The Darkdeep Read online

  “Guess so.” Opal walked past him, the long grass brushing her legs. A rush of I’m doing the right thing washed over her. It lasted as the ATVs grumbled away. It lasted until she crested the final hill, and spotted Emma shouting while Tyler ripped at his hair.

  Something was wrong.

  Opal sprinted the last hundred yards, stopping just short of the cliff. “What happened?”

  “Nico fell!” Tyler yelled, peering over the edge. He didn’t even question what she was doing there.

  A cold pit opened in Opal’s stomach. “Into the cove?!”

  Tyler nodded. His mouth worked, but nothing more came out.

  “Did you call 911?” Opal yanked out her battered phone. “Or anyone?!”

  “No coverage,” Emma moaned, eyes shell-shocked. “Not until Razor Point!”

  Emma was right—no bars. Panic washed over Opal. No one had ever fallen into Still Cove before. Not that she’d heard of, and she’d lived in Timbers her whole life. “We have to get down there,” she said. “Now.”

  “There’s no way down!” Tyler moaned, wiping red-rimmed eyes as he stared into the mist. “That’s how Nico fell in the first place. He was trying to get to his drone.”

  “Then we’ll make a way down,” Opal fired back. “Unless you’re not willing to try?”

  Tyler flinched, but Opal’s anger seemed to snap Emma out of her paralysis. “A rescue mission,” she whispered. “Right. Let’s hurry.”

  Trying not to freak out, Opal led Emma along the cliff’s edge. Tyler trailed them.

  “Be careful. It’s slick up here,” Opal warned, scanning the sheer-sided drop. “But there’s got to be a way to the bottom. Like a game trail? Maybe animals go down to drink.”

  “Drink what?” Tyler countered, head down as he followed. “The salt water?”

  “Just look for a path!” Opal snapped.

  They scoured the hillside, pulling back shrubs and stringy branches, cursing when the ground slumped beneath their feet. It was eerie being this close to Still Cove. Like a cold breath on the back of your neck.

  She tried not to think about what each second meant for Nico.

  He can swim, can’t he? Of course he can.

  But Still Cove had no beach. No way out. And what lurked at the bottom?

  What if he didn’t hit the water? What if it wasn’t deep enough?

  “Look!” Emma pointed behind a lone pine sentinel. A barely-there dirt track cut along the inside of the bluff. Opal spotted the upside-down heart shapes of deer tracks.

  Hallelujah.

  “I’ll go first,” said Opal. “Are either of you coming?”

  She didn’t wait for an answer, slinking out onto the slender path before she lost her nerve. A beat later Opal heard two sets of footsteps following. She didn’t look behind her. She couldn’t. The trail descended steeply for a dozen yards before the fog covered everything.

  “Nico?” Opal called. The mist seemed to swallow her voice whole. Something swished the branches of a tree clinging to the cliff wall. Opal’s blood pressure spiked. What if it was Nico?

  The movement came again, barely visible in the fog. Leaves parted and an owl scowled down at her, perturbed to find humans in its domain. “You started this,” Opal hissed. “You and your endangeredness.” The owl turned its head away.

  “Opal?” Emma shouted from above. “You okay?”

  “Yes.” She could hear Emma, but the mist was relentless. Scree dribbled past her ankles as someone shifted higher up the trail. “Getting down is the hard part,” Opal assured them, trying to sound confident. “Climbing back up will be easier.” Then her own foot slid out from under her, carving a line through mud and soggy pine needles.

  Her spirits sank. If Nico was hurt, how could they possibly carry him back up?

  Find him first.

  That’s what her dad would say. He always stayed calm in a crisis, even lately, when his daily mail route included delivering eviction notices and overdue bills. Opal turned sideways and continued inching forward. The trail sunk deeper into the fog. Then all at once, she dipped below the mists.

  “I see the bottom!” Opal shouted, eyeing the flat, mirror-like surface of Still Cove twenty yards farther down. The dark ocean seemed more ominous than the fog. “We’re almost there.”

  “What about Nico?” Tyler yelled from above.

  “Not yet.” Opal breathed a sigh of relief at not seeing the broken body of Nico Holland cradled on any of the jagged rocks below. She hurried along the last of the trail to a shelf hanging a dozen feet above the water. Tyler and Emma crashed down after her.

