in her yearbook — a Sylvia Plath quote she never noticed.
She tells him to leave her alone. Corey3 intervenes. Fists fly. As police sirens approach, Penny1 flees through the woods with her best friend Naomi.5 The next morning, her mother Anita4 touches a strange crescent moon necklace and warns Penny1 to stay far away from both the Barrion3 and De Luca2 families. Penny1 does not understand why. Not yet.
The party functions as Idlewood in miniature: the Barrions command attention while the De Lucas disrupt. Alonso's awkward approach—quoting Plath, mentioning a yearbook message she never read—reveals a boy who has been paying obsessive attention but lacks the tools for genuine connection. Penny's reflexive rejection of him is not just about Alonso's reputation. It is her survival instinct. The town has trained her that some people are dangerous to even acknowledge. The fight between Corey and Alonso is choreographed, almost expected, like a ritual the community needs to witness. Anita's warning carries the weight of someone who knows more than she is saying.
Dock Rot and Deep Water
Anita Emberly4 sneaks away from the café to meet someone. Hours later, Penny1 learns her mother fell through a rotted dock at Elkie Lake, hit her head, and slipped into a coma. The doctor mentions Helen Barrion8 was with her — the same family Anita4 warned Penny1 about.
That night, Corey3 sneaks into the hospital room and fastens a small crescent moon necklace around Anita's4 throat. Penny1 catches him. In the parking lot under broken security lights, Corey3 confesses everything: his family is cursed.
Anyone a Barrion3 falls in love with dies, murdered by dark magic created fifty years ago by Alonso's2 grandfather Giovanni.9 Anita4 is dying because Corey's3 aunt Helen8 fell in love with her. The necklace is a ward, the only protection that can slow the curse. Penny's1 world rearranges itself around this new, horrifying axis.
Corey's confession in the parking lot is the moment the novel pivots from small-town drama to dark fantasy. The ward he places on Anita is both a literal lifeline and a symbol of the Barrions' complex relationship with the curse: they can delay death, but never stop it. Penny learns that her mother's accident was not random but the curse selecting its next victim. The revelation reframes every odd detail of Penny's life in Idlewood—the whispered rumors about the De Lucas, her mother's paranoia, the 'accidental' deaths in the Barrion family—as pieces of a single, terrible pattern. Knowledge, once gained, cannot be un-gained.
The Witch in the Record Store
Penny1 finds Alonso2 at his job at Village Blues Records, surrounded by vinyl and band posters, including a framed tribute to her dead father's grunge band. Alonso2 scoffs when she mentions the curse, claiming his family's magic was sealed by the Council of Witches long before he was born.
Penny1 tells him she was there in the woods ten years ago when he found a dead kitten and brought it back to life. She watched the kitten's neck un-twist, saw its eyes open. Alonso's2 defenses crumble.
He admits his magic somehow broke free of the Council's binding, a secret he has hidden even from his own mother. The cat, Nimble, is his familiar now. But Alonso2 refuses to use his power to save Anita,4 warning Penny1 that his grandfather's legacy proves magic only destroys.
Alonso's shrine to Quicklime, Penny's father's band, is the first crack in his tough-guy facade. He has been quietly honoring her family while publicly ignoring her. Penny revealing she witnessed his first act of magic—the resurrection of Nimble—is the emotional turning point between them. She is not afraid of what he is. She has known for ten years and never told anyone. Alonso's fear of his own power is the book's most poignant internal conflict: he has inherited abilities that destroyed his family's reputation, and he has spent his entire adolescence pretending they do not exist, even as they manifest spontaneously.
Sequins and Spell Books
At a drag show fundraiser for Anita's4 medical bills, Corey3 and Alonso2 fight again and destroy the café's laptop. Penny's1 godfather Ron Willis14 sentences them to community service as stagehands — complete with purple sequined vests and elbow-length gloves.
