“Of course not!” his father barked. “Maybe even the opposite. But a change in position often results in a transfer, so people don’t have to work for their former coworkers. If my status were to change, I could be asked to move—”
Nico was up out of his chair so fast it fell over backward. He shot through the back door, ignoring his father’s startled shout. Nico grabbed his bike and took off like he’d been fired from a cannon.
He heard the door fly open behind him. Nico put his head down and pedaled hard. He didn’t stop until he’d bombed through downtown, blowing a stop sign on Main Street and drawing an aggrieved shout from Mr. Owens, who was busy taping radish streamers to the front of his barber shop.
Teeth clenched, Nico coasted up the steep climb ofOverlook Row, which stole the momentum from his tires and brought him to a stop. The famous houses marched in a line on his left. To his right, Orca Park rolled down to the waterfront.
Hot tears burned in his eyes, but he refused to cry. It was just sounfair. Nico hadn’t done anything to anyone, yet he was being chased out of Timbers like a plague victim. Right as he discovered something astonishing. Right as his life threatened to become special.
Nico leaned across his handlebars to catch his breath. If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have seen them.
As his face fell into shadow, Nico spotted two people in the park. Something about the posture of the smaller one caught his eye …
He rolled his bike closer. Squinted. Then he reared back in surprise.
Opal was sitting on a swing with her hands around the chains. Logan stood beside her, leaning against a pole. As Nico watched, they both laughed. A paper plate wrapped in cellophane sat on the ground between them.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Nico whispered.
Anger flared in his gut. Was Opal just betrayinghim, or was she also spilling the secrets of the Darkdeep?
He’d been starting to trust her again. To like her, even. And there she was, hanging out with the sadistic bully whose family was getting his father transferred out of town.
Nico backed up slowly, so they wouldn’t see. Then he rode away, jumping a curb into the rolling fields that stretched toward Still Cove.
He didn’t say a word to Opal.
And if he never saw her again, that was fine too.
12
OPAL
“Incoming figment at twelve o’clock.”
Tyler’s voice crackled through the walkie-talkie. From where Opal stood beside the pond, she could barely make him out on the sloped houseboat roof.
“What is it?” Opal asked.
“It’s a … dinosaur.” Tyler’s voice was an octave higher than usual.
“What?”
Tyler had the binoculars. His job was to spot whatever appeared after someone went into the Darkdeep. It always spit the diver out into the pond, but the well’s creations could materialize anywhere on the island.
Figments.
Nico had said it first, and the name stuck. Opal thought it was the perfect way to describe the things that escaped from their minds. Imaginings that were real, but also weren’t.
They’d all changed into their swimsuits when they reached the houseboat—even Tyler, though it didn’t stop him from grumbling about how crazy they were. But the issue was decided. Theyweregoing to test the pool. No matter how reckless it might be, Opal wanted to see what the Darkdeep might pull from her.
“Tyler, don’t joke.” Opal looked at Nico, who was wading out of the water, dripping and sputtering.
“I’m serious.” Tyler snorted. “But it’s not … well, you’ll see.”
“Where is it?”
“Right behind you.”
