by Ally Condie
The hairs on Nico’s arms stood. He rubbed them, trying to shake off a sensation of being watched. “Emma, that water is super cold, and you were down a long time. It’s a miracle you surfaced out here. You almost … the lack of oxygen must be what you felt.”
Emma shook her head adamantly. “No. Nico, I’m telling you, there’s more going on here than a freaky whirlpool.”
“None of that matters right now.” Tyler lurched to his feet. “It’s freezing out here, and you’re soaking wet. Let’s go back inside. We can talk about this later.”
Opal nodded quickly, and Nico agreed. Emma had nearly drowned. They needed to get her warmed up as soon as possible. They weren’t avoiding the topic because it was frightening. Of course not. Not at all.
Emma staggered to her feet, but her gaze kept drifting to the water. Horror lurked in her eyes, but something else as well. Wonder? Fascination?
Tyler led the group, while Opal held Emma’s hand. Nico came last, feeling guilty. Out of all of them, he’d done the least to help. He’d been useless right when his friends needed him most. Like usual.
Nico was working himself into a serious funk when the bushes beside him rustled. He glanced to his left. Something stared back. Nico stumbled backward in shock as a huge shape surged from the trees. It towered over him, grunting and snorting.
He heard the others stop, but no one made a sound.
Nico’s brain finally accepted what he was seeing.
A giant purple grizzly bear was watching him with sharp eyes.
10
OPAL
Stand your ground, Nico! You can’t outrun a bear!
Opal watched as the enormous creature loomed over him, sniffing the air suspiciously. Sunlight and clouds dappled shadows across its purple fur. It was terrifying. And magnificent. Why is it so big? Why is it purple?
Nico had his head down and was staring at the grass.
That’s right, Opal thought. Don’t make eye contact.
The bear lowered its head and growled. Nico trembled, but didn’t move.
Opal’s gaze flicked to the others. Tyler had frozen in place. Good. He knew the bear rules, too. But Emma’s fingers twitched against her side. To Opal’s horror, Emma stepped toward the bear.
The animal rumbled. And … shimmered. With a shock Opal realized she could see right through the creature, almost like a hologram. The bear turned to face Emma, a deep, low snarl rattling its throat. The sound vibrated through Opal like an earthquake.
“Emma,” Opal whispered. “Don’t.”
“It’s okay.” Emma was staring at the bear in wonder. “Guys, I know him.”
“What?” Tyler hissed from the side of his mouth. “Emma, did you bump your head?”
Opal forgot to breathe as the bear dropped to all fours and walked toward Emma.
“Stop!” Tyler waved his arms above his head. “Get away from her!” His voice cracked, but he screamed louder anyway. “GO AWAY!” The bear swung its head to look at him.
“No, no,” Emma said. She kept her eyes locked on the impossible purple animal. “Hey, big guy. It’s me. Bear, it’s me!”
The bear continued to watch Tyler, who’d gone still again. Opal wondered what it would feel like to have those huge eyes focused on her. Terrifying? Or … exhilarating?
Emma reached out. The animal turned. To Opal’s shock, it bowed its head.
“Bear,” Emma breathed. Her fingers stretched, almost touching the sparkling lilac fur …
The bear vanished.
“No!” Emma’s face fell as she stood with her fingers outstretched, dripping pond water on the grass where the bear had crouched an instant before.
“Um.” Nico cleared his throat. “What was that?”
“Where’d he go?” Emma moaned in disappointment.
“There was a bear here just now.” Tyler dropped to his knees. “A giant purple grizzly bear. I saw it.”
Opal’s legs felt like Jell-O. She put a hand on Tyler’s shoulder, as much to steady herself as to comfort him.
“Where is it?” Nico peered into the forest. “Did you see it run off?”
“I know that bear,” Emma repeated.
“Excuse me?” Nico and Opal spoke at the same time.
Tyler pressed his cheeks with both hands. “There was a shimmering see-through temporary bear growling in my face ten seconds ago. Is everybody getting that?”
“You don’t understand.” Emma turned to face them. “That was my imaginary friend, from when I was little! I used to draw him all the time. His name was Bear.”
“Great name,” Nico said in a shaky voice. “Did you also have a dog named Dog?”
Emma didn’t seem to hear. “That was him. I don’t know how he became real.”
“Not real,” Tyler insisted. “Disappearing childhood bears are not real.”
Opal swallowed, staring at where the creature had been. “It was, though. We all saw it.”
“Not possible,” Tyler said stubbornly.
Opal arched a brow at him. “A spinning whirlpool swallowed Emma and spit her out in this pond. None of this seems possible. The boat, the basement, this island. So why not a purple bear?”
“One that came from inside Emma’s head?” Nico said softly.
“Maybe we’re dreaming,” Tyler said. “Or it’s just me. I’m having some kind of weird nightmare.”
“This isn’t a dream,” Opal said. “I’m awake and I’m here, too. Want me to pinch you?”
“Emma needs to dry off and get warm,” Nico said. “The real-or-not bear didn’t change that. Do you have anything else to wear?”
“I left my sweater in the display room,” Emma said. “And my other shoe is downstairs.”
“Let’s get them.” Nico started toward the stepping-stones.
“Wait!” Tyler spread his arms. “Back to the boat? What if the bear’s in there?”