The absurdity forces a truce. After the show, Penny1 corrals them into Alonso's2 basement, where they search through boxes of magical texts. They find the Blackfire Grimoire, a book of forbidden spells hidden inside a fake dust jacket, containing 'The Unwinding': a curse-breaker ritual requiring three tokens representing past, present, and future, plus an original incantation written by the participants. The full moon is August 9th, three weeks away. Alonso2 agrees to attempt the spell, though he warns it could drain him completely if it fails.
The drag show sequence is the book's most subversive set piece, using humor and forced proximity to accelerate the trio's alliance. The sequined vests strip Corey and Alonso of their respective armor—golden boy, gothic outcast—and reduce them to equals in embarrassing purple. Finding the grimoire hidden beneath a decoy cover mirrors the story's central theme: nothing in Idlewood is what it appears. The Unwinding's requirements—tokens, original poetry, precise timing—turn the curse-breaking into a collaborative creative act, not merely a spell. Each character must contribute something personally meaningful.
Blood, Fire, and a Ghost
The ward burns Alonso's2 hand when he touches it, branding him with the crest of the Pierre coven. The trio drives to Second World Emporium in Bloomington, where Milton Pierre,10 a young witch in an IU basketball jersey, explains his great-grandmother created the ward out of guilt for Giovanni's9 actions.
To prove Alonso's2 intentions, Milton10 forces him to sign a blood oath — a magical contract written in spider's blood on animal hide. As Alonso2 writes, his hand withers, his body ages, sweat pouring. The Veil between worlds thins. He sees Giovanni De Luca9 across it, eyes pure white, teeth black, grinning. A poltergeist. The oath is completed, Alonso2 vowing he would give his life to save others from this curse.
The blood oath is the book's most visceral magical sequence, transforming an abstract promise into physical agony. Alonso's willingness to risk death—signing a contract that could kill him for a single lie—proves his intentions to Milton and, more importantly, to himself. The glimpse of Giovanni as a poltergeist reframes the grandfather from tragic figure to active threat: he has not passed on. He has waited decades, hungry and patient. Milton's revelation that great-grandmother Pierre acted from guilt rather than altruism underscores the book's moral complexity: even good deeds carry ambiguous motives.
Bottled Truth, Viral Shame
Alonso2 brews a truth serum and gives it to Penny.1 When Dylan Mayberry6 shows up drunk at the café, Penny1 pours it into her water. Under its influence, Dylan6 confirms her family descends from the Barnhardt coven — witches who abandoned magic generations ago and changed their name to avoid persecution. They did not curse the Barrions.3 But the serum is too strong.
Dylan6 vomits, confesses she cheated on Corey,3 and sobs that she is terrified no one can ever love her. Days later, Dylan6 corners Penny1 at a party and livestreams herself pouring cranberry vodka over Penny's1 head while accusing her of trying to steal Corey.3 The video spreads across Idlewood. Penny1 is publicly humiliated, and the guilt of drugging Dylan6 corrodes her from within.
This section examines the ethics of magical coercion. Penny's decision to dose Dylan, even for a good cause, makes her morally complicit in violating another person's autonomy. Dylan's confessions—about her family's lost magic, her infidelity, her self-loathing—humanize her in ways the narrative has resisted until now. She is not merely Corey's mean girlfriend; she is a girl grasping for power because she feels powerless. Dylan's revenge livestream is cruel but not incomprehensible: she is lashing out after being drugged and exposed. The viral video makes Penny a public figure in the worst way, forcing her to confront whether the ends justify magical means.
Visions Through Smoke
Penny1 begins having vivid dreams and waking visions: Giovanni9 and Ellie Barrion13 arguing at Elkie Lake decades ago, Charles7 blackmailing Giovanni9 to use magic for the failing family company.
At the library, she finds a microfilm photo of Giovanni9 attending a Barrion gala, smiling beside Charles7 and Ellie13 — impossible if their families were mortal enemies. She sneaks into Barrion Heating and Cooling, pretending to be a journalist intern. Charles Barrion7 intercepts her, serves her pastries, and with surgical politeness warns her to stay away from Corey3 and Alonso.2
She also sees the Shadow — a faceless humanoid figure — multiple times, including at the hospital. Corey3 told her it appears before the curse kills someone. But it is also trying to show her something.
