The light changed. Night air rushed down the ladder. “Roof hatch!” Seb called to me. “Come on!”
Blowing out a breath, I headed up the rickety ladder, following Seb’s instructions—“Watch that third step!” And before I knew it, he was lifting me onto the roof of the building, where an iron hatch stood open to the stars.
“Holy shit,” I said.
“Right?”
You could see half of Haven Beach from this vantage point. The higgledy-piggledy rooftops of downtown jutted around us. And farther away, the harbor was a sea of golden lights, with streets crisscrossing in every direction and red taillights streaking.
It was magical.
But we didn’t have time to admire the view.
A cool night breeze ruffled Seb’s hair and chilled my bare legs as he got out his phone and turned on the flashlight function to take a better look around. The roof itself was expansive and black as pitch, but it looked stable enough. We definitely weren’t the first people since Mabel’s time to be up here, as there were several modern structures—commercial HVAC units, satellitedish. We walked around them to check the literal corners of the building, where a low brick wall circled the entire roof. Being up here at the top of the brewery, no one would describe these corners as “deep,” but I guess we were both just propelled by desperation at that point.
We had to step over some mechanical equipment to reach the last corner on the front of the building. The low wall forming the corner showed nothing unusual—no loose bricks, no suspicious mortar.
“Fuck,” Seb said, sighing. “Not sure what else we can do up here, so I guess that’s it for us. I’ll text Benny.”
“It can’t be it. We just aren’t looking hard enough. Have a little faith—I mean, back when we were kids and were losing hope in finding the treasure, wasn’t it you who always said you’d never stop believing in it? That you had enough faith in it for all of us? Where’s that faith now?”
“I’m all about chasing impossible dreams, Paige, but this one’s going to need more time. Probably shouldn’t have run out here tonight without thinking it all over first.”
“Thought you were all about big-risk, no-thinking situations. I can remember when you went around the middle school cafeteria telling everyone that ‘don’t think’ was your personal motto.”
“Why in the world would you pay attention to any motto I’ve got?” he argued. “Hey, you can see the roof of Bean’s from here. Come on, let me help you get back over this machinery...”
But I just wasn’t ready to give up.
“Hidden in deep corners,” I said, running my hand over the corner of the brick wall one more time. A metal gutter hung on the outside. I wondered if the gutters were original to the building. Water was deep. Water flowed through gutters... Okay,sure, I was clutching at straws, but if I just carefully leaned over the wall and stretched my arm down, I might reach the gutter...
“What’re you doing?” Seb asked. “You’ll kill yourself. Come on, Paige...”
Just a little farther...
Without warning, my ankle weakened—the one I’d hurt in the cave. It... gave out.
Mortar crumbled under my fingers. One second, I was trying to balance myself, and the next, it felt like the entire building was slipping away. Disoriented, I scrabbled for purchase and tried to pull myself up, but I continued sliding—until I suddenly felt a steely hand clasp my arm.
My body jerked backward.
“Jesus, Paige!” Seb shouted in my face as I wobbled on my feet, still unsure if I was safe.
“I—I slipped...” I said, heart thudding as adrenaline caused my body to tremble.
He clasped my upper arms in a death grip, still holding on to his phone, its flashlight beaming in his eyes every time I drew a breath. With an exasperated noise, he let go of me only long enough to shove the phone into his jacket pocket, breathing raggedly as he stared down at me.
“You scared the shit out of me, Paige. Especially after the flooded cavern. I thought that was a fluke, but now I’m wondering.Doyou have a death wish?”
“M-me?” I stuttered. “That’s rich. I think I asked you that a hundred times after you abandoned the Wags.”
“I didn’t abandon anything. You kicked me out.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Then what did ‘you’re no longer welcome in the cave’ mean? Or ‘if I see your face again, I’ll smash it with a brick.’”
Had I said that? All I remembered was the feeling of betrayal.
