Twenty of these monstrosities had been issued to random seventh graders for the parade, and Nico’s luck remained reliably awful. Carson and Parker had laughed him out of school.
“You lookrad.” His father coughed into a fist. Did his lip twitch? Was he making ajoke?
“Dad,” Nico tried again, “this kind of thing will get me beat up. I can’t—”
“No one is above supporting the community,” his father interrupted, heavy brows knitting together. “People are counting on this to give the town a boost. Maybe restore some of the spirit we’ve lost since …”
Warren waved an absent hand. Nico didn’t finish the thought, either. He knew his father had no regrets about saving the owls, and Nico didn’t want to ask if he understood how much of the town’s troubles were blamed on them. He worried his dad didn’t care.
Warren Holland disappeared down the hallway. Nico ripped off the cap and threw it onto his bed, then wriggled out of the bell-shaped body. Maybe he could leave the costume outside, and bears might get it. No one could blame him then.
The thought took him back to Still Cove, and the impossible things that had happened. Nico had spent all of last night rationalizing away what he’d seen, then all morning pretending everything was normal.
He’d gotten through his early classes by keeping his head down, but when facing Emma and Tyler across the lunch table, he could no longer fool himself. Emma had fallen into the Darkdeep, and somehow apurple freaking grizzly bearsprang into existence as a result.
Emma seemed totally fine. She wasn’t sick, or scared, or falling to pieces. If anything, she seemed energized. She wanted to go back to the island the second they could shake free of their parents, and Nico had agreed without a fight. He felt the same. They’d found something amazing that no one else knew about. How could they not explore it?
You don’t know what it is, or what it can do.
Nico shrugged off the nagging doubt. He refused to be afraid this time. He didn’t want everything about his life to be ordinary. This was special, and it was his, and he wasn’t going to squander it.
They were meeting again in a half hour.
Tyler had promised to tell Opal, and Nico held his tongue. Even he accepted there was no way to keep her from something this big. Being honest, Nico wanted Opal there, too. If nothing else, she was smart and brave. She could help them figure out the Darkdeep.
The Darkdeep.
It was incredible. Maybe even magical. His skin tingled just thinking about it. The more he considered the houseboat, the more he believed it had been built to hide what swirled beneath it. The showroom was amazing—a collection of thecoolest stuff imaginable—but the pool in the basement blew everything else away.
Impatience at maximum, Nico tugged on a navy pullover and jeans and stepped into his sneakers, shoving a pair of trunks and an old towel into his backpack.Would he really dare?
He slung the backpack over his shoulder before he could psych himself out. The bike ride would take twenty minutes. He could get there early and explore the cave before the others arrived. He’d never really looked around in there. Maybe he’d missed something cool.
He tried to slip out the front door, but a squeaky floorboard gave him away.
“Nico!” his father called from the kitchen. “Hold on a sec, son. Come in here.”
Nico squeezed his eyes shut, then snapped them open. He walked to the back of the house, bracing himself to lie however much was necessary in order to escape.
His father was in his usual spot at the table. He kicked out the chair across from him.
“Sit. We need to talk.”
Dread leached into Nico’s chest. “Yeah?”
His father set down his coffee mug. “I was going to wait until your brother was back, but I know you’ve been worried, and I don’t want you hearing any rumors that might set you off.”
Bad start. Bad, bad start.
“What kind of rumors?”
Warren Holland sighed, one arm reaching back to scratch between his shoulder blades. He wore his tan ranger uniform. His hat rested on the table. “I received a letter from the department today,” he said. “Following the review, I’ve been selected for a non-disciplinary employment evaluation.”
Nico shook his head in confusion. “What does that mean?”
“Nothing. At least, not by itself. These things happen all the time. Usually the department is assessing whether a ranger might be better suited for another position.”
Nico’s stomach dropped. “Are they firing you?”