The Shadow becomes the book's most gothic device: a collective ghost formed from everyone the curse has killed, including Corey's grandmother Ellie and his mother Tanya. Its appearances are terrifying, but Penny's visions suggest it is not merely a harbinger. It is trying to communicate. Charles's corporate-cafeteria confrontation is a masterclass in menace disguised as mentorship. He does not threaten. He advises. His power lies in making Penny feel small and silly. The microfilm photo contradicts the town's entire understanding of the Barrion-De Luca feud, proving the official story has holes big enough to drive a hearse through.
Fireworks and a First Kiss
Penny1 attends the Barrion3 gala, invited by Corey.3 Meredith House is transformed with hanging lilacs and hydrangeas, golden lamps, and an infinity-shaped pool glowing blue in the night. Alonso2 crashes the gala, his blue hair cut short, wearing a fitted black suit.
Under fireworks and willow trees, he quotes Sylvia Plath's poem — the full text of what he wrote in her yearbook. He tells Penny1 she always seemed too good to be true, that he has spent years trying to make her notice him. She kisses him.
For a few minutes, the curse, the families, the fear — all of it dissolves. But Julian Chaudhary,11 Corey's3 bitter cousin, has been watching. He follows them and alerts the Barrion3 family. The night ends with Charles7 and his sons descending on Elkie Lake.
The gala and the kiss are the romantic climax the book has been building toward. Alonso's haircut and suit are a costume, but his vulnerability is real: he has been in love with Penny since childhood and convinced himself she could never see past his reputation. The Plath poem—'I think I made you up inside my head'—captures the tragedy of loving someone you believe is imaginary, unreachable. Their kiss under the fireworks is stolen joy before the reckoning. Julian's surveillance and betrayal mirror Charles's methods: the family polices its own, using information as a weapon. The gala's beauty is the shiny surface over deep rot.
The Unwinding Undone
Under the full moon at Elkie Lake, the trio performs The Unwinding. Corey3 offers grave dirt from his mother's burial site. Penny1 drops a lock of Anita's4 hair into the water. Alonso2 strikes a match and speaks over his grandfather's ring meant for Ellie Barrion.13
The wind howls, the Veil opens. Alonso2 sees the curse's threads crossing the divide — but they are not threads. They are fleshy, bloodied, pulsing like organs. Giovanni's9 poltergeist appears, taunting: it was never a curse. Alonso2 tries to cut the threads anyway.
They will not sever. The spell collapses. Corey3 crumples. Then Julian11 emerges from the shadows with a rock, smashing it into Alonso's2 skull. Charles Barrion7 arrives with the family. Corey3 shouts at his grandfather for the first time. Alonso2 is concussed, bleeding, defeated.
The failure of The Unwinding is devastating because the spell was technically correct. The incantations were right, the tokens were meaningful, the timing was precise. But they were trying to break a curse that does not exist. The fleshy threads Alonso sees—organic, vascular—reveal the spell as something living, feeding. Giovanni's poltergeist is not the caster gloating; he is another victim of whatever Charles actually did. Julian's violence with the rock is the physical manifestation of the family's rot: he would rather crack Alonso's skull than let his own powerlessness be exposed. Corey's shout at his grandfather is his first act of genuine rebellion, but it costs him everything.
Magic Sealed, Hearts Broken
Mrs. Katherine Pierre and Milton10 arrive to seal Alonso's2 magic. The spell is agony: a binding that compacts his power into nothing. The De Lucas2 are ordered to leave Idlewood, the magical soil beneath their house too dangerous for a magic-less coven.
They sell their Victorian home back to the Barrions3 — a final, humiliating surrender that erases a century of family history. Alonso2 pushes Penny1 away, telling her she will get over him. Corey3 is confined to Meredith House under his family's surveillance.
Penny1 is alone. Naomi5 still will not speak to her after months of secrets. The Cozy Mystery Book Club group chat goes silent. Anita4 remains in her coma, the ward weakening day by day. Penny1 watches her mother fade and wonders if there is any hope left at all.
