“Speak of the devil.” Tyler clicked his tongue. “Here he comes.”
“What?” Opal turned around. She’d assumed she’d have time to gather her thoughts and approach Logan friend-to-friend.Or person-to-person.But his mother’s BMW convertible was pulling into the parking lot.
“Crap,” Opal said. To no one. The others had slunk off in various directions.
Cowards.
“Hi, Mrs. Nantes!” Opal called, as Logan’s mother climbed out and shut the door. Opal’s cheery voice sounded false even to her own ears.
Logan stayed in the car, staring straight ahead.
“Hello, Opal. Logan’s not feeling well, so I’m letting the pageant director know he’ll miss rehearsal. We’re headed to the doctor.” Mrs. Nantes sounded worried.
As soon as Mrs. Nantes stepped inside the school, Opal hurried down and knocked on the car window. Logan ignored her at first, so she pounded harder.I’m not going away.With a grimace, he finally lowered it. “What?” he said in a flat voice.
“I want to make sure you’re okay.” She tried to catch his eye, but he kept staring straight ahead through the windshield. “Please don’t say anything about the houseboat, or what happened. Not before we can explain.”
“About what happened.”
“Yeah.”
“We both knowwhat happened, Opal.” He looked at her then, eyes cold and scary.Haunted. “You and Nico tried to drown me. Then I had a mental breakdown.”
“No. Logan, listen. You guys fell. After—”
“Look, I get it, okay? You got me back for the drone.” Logan put his head down against the dashboard. “With your sick, creepy pool. I hope you’re both proud. Something’swrong with me now. I … I thought … the worst things inside me keep …” He shuddered. “Leave mealone.”
Logan rolled the window up in Opal’s face.
She stood there, stunned. The glass between them felt a mile thick. Feeling awkward and upset, Opal hurried back to the school.
Logan didn’t know it, but he’d pinpointed what frightenedherabout the Darkdeep.
Did the pool know who you really were? Your darkest thoughts, deep down inside?
Can it see what’s wrong with me?
21
NICO
It looked like weather for the underworld.
Still Cove was usually just that—windless and dank—but frigid gusts that afternoon had Nico jamming his hands into his pockets. The fog swirled and danced rather than hanging like a wet sock.
Emma shivered as she exited the tunnel. “It’s like an old black-and-white detective movie out here. Very film noir.”
Tyler shot her an anxious look. “Don’t those usually end badly?”
“Almost always.”
“Great.”
Opal emerged last and the group started up the rocky incline.
“Let’s not waste time.” Tyler blew into a fist as he climbed. “This gone-every-day stuff is getting on my parents’ last nerves. If they weren’t busy repainting the pier for the radish madness, I’d have been busted already.”
“We sold out of camping chairs at the store,” Emma said. “Even though Mom stocked way more than usual. Air horns, too. This could be the most obnoxious parade in history.”