“Tyler, it’s gone,” Opal said. “It didn’t run off. We saw it vanish.”
“It could reappear,” Tyler said doggedly. “It showed up with no warning just now.”
Nico stopped. “What do you think happened?”
“The Darkdeep happened.” Emma’s eyes flashed, daring anyone to challenge her. “The pool must’ve read my mind and made Bear appear somehow. That’s the only answer that makes sense.”
“Stop freaking me out,” Tyler grumbled, scratching the side of his head. “Pond water doesn’t read people’s minds.” He laughed nervously, glancing around at the others. “Otherwise, we’d run away this second and never come back, right?”
Never come back. Opal didn’t know if she could do that. The island was eerie and dangerous, but also fascinating. She’d never been so creeped out or felt so alive. And if what Emma said is true … “Were you thinking about Bear when you fell into the pool?” Opal asked.
“No.” Emma shuddered. “I was just afraid. And also … maybe a little excited.”
“Excited?”
A shaky smile crept onto Emma’s face. “Because I was going to know. One way or the other, I’d learn what the Darkdeep is.” She shrugged, as if surprised by her own feelings. “I think it is regular water, for the record. It felt and tasted like it, only a little more … slippery.”
“Regular water?” Tyler reared back with a scowl. “Emma, it pulled you in. And please, wash out your mouth if you drank any. Who knows what could happen?”
“Lights, colors, and something inside your head.” Nico spoke slowly, as if considering every word. “Is that what you remember, Emma?”
She nodded. Opal had to admit the last part didn’t sound great.
Nico rubbed his chin. “That seems scary.”
“It was.” Emma’s hands fluttered as she tried to explain. “You know how when you’re reading a book, your eyes go back and forth across the page? Well, it felt like something was reading me. Like I was the book.”
They were silent after that. Opal caught Nico and Tyler sharing a worried look.
“Okay,
real talk.” Tyler squeezed his nose. “We’re definitely not going back in that boat right now. We should evacuate the island until we get a better handle on things.”
“Leave?” Opal realized she didn’t want to. “Why?”
“So that demon well doesn’t eat the rest of us!” Tyler squawked.
“It didn’t eat her. Emma touched the water on purpose.”
“Emma’s other shoe is on the houseboat,” Nico pointed out.
“I don’t need my shoe,” Emma said, surprising Opal. “Tyler’s right. Let’s go home.”
“Okay, sure.” Nico kicked a pebble into the pond. Opal heard the reluctance in his voice.
He’s as curious as I am.
Because Opal was practically burning with curiosity. What could make a purple bear spring into being? She wanted to examine the Darkdeep right away, but it was Emma who’d been sucked through a spin cycle and ejected into a freezing pond, just in time to meet her imaginary friend before it vanished into thin air. So, yeah. She got to make the call.
With nothing more to discuss, they climbed the ridge, heading for the rowboat. Opal wasn’t ready to share her tunnel yet. Not until she was sure they’d keep including her. On the beach she and Nico each picked up an oar. They pushed off, the island disappearing behind them in the mists.
Nico cleared his throat. “Emma,” he said quietly, rowing in sync with Opal. “You think you made that bear? That it somehow came from your imagination?”
“Yes.” Emma spoke with absolute certainty. “It happened inside the Darkdeep.”
More strokes. More silence. Finally, Opal cracked.
“I wonder if the rest of us could do it.”
“Do what?” Tyler glanced from face to face. “Oh no. Don’t tell me you’re thinking about going in on purpose. Because there’s nuts, and then there’s nuts.”
Nico kept rowing, his face an unreadable mask. Emma nodded as if Opal had made the logical conclusion.
Lay out all the cards.
“If I went into the Darkdeep,” Opal said, “maybe my imaginary friends would appear.”
“You can’t be serious,” Tyler said. “Go in? Into the black, sucking, mind-reading well?”
Opal shrugged. “Are you seriously not thinking about it?”
Tyler looked away. Nico grunted, dipping his oar in time with hers. Emma grinned.
As they slid toward the sheer cliff wall, Opal had only one thought.
What would the Darkdeep pull from her?
11
NICO
The chin strap fit snugly under Nico’s neck.
He stared into the mirror, a feeling of intense humiliation spreading from his face, down his neck, to his limbs, fingers, toes, and the rest of his body.
I look like a royal dork.
“Hmmm.” Warren Holland scratched at his beard, as close to a laugh as he ever got these days. It didn’t improve Nico’s mood.
“Dad, there’s no way I’m wearing this,” Nico pleaded, praying his father would save him from the town’s idea of cutesy festival regalia.
“If the school sent it home, you have to wear it,” Warren said sternly, his giant frame nearly filling Nico’s bedroom. “Town pride is important, son. This festival is … um … Timbers is really trying to do something special.”
Nico was dressed in a giant radish suit. A red, formless blob of a body—stitched together by Ms. Simanson’s sixth-period home economics class—matched to a green, beret-style cap with a jaunty leaf-and-stem combo on top. Nightmare.
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 look rad.” His father coughed into a fist. Did his lip twitch? Was he making a joke?
“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 a purple freaking grizzly bear sprang 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 the coolest 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 p
osition.”
Nico’s stomach dropped. “Are they firing you?”
“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 of Overlook 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 so unfair. 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 betraying him, 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.