This is the book's emotional winter. Every thread of hope—the curse-breaker, Alonso's magic, the trio's alliance, Penny's friendship with Naomi—has snapped. Alonso surrendering to the sealing and pushing Penny away is a form of self-annihilation: without magic, he believes he has nothing to offer. The De Lucas losing their ancestral home completes a dispossession that began with Charles's original betrayal. Penny's isolation is structural now: she has no coven, no family power, no best friend. She is an ordinary girl facing an extraordinary evil with nothing but stubbornness. The silence of the group chat is louder than any spell.
A Key, a Purse, a Revelation
A final impulse takes Penny1 to a storage unit facility owned by Ellie Barrion's13 relatives. A key mysteriously appears. Inside a neglected unit, she finds Ellie's13 old leather purse painted with blue flowers — the same purse from her visions.
In a hidden pocket, two documents: a letter Giovanni9 wrote to Ellie13 the day before both their deaths, and a blood oath signed in his own blood. The letter reveals Charles7 blackmailed Giovanni9 into using magic for the failing company, then demanded ever more, until Giovanni9 refused.
The blood oath swears Giovanni9 never cast any spell to harm the Barrions.3 Penny1 stares at the signature, the dried blood. This paper proves the town's foundational story — the De Lucas2 cursed the Barrions3 — is a lie. Giovanni9 was innocent.
The storage unit discovery is the book's archaeological climax. Penny, the outsider, becomes the excavator of Idlewood's buried truth. The key mysteriously appearing echoes the Shadow's guidance: Ellie's spirit has been leading Penny here all summer. Giovanni's blood oath, written hours before Charles murdered him, is the Rosetta Stone that decodes forty-six years of lies. His letter is heartbreakingly naive: he still believed he could clear his name by appealing to Ellie's sense of justice. The blue flowers on the purse connect to Penny's visions, proving they were visitations, not dreams. Truth, the book argues, does not disappear. It waits.
The Bargain Unmasked
Penny1 calls Milton Pierre.10 He explains a mortal can gain a witch's power by killing them and drinking their blood. The pieces snap together with horrifying clarity: Charles Barrion7 murdered Giovanni9 at the old De Luca Pharmacy, drank his blood, and used the stolen magic to create a bargain with the Second World.
He sacrificed his wife Ellie13 in the Meredith House fire to seal the deal. The terms: every person a Barrion3 loves will die prematurely, their souls feeding the bargain, in exchange for the company's permanent success.
Every 'accident' — Corey's3 mother on train tracks, Julian's11 father in a lightning storm, Sofia's husband in a plane crash — was payment on Charles's7 debt. Breaking it requires an equivalent sacrifice: someone else must die.
The bargain revelation transforms the book's moral architecture. The 'curse' was never mindless fate or a jealous ex-lover's revenge; it was premeditated capitalist homicide. Charles did not lose control in a moment of passion. He calculated. He killed his best friend, murdered his wife, and signed over generations of his own family as collateral on a business loan from the underworld. This reframes every Barrion death as a corporate expense report. The 'equivalent sacrifice' requirement poses the book's central ethical crisis: can you stop evil without becoming it? Penny, who just discovered the truth, must now decide if saving her mother is worth taking another life.
The Final Halftime Spell
The blood oath clears the De Lucas.2 The Council restores their magic and invites them home. Alonso,2 powered again and vindicated, reunites with Penny.1 She has a desperate new plan: cross the Veil herself to sever her mother's connection to the bargain.
They need a crowd's living energy to guide Penny1 back, so they will use the homecoming football game. Alonso2 crafts protection charms for everyone. Penny1 recruits Naomi,5 who finally forgives her after months of silence.
Dylan Mayberry6 — guilty over the livestream, curious about her own dormant magic — agrees to anchor a point in the ritual circle. Corey,3 defying his family, takes his position by the concession stand. Milton10 coordinates. At halftime, six people in different corners of the stadium drink a blue potion and begin chanting.