  The ledge was six yards wide and three deep. A cave burrowed into the cliff face behind it. Opal stepped inside and spotted a crack in the roof with water trickling through it, spilling down to form a shallow, sandy pool. That’s what the deer come for. But the path ends here.

  “Nico must’ve landed in the cove,” Tyler said, leading them back out onto the ledge. “That’s good news, at least.”

  “Then where is he?” Emma glanced around in a state of near-panic. “The walls are vertical. There’s nowhere from him to climb out!”

  Opal kept her voice steady. “He must still be swimming around, then.”

  “NICO!” Emma bellowed, cupping her hands over her lips. “Nico, where are you?!”

  “Shhh,” Tyler hissed, waving madly for quiet. “Don’t forget we’re in Still Cove right now. For real. Think about what that means!”

  Opal stared. “Please tell me you’re not talking about the Beast.”

  “Laugh all you want,” Tyler scolded. “Right until it snatches us off this ledge.”

  There was no response to Emma’s call. She stormed back into the cave. “Maybe he’s in here somewhere.”

  Opal peered across the inlet, goosebumps spreading at the thought of touching that murky water. How must Nico have felt, dropping into it from the top of the cliff? Was there any chance he was okay?

  “Guys!” Emma’s voice echoed behind Opal. “There’s more cave!”

  “Is Nico in there?” Opal asked, spinning around. But even in the gloom she saw Emma’s shoulders slump.

  “No,” Emma grumbled, dejected. “Just some old junk.”

  “Junk?” Opal hurried to join her. At first she couldn’t make out anything in the gloom, but then she spotted a darker shadow in the black and slipped forward to inspect it. “A rowboat!”

  A thick weave of spiderwebs coated the battered vessel, but it seemed to be in one piece. “Look, oars!” Opal grabbed a gunwale and began dragging the boat toward the ledge. “We can use this to look for Nico.”

  “Why is this boat here?” Tyler demanded. “In a deserted cave in the middle of nowhere?”

  “Who knows, but we’re taking it. We’ll push it into the cove and jump in after.” Opal’s patience was running out. How much longer could Nico tread water?

  Emma nodded, grabbing the other paddle.

  “Jump in the water,” Tyler said slowly. “The water where the Beast lives.” He pressed both palms to his eye sockets. “Guys, we don’t have life jackets. You’re not supposed to get into a boat without a life jacket.”

  Opal slapped the hull, eyes fierce. “Nico doesn’t have one either, Tyler. Or a boat.”

  “Thanks to you and your friends!” Tyler shot back, his face a twist of worry and fear. He backed against the cliff, eyes roving for an escape.

  Opal flinched. It was true. She hated what Logan had done, hated everything about the crappy situation except this lifeline of a boat. “You’re right. I’ll go alone.”

  “I’m in.” Emma took a deep breath. “Nico would do it for me.”

  Opal tried to not show her relief. “Let’s hurry.”

  Together they shoved the rowboat over the edge. It hit the water with a heavy thwack.

  “Here we go.” Opal exhaled slowly, shaking out her limbs. “No big deal. No big deal.”

  With an oar tucked under her arm, she stepped off the ledge.

&n
bsp; Slap-cold, breath gone.

  Opal’s body shrieked with the shock of the icy water. She sank like a stone, feeling the cove surge over her. Swallowing her.

  She heard a splash nearby. Emma?

  And another. Tyler?

  Or was that something else?

  Opal surfaced. The boat was ahead, bobbing right side up, appearing seaworthy despite its peeling boards. Opal swam awkwardly, dragging the oar, the water so frigid she couldn’t call out.

  Opal hauled herself aboard, being careful not to capsize the vessel. A moment later a slender hand grabbed the opposite rail. Opal helped Emma scramble up into the boat.

  “W-where’s your o-oar?” Opal chattered as Emma collapsed into a ball, her blond hair soaked and dripping.

  “I’ve got it!” Tyler shouted from somewhere near the stern. “Get me out! Oh please, get me out! I think something’s in here with me!”

  The top of a paddle appeared. Opal wobbled forward and snagged it. Together with Emma, they pulled Tyler up as he half climbed, half somersaulted to safety.

