“Deep,” Emma said solemnly. “And dark. That’s what Opal kept saying, when she was trying to calm down. Dark, deep, dark, deep. Over and over.”
An icy spider walked up Nico’s neck. He’d heard Opal, too.
“It was cold in there.” Nico shivered at the memory. “Plus, I can’t figure out that lower level at all. Houseboats usually have a flat underside, with almost no draft. Who’d build a ship with that much of it jutting underwater? It’s like an iceberg. You could never move the thing.”
“Who parks a dilapidated funhouse boat on a creepy pond in the middle of a deserted island?” Tyler spread his hands. “The whole thing is crazy. I think we should leave it alone.”
Emma shook her head, her focus turned inward. “I think the houseboat is there because of the Darkdeep beneath it. Thatmustbe why. Nothing else fits.”
Tyler covered his eyes and groaned. “Tell me you didn’t give it a name. Now we’ll never get away from it.”
Emma’s brow crinkled in disbelief. “Get away from it? You’re joking, right? We just found, like,the coolest thing in the world, and you wanna pretend it’s not there? Aren’t youinsanelycurious about that pool? Did you notice the water never stopped moving?”
“Of course I noticed!” Tyler slumped in his chair, his head flopping back to stare at the ceiling. “Gave me the willies, too. That’s all I dreamed about last night, except that the pool—”
“The Darkdeep,” Emma said.
“—was inside my toilet bowl, and I was out of other options.” His face scrunched at the memory. “I woke up sweating like a shoplifter.”
“Whatever that well”—Nico held up a hand to forestall Emma—“thatDarkdeepis, I get the feeling it’s been there a long time. Like, maybe forever.”
“Why does it swirl?” Tyler intoned slowly, squeezing his forehead. “I can’t get over that part.”
Nico grimaced. “Maybe there’s a crack at the bottom of the pond. That might explain a whirlpool—it could just be freshwater spilling into the cove.”
Tyler nodded uncertainly. Emma gave Nico a skeptical look. “Did you notice the strange way it was spinning, though?” she said. “Like in slow motion, almost. It didn’t seem fast enough to be a whirlpool.”
“Maybe the cove’s salt water balances it out,” Nico said defensively. He didn’t have a good answer but was determined to believe one existed. Otherwise his mind crept to conclusions that scared him.
“We need to find out everything we can about the Darkdeep,” Emma insisted, tapping the table with an index finger. “Someone’sgotto know about it. Maybe try the library?”
Tyler snorted, taking a pull off his milk before responding. “You think Old Lady Johnson has a book calledThe Secret Houseboats of Still Cove?”
Nico chuckled. “I gotta agree with Tyler. That showroom was buried under a foot of dust. It’s been years since anyone set foot inside. And rumors would be all over Timbers if anyone had ever seen it before.”
“We should stilllook.” Emma began chewing on her curly blond hair. “The houseboat had to come from somewhere. What if it’s listed in a shipping registry? Or maybe some logbook by whoever built it.”
Nico nodded, biting into a carrot stick. “Okay, you’re right. It can’t hurt to try.”
“Ah, man.” Tyler shook his head. “You fold so easily, Holland. Like a deck of cards. Like a folding chair.”
“She’s right, though.Someonegathered all that stuff out there. Wouldn’t you like to know who? And why?”
Tyler sighed dramatically, but nodded.
Emma opened her mouth. Closed it. Opened it again. “I think we should include Opal.”
Nico’s head snapped up. “No way.”
Emma lifted a palm. “Just hear me out.”
“Itoldyou he’d say no,” Tyler mumbled in a singsong voice.
Emma shot a glare at Tyler, then refocused on Nico. “Like it or not, Opal has a point. Shewasthere when we found the houseboat, so shedoeshave as much right to explore it as we do. But think about it this way—what happens if she gets mad we won’t share, and decides to bring other people so she’s not alone?”
Nico felt a chill cut through him. He knew which people Emma was talking about.
A memory flashed in his head—Opal, hunched over and gripping her knees after fleeing the houseboat. Her meltdown had only lasted moments, but Nico was sure she’d experienced something down there in the dark, beside the endlessly spinning pool.