The football game as ritual space is the book's most audacious metaphor: American civic religion—Friday Night Lights, small-town identity—repurposed for actual magic. The crowd's oblivious energy powers the spell, their cheers and collective focus unknowingly anchoring Penny to the living world. Dylan's inclusion completes her arc from antagonist to ally, and Naomi's forgiveness heals the book's central friendship. Alonso's return, magic restored and family vindicated, gives the finale the emotional momentum it needs. But the plan is desperate: Penny will enter the land of the dead with no guarantee she can return.
Across the Veil to Bring Her Home
The potion pulls Penny1 into the Second World: a grey, wrong-feeling copy of the football field. She finds her mother's fading spirit, connected to the Shadow by a bloody, fraying thread.
The Shadow attacks but then transforms, cycling through the faces of the dead: Tanya Barrion, Jason Chaudhary, Ramon Hirsch — finally settling on Ellie.13 Ellie13 shows Penny1 the full truth: Charles7 murdering Giovanni,9 drinking his blood, setting the fire that killed her. The bargain has always been Charles's7 creation.
With the last of her strength, Penny1 severs the thread binding Anita4 to the Shadow and shoves her mother back across the Veil. The Shadow grabs Penny's1 leg. She kicks free and throws herself after her mother. Back in the hospital, Anita's4 heart stops.
Penny's journey through the Second World is the book's Orpheus sequence: a living girl descending into the grey space between death and afterlife to retrieve someone she loves. The Shadow's transformation—from faceless monster to Ellie, to Tanya, to Jason—reveals it as a prison of souls, not a predator. These are Charles's victims, trapped in servitude to the bargain that killed them. Ellie's confession implicates her own husband without softening her complicity: she married Charles for security, ignoring Giovanni's warnings. Penny severing the thread is an act of surgical liberation, not destruction of the whole system. She saves one person by cutting one connection.
The Resurrection Gambit
Alonso2 crosses the Veil himself, finding Anita's4 soul being devoured by the Shadow. He speaks an incantation that comes from instinct, not any book — a necromancy spell of his own creation, powered by reserves of magic he never knew he had.
His familiar Nimble, transformed into a massive shadow-creature, battles Giovanni's9 poltergeist. Alonso2 pulls Anita4 free and reconnects her soul to her body. In the hospital, Anita's4 eyes open. The room erupts in joy. The De Lucas2 are vindicated. But Alonso2 feels strange: stronger, darker.
When he walks to Charles Barrion's7 house, his consciousness slips. Giovanni's9 poltergeist takes control of Alonso's2 body. He knocks on Charles's7 door. The old man opens it. Giovanni9 smiles with Alonso's2 mouth and forces Charles7 to hold a gun to his own head.
The possession twist recontextualizes the entire resurrection. Alonso's unprecedented power—manifesting necromancy instinctively—was the beacon Giovanni needed to cross the Veil permanently. Their collision during the resurrection gave Giovanni a door into Alonso's body. The novel ends not with triumph but with a chilling question: can Alonso's soul survive sharing a body with his vengeful grandfather? The cliffhanger positions the sequel around a new central conflict: Charles deserves justice, but Giovanni's method of obtaining it—murder via possession—would destroy Alonso. The gun at Charles's head is the bargain's logic turned inward: what price is acceptable for stopping evil? Penny, who just got her mother back, may lose the boy she loves to the ghost of the man Charles murdered.