  “We made it,” Opal breathed. She fit her oar in a worn bracket and dipped its blade into the glass-like water. “Let’s go.”

  Emma rubbed the back of her neck. “Sure, but where to?”

  Opal shrugged, anxious to be doing rather than thinking. “Around. In circles. Back and forth. I don’t know, but we need to find Nico.”

  “One of the greatest plans ever formed,” Tyler muttered, but he fit the second oar.

  Emma moved to a lookout position in the bow and, slowly, gracelessly, the boat slid forward. It took Tyler and Opal a minute to find their rhythm, but soon they were pulling in time, gliding across the water.

  “Nico!” Emma shouted. “Nico, where are you?!”

  Tyler winced with every call, but didn’t bring up the Beast again. “Should we stick close to shore, or crisscross the inlet?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” Opal admitted. Up close, the cove was dark and murky, with strange sounds and odd ripples. Shadows moved in the corner of her eye. The fog swirled everywhere.

  Tyler grunted. “We’re already headed toward the center, so maybe keep going? Nico might hear us sooner.”

  Opal glanced up, then did a double take, nearly losing her oar. Emma shouted at the same moment, pointing to a dark shape looming in the leaden half-light.

  An island rose out of the mists, ringed with brooding forest.

  Opal had never heard anyone mention an island in Still Cove before.

  Nico. Surely he’d have gone for that.

  Tyler swallowed, half rising from his bench to stare. “Does … does that look like the kind of place where a giant sea monster might live?”

  Emma sucked on her teeth. “It looks like where King Kong lives.”

  Icy fingers traced down Opal’s spine. Her heart sped up as something sang through her, like the echo of a strange note. This island felt … wild. Untamed. Unknowable. Every instinct in her body sounded the alarm at once.

  “If I were stuck in the water,” Opal said, “that’s where I’d go.”

  “Dry land.” Tyler couldn’t tear his eyes from it. “Yeah. He’d go there.”

  “Then what are we waiting for?” Opal plunged her oar into the slate-colored seawater. Tyler did the same, and the boat swept forward on silent wings.

  3

  NICO

  Nico spat out a mouthful of sand.

  He collapsed onto his back, exhausted and soaked with frigid seawater. Then he rolled over and threw up. When he’d finished heaving, Nico pushed up with his arms and squinted, choking back a spike of panic. He dug his fingers into the beach, confirming that it was solid, that he could stand on it, and that he wasn’t going to drown.

  He’d made it to the island, but it had been close.

  Stupid! Stupid stupid stupid.

  He’d fallen into Still Cove! From the top of the cliff!

  Nico had barely had time to realize he was going to die before being swallowed by the fog and then spit out into dark, freezing water. The impact had knocked him senseless. It was a freaking miracle he’d managed to claw back to the surface.

  That’s when terror set in. Vertical walls surrounding him. Unknown depths below. Nico had grown convinced he’d survived the fall only to swim in helpless circles until he sank. He’d blundered into a floating log by pure luck. Adrift and alone, he’d very nearly given up. Until the island appeared, rising from the mists like a smear of midnight.

  He’d ditched the slimy log and swam for land, icy seawater numbing his limbs, fighting to pull him down. At one point he felt the horrible sensation of something large moving beneath him, but he pushed through, crawling from the ocean and kissing the dirty sand.

  And now … here he was.

  Something jabbed his side. Nico untwisted his drenched hoodie and pulled out the drone’s remote. It was cracked and dripping wet. Nico dropped the ruined controller with a sigh.

  He rose and faced the mist-cloaked island. Its narrow beach curved away on both sides. Straight ahead, a dark forest climbed into the fog and out of sight. Nico shivered. Literally every option seemed bad, but he definitely wasn’t getting back into the water.

  Nico ran a hand through his sodden hair, spiking it with his fingers. He needed a plan, but nothing came to mind. Tyler and Emma were trapped on the cliff top and probably freaking out. His dad was out of town. The closest boats were all the way back in Timbers. Nico was hungry and thirsty and tired. Worst of all, the quadcopter was nowhere in sight.

  All for nothing. Nico kicked a rock into the water. What had he done to deserve this? They’d been minding their own business, flying the drone. Logan was such a jerk.