Analysis
The Glittering Edge is, at its core, a novel about the stories small towns tell themselves to justify cruelty. Idlewood has spent four decades blaming the De Lucas for every Barrion death, turning a family of witches into convenient villains whose persecution feels righteous. The truth — that Charles Barrion,7 the town's wealthiest and most respected citizen, murdered his rival and sold his own family's souls for corporate profit — is so ugly that no one looked for it. The title's 'glittering edge' is the sharp boundary between the beautiful surface of a community and the rot beneath: the gala flowers and the fire that killed Ellie,13 the football hero and the curse that killed his mother, the love story between Penny1 and Alonso2 and the poltergeist waiting to destroy them both. Penny's1 journey from anxious wallflower to someone who crosses into the land of the dead is powered by the book's central argument: ordinary people, armed with stubbornness and the willingness to see clearly, can break the cycles that powerful men have built. The novel also examines race and belonging in quiet but persistent ways. Corey,3 the half-Black heir in a mostly white family, has learned to police his emotions because anger looks different on a Black boy in small-town Indiana. Tanya, his Cameroonian mother, was seated apart at family dinners, treated as a guest in her own home. The bargain's victims are disproportionately the 'outsiders' who married into the Barrion3 line — people of color, immigrants, anyone Charles7 viewed as expendable. Meanwhile, the De Lucas,2 coded as ethnic outsiders with their Italian heritage and witch traditions, are scapegoated for a crime they did not commit. The magical system reinforces the themes: bargains are contracts, and contracts favor those who write them. Charles7 understood that magic, like capitalism, rewards those willing to sacrifice others for gain. The novel ends with this logic turning inward: Giovanni's9 poltergeist, armed with Alonso's2 body, forces Charles7 to hold a gun to his own head. Justice or vengeance? The sequel will have to answer. But the summer that Penny,1 Alonso,2 and Corey3 spent together proves that inherited hatred is a choice, not a fate — and that love, however terrifying, is the only thing powerful enough to rewrite the terms.
Review Summary
People Also Read
Characters
Penny Emberly
Anxious wallflower turned determined heroA shy high school senior who works at her mother's4 café, Horizon Café. Penny lost her father Nathan to cancer as a child and has spent years making herself invisible to avoid the small-town gossip that has always swirled around her free-spirited mother4. She has secretly known magic is real since she was seven years old, when she witnessed Alonso De Luca2 resurrect a dead kitten in the woods. Her anxiety is a constant companion, but underneath it lies fierce loyalty and a stubborn refusal to abandon the people she loves. When the curse targets her mother4, Penny transforms from a girl who could barely speak in class into someone who bargains with witches, crosses into the land of the dead, and refuses to accept that any fate is unchangeable.
Alonso De Luca
Secret witch, Penny's love interestThe blue-haired, sharp-tongued scion of Idlewood's fallen witch family. Alonso's grandfather Giovanni9 allegedly cursed the Barrions3 decades ago, and the Council of Witches sealed the entire De Luca coven's magic as punishment. Except Alonso's magic somehow broke free when he was a child. He resurrected a dead kitten (his familiar Nimble) by instinct, glimpsed the Second World, and nearly died. Terrified of becoming like his grandfather, Alonso has hidden his power for a decade, cultivating a reputation as a violent delinquent to keep everyone at a distance. Beneath the silk robes, root beer bottles, and defensive sarcasm, he has been quietly in love with Penny Emberly1 for years, convinced she could never see past the person Idlewood believes him to be.
Corey Barrion
Golden boy quarterback with a death sentenceThe star quarterback and heir apparent to Barrion Heating and Cooling, Idlewood's dominant employer. Corey is half-Black, half-white, raised by his cold, workaholic father James after his mother Tanya died when he was seven—killed by the family curse. Corey has spent his entire adolescence learning to control his emotions, smile on command, and never, ever fall in love. He dates mean-girl Dylan Mayberry6 specifically because he can never love her, a calculated cruelty he justifies as protection. The curse has taught him that love equals death. His friendship with Penny1 and his grudging alliance with Alonso2 crack open the walls he built around himself, forcing him to decide whether a life without risk is worth living at all.
Anita Emberly
Penny's free-spirited motherThe owner of Horizon Café and a widow who never remarried. Anita moved to Idlewood as a teenager and has scandalized the town ever since with her refusal to follow small-town norms, her string of boyfriends, and her determination to live exactly as she pleases. Beneath her playful exterior, she has been deeply lonely since her husband Nathan's death. Her secret romance with Helen Barrion8 triggers the curse that targets her. She has always told Penny1 that love is a beast: terrifying, uncontrollable, and worth every risk.
Naomi Salazar
Penny's best friend, aspiring makeup artistPenny's1 fiercely loyal best friend who dreams of escaping Idlewood for a career as a professional makeup artist. Sharp-tongued, protective, and emotionally perceptive, Naomi is the first person to notice Alonso's2 strange attention toward Penny1. Her on-again-off-again relationship with Kyla McGuinness leaves her heartbroken over the summer, and Penny's1 emotional absence during the curse crisis wounds their friendship deeply. Naomi values honesty above almost everything, and Penny's1 secrets nearly destroy what they have.
Dylan Mayberry
Corey's girlfriend, Penny's tormentor, hidden witchThe beautiful, cruel girlfriend Corey3 chose specifically because he could never love her. Dylan is a descendant of the Barnhardt coven—witches who abandoned magic generations ago to escape persecution in Idlewood. She has tried to access her dormant powers, sending foot pictures to internet creeps for fake spells. Underneath her vicious exterior, Dylan is desperately insecure, convinced she is unlovable, and clinging to Corey3 as proof of her worth. Her arc moves from antagonist to reluctant ally, though she never becomes soft.
Charles Barrion
Corey's grandfather, the Barrion patriarchThe aging patriarch of the Barrion family and founder of Barrion Heating and Cooling, the company that employs most of Idlewood. Charles presents himself as a benevolent, old-fashioned gentleman with a cane and a love of pastries. Behind his serene smile lies a man who views family members as assets, outsiders as threats, and morality as a negotiable expense. He has spent decades cultivating an image of dignified suffering as the widower of Ellie Barrion13, whose death in a fire allegedly drove Giovanni De Luca9 to suicide. His relationship with Corey3 is a study in conditional affection and controlling authority.
Helen Barrion
Corey's grieving aunt, Anita's loverCorey's3 aunt who lost her husband Jason to the curse years ago. Since his death, Helen has rarely left Meredith House, becoming a ghost in her own family home. Her romance with Anita Emberly4 represents her first attempt to re-enter the world and risk love again, despite knowing exactly what the curse does to anyone a Barrion loves. Her grief is quiet and enormous, and her courage in choosing love even when it means potential death is the book's most painful act of hope.
Giovanni De Luca
Alonso's dead grandfather, alleged curserAlonso's2 grandfather, a powerful witch of the De Luca coven. The official story says he cursed the Barrions3 after losing Ellie Barrion13 to Charles7, then killed himself in guilt. He was blamed for decades of deaths and his family's magic was sealed by the Council in punishment. But the truth, hidden in a blood oath for forty-six years, tells a different story. Giovanni was brash, passionate, and deeply flawed—he cast a love spell on Ellie as a teenager—but he was not a murderer. Across the Veil, his spirit has not moved on. He has become something else entirely.
Milton Pierre
Powerful young witch, cautious allyA young witch from the Pierre coven, the most powerful witch family in the world, which holds a permanent seat on the Council. Milton runs his family's occult shop, Second World Emporium in Bloomington, and is deeply cautious about involving himself in the Barrion3-De Luca2 conflict. His great-grandmother created the ward out of guilt for not stopping Giovanni9. Milton administers Alonso's2 blood oath and later helps Penny1 plan her Veil-crossing. He represents institutional magic: rule-bound, wary of chaos, but ultimately willing to bend when justice demands it.
Julian Chaudhary
Corey's bitter, agoraphobic cousinCorey's3 older cousin, son of Helen8, whose father Jason died from the curse when Julian was four. Brilliant and caustic, Julian has severe agoraphobia and rarely leaves Meredith House, spending most of his time in the basement screening room watching horror films. He was raised to believe he would inherit the family company, until Charles7 abruptly gave that future to Corey3 instead. His betrayal of the trio to the Barrion family stems from grief, jealousy, and a lifetime of being told to suppress his emotions.