  Don’t forget Opal. She watched and did nothing, then rode off like Nico didn’t exist. If he’d ever doubted their friendship was dust, now he had proof. She was just like the others.

  “Enough.” Nico spoke out loud to underline the point. “You’re wasting daylight.”

  He looked up and down the beach. It didn’t encourage exploration. Nico peered into the fog-soaked woods. How high did the island rise? Maybe if he climbed up, he could see more of the cove. Find a way out.

  A way out how? You think there’s a bus station up there?

  Nico shoved the negative thought away. Nothing on the empty beach would help his situation. Going somewhere, anywhere, felt better than standing there and shivering.

  He’d taken two steps when he heard his name. Low and ghostly, it floated on the wind. He whirled to face the water, eyes rounding. All the horror stories about Still Cove came screaming back to him.

  Nico froze, ears straining. But after a tense minute, he relaxed. Even cracked a smile. My mind is playing tricks on me. But the smile vanished when his name repeated, louder and closer, echoing from everywhere and nowhere at once.

  Nico stumbled back. Goosebumps erupted along his arms. He had a very serious concern he might wet his pants.

  Out on the water, a long shadow pierced the fog. The silhouette coalesced into the shape of a rowboat. As Nico gaped, a tiny form materialized at its head.

  Nico blinked. Blinked again.

  He recognized the figure in the bow. It was … Emma.

  Emma hit the sand running, tackling Nico in a flying bear hug. Tyler arrived an instant later and the trio bounced in a chattering, jubilant circle. It took Nico a minute to notice a third person, pulling the rowboat onto the beach alone.

  “Opal?” Nico whispered.

  Tyler released Nico with a slug to his shoulder. “Her idea, dude. I freaked out up there, but Emma found a path and Opal led the way.” Tyler trotted over to help Opal with the boat.

  Nico shook his head. He was touched—he couldn’t believe they’d climbed down after him. “What’s she even doing here?”

  “She came back.” Emma still clutched his arm. “By herself. She ditched Logan and the others.”

  Before Nico could process this, Opal was in front of him. Their eyes met, but neither spoke. An awk
ward silence swallowed the beach. Finally, Opal broke it.

  “I’m glad you’re okay.”

  “Thanks.” Nico’s cheeks burned for some reason. “Thanks, um … for coming after me. For trying to make up for things.”

  Nico regretted the words as soon as he said them. Opal turned away, mumbling about checking the oars. Nico started to apologize, but stopped. Why should he say sorry? This wasn’t his fault. Opal was part of the reason they were all stuck down there, dripping wet, on an uncharted island in the middle of Still Cove.

  “Did you see the drone anywhere?” Tyler asked, blowing out a snot-rocket.

  Nico glanced at his friend, momentarily thrown. “What? No. I didn’t see it.”

  Emma was gazing into the shadowy woods. “Did anyone else know there was an island down here? I’ve never heard a story about one.”

  “Me neither,” Tyler said. “How big do you think it is?”

  Nico sighed, the energy leaking out of him like a popped balloon. “I haven’t seen more than you have. I spent our time apart swimming for my life.” He couldn’t keep the resentment out of his voice as he darted a glance at Opal.

  Opal dropped the oar she was holding and spun to face him. “Look, Nico, I didn’t fly your toy into the cove, all right? Logan did that. I’m the one who came back to help. This isn’t my fault, so you can stop going after me.”

  Nico’s own temper slipped. “If you feel guilty about something, that’s your problem.” He turned to Tyler, but spoke loud enough for Opal to hear. “No, Ty, I haven’t seen my quadcopter. I’ll probably never find it. But at least I got to fall off a cliff and nearly drown instead.”

  Opal huffed, seemed ready for more, but Emma stepped between them. “Maybe it’s not lost, though. Logan flew the drone directly into the fog, right?”

  Nico took a calming breath before addressing his friend. “Yes. So?”

  “So maybe it landed here.” Emma waved at the trees. “This feels like the center of the cove. The quad could be just up the hill somewhere, safe and sound.”

  Nico was about to argue—what are the odds?—but Tyler cut him off. “We might as well go look. We’ve got a boat, but we don’t know where we are.” He frowned at the fog. “Let’s climb to higher ground and see what we can see. Otherwise, we could paddle around for hours and still not find a way out of the cove.”