Vera De Luca
Alonso's stern, grieving motherAlonso's2 tall, severe mother who raised him and her sisters after their magic was sealed and their pharmacy went out of business. Vera has spent decades fighting to restore her coven's standing with the Council. She is hard on Alonso2, comparing him to his grandfather in ways that wound him deeply, but she also fiercely believes in their family's right to remain in Idlewood and reclaim their magical birthright.
Ellie Thompson Barrion
Corey's dead grandmother, trapped spiritCorey's3 dead grandmother, who died in a fire at Meredith House in 1979. She was loved by two men: Giovanni De Luca9, whom she left because of his volatile behavior, and Charles Barrion7, whom she married for stability. Her spirit is trapped inside the Shadow, the physical manifestation of the curse, along with every other person the curse has killed. Over decades, she has struggled to retain her humanity and find a way to communicate the truth about her own death to someone who can act on it.
Ron Willis
Penny's godfather, the café cookPenny's1 godfather and the cook at Horizon Café. A tall man with a booming Kentucky accent, Ron co-hosts the Idol Wood Revue drag shows with Anita4 and serves as Penny's1 emotional anchor when everything falls apart. He does not know about magic or curses, but his steady, protective presence keeps Penny1 functioning through the worst of the summer.
Plot Devices
The Ward
Protective magical amuletA small crescent moon necklace made of cold obsidian, created by the Pierre coven to protect the wearer from dark magic. The Barrion3 family has used it for decades to delay the curse's effects on their loved ones. It must be worn continuously to work, and it can only slow death, not prevent it. The ward also repels anyone with De Luca blood, burning Alonso's2 hand when he touches it—which is how the trio discovers the Pierre coven's involvement. The ward becomes a ticking clock: as the curse depletes its power, Penny's1 mother has less and less time.
The Barrion Bargain
Demonic contract for wealthWhat the Barrions3 and the town believe to be a witch's curse is actually a bargain—a contract with the Second World created by a mortal who killed a witch and drank their blood. Charles Barrion7 murdered Giovanni De Luca9, stole his magic, and sacrificed his wife Ellie13 to seal a deal: the company would prosper forever, and in exchange, every person a Barrion3 truly loves will die, their souls feeding the bargain. Unlike a curse, which can be broken by the caster or a descendant, a bargain can only be unwound by an equivalent sacrifice: another death, offered freely by a Barrion3, to cancel the original terms.
The Veil and Second World
Border between life and spirit realmThe Veil is the metaphysical boundary separating the Primary World (the living) from the Second World (the realm where spirits dwell after death before passing on). Witches draw their power from the energy of spirits in the Second World. Crossing the Veil is extremely dangerous: mortals can lose their way back to their bodies, and poltergeists (spirits warped by resentment into hungry, powerful entities) seek to possess any living vessel that enters their realm. The Veil thins during spells, blood oaths, and near-death experiences. Alonso2 crossed it once as a child to resurrect Nimble. Penny1 crosses it to save her mother.
The Shadow
Curse manifestation, collective ghostA faceless humanoid figure made of darkness that appears to Barrions3 and their loved ones before the curse kills someone. The Barrions3 believe it is merely an omen, a harbinger of death. In truth, the Shadow is formed from the souls of everyone the bargain has killed—including Ellie Barrion13, Tanya Barrion, and Jason Chaudhary—bound together in service to the magical contract. Over decades, Ellie's13 spirit has struggled to retain enough individuality to communicate, sending Penny1 visions of the past in an attempt to reveal the truth about her own murder.
The Blood Oath
Magical truth contractA binding magical contract written in spider's blood on animal hide. The witch signing it states specific truths, and if any statement is a lie, the signer bursts into flames. The oath requires a blood sacrifice (cutting the palm) and drains years of life from the signer even when truthful. Alonso2 signs one to prove his good intentions to Milton Pierre10. Giovanni De Luca9 wrote one the day before his death, swearing he never used magic to harm the Barrions3—a document that, discovered forty-six years later in Ellie's13 hidden purse, proves his innocence and reveals the curse is actually a bargain.
Download PDF
Download EPUB
.epub digital book format is ideal for reading ebooks on phones, tablets, and e-readers.
