Opal finished hanging the sign across the houseboat’s showroom.
WE’LL MISS YOU!
She climbed down and stood alongside the others, staring up at the letters. Goodbyes are the worst.
Tyler had both hands buried in his pockets. “Man.”
“I know.” Emma’s voice was quiet.
The banner had been Tyler’s idea, as had the stockings hanging from Thing’s old pedestal. A small fir tree stood next to the entry curtain, decorated with Torchbearer tokens they’d scrounged from the display cases. Charles Dixon’s medal was affixed to its apex. The holiday season was coming soon. No reason not to make the boat festive.
“It looks good, Logan,” Opal said. He’d designed the banner and had his local T-shirt supplier print it up. The words were in a script-like font with matching torch symbols at both ends—gold against a deep blue background.
“Thanks,” Logan mumbled.
Emma’s tone became a little too bright. “Hey, what about the food? Can I get a compliment, too?”
Opal blinked away tears, tried to rally. “It all looks amazing, Em.”
Emma had covered a display case with a tablecloth and set out every conceivable packaged dessert. Ding Dongs. Twinkies. Cupcakes. Zingers. Ho Hos. Sno Balls. Three kinds of pizza sat inside their boxes, in the hopes they’d stay warm.
“This is Nico’s favorite,” Tyler said, setting out a two-liter bottle of root beer.
Opal steadied a four-level pyramid of her own contribution—pudding cups. Like the ones we ate in kindergarten.
The others were quiet. They’d worked hard to make this farewell party the best ever, but there was no escaping what it was. The end of something.
“You see Carson today?” Tyler asked Opal.
Opal cringed. “Yes. I even got a hug. He still buys that we turned Aster over to the FBI and she admitted to being a film student trying to make a name for herself. I told him he’s a hero. That he saved Timbers from the greatest hoax since Colton Bridger.”
Emma chuckled. “At least he’s sleeping again. I saw him and Parker out on their ATVs yesterday. They didn’t say ‘hi’ or anything, but they didn’t try to spray me with mud this time. I call that progress.”
Tyler shrugged. “Mayor Hayt lifting the youth curfew definitely helped. And we probably do need to thank Sylvain Nantes for holding that town meeting. Ever since he blamed all the weirdness on thrill-seekers from out of town, people finally seem to be getting over monster shock. The ones that can, anyway. Some folks will never accept that real nightmares didn’t invade.”
Opal breathed deep. “It’s the best we could’ve hoped for. People don’t even trust their own memories after a while, if they seem too irrational. I can’t wait until the only thing that interests the outside world about Timbers are new eps of Emma-mazing!”
Emma beamed. “A new try-not-to-laugh post is dropping this week! It’s called ‘Get Wrecked’ and is hosted by a giant animated talking dog named Flip.”
Tyler covered his face. “Please make it stop!” he groaned, but Opal saw the smile behind his hand.
Voices carried across the pond. Opal peeked out the bay window, into a perfect, blue-skied mid-December day. The kind where the sun shone and your breath puffed in tiny clouds, and you felt glad to be alive.
Nico and Aster were hopping across the stepping stones, wearing fleeces and ski hats against the cold. Nico had Thing’s jar in his hands and was moving extra-carefully.
“Get into position!” Opal hissed. “They’re almost here!”
The others ducked behind trunks and bookshelves. Someone knocked an old metal platter over and it went clattering to the floor.
“Shhh!” Opal warned.
Emma giggled. “Not me!”
“It jumped into my way!” Tyler insisted.
“Quiet!” Opal found her own hiding spot and crouched out of sight.
Feet on the stairs. The front door swung open. A moment later, the green curtain parted.
“I’ve been researching,” Nico was saying to Thing, as the trio entered the room. “Living somewhere like Yellowstone might give you the most freedom, because certain areas in the park resemble your own …” He trailed off, looking around with wide, blinking eyes. “Hey, where is everyone?”
“I do not know.” Aster sounded confused. “They told us to meet here, yes?” Her precise, French-accented English had improved dramatically in the weeks she’d spent in Timbers. Opal spied her glancing at a new digital watch, the source of much pride. “We are certainly not late.”
Nico shot a glance up at the banner. “I don’t know what’s going on,” he announced, laying it on thick.
“SURPRISE!” Opal shouted.
The others jumped up from their hiding spots. Nico spun and gave Aster two hand-shooters, smiling wide as he juggled Thing’s jar.
Dax grumbled in its liquid container. Thanks for not dropping me.
“What is all of this?” Aster asked. She sniffed. A grin split her face. “There is pizza here!”
“It’s for you!” Opal pointed to the sign overhead. “We wanted to send you off in style.”
Aster’s eyes grew misty. “This is very kind.” She placed her hand on a pizza box wistfully. “They may not have such delicacies in France.”
“Don’t worry, they do,” Tyler said, slapping Nico five. “Good job, decoy. She had no idea.”
Nico grinned. “I’m just glad this party isn’t for me.”
Opal beamed at him. “Well, consider it, like, your un-goodbye party.”
Nico chuckled. “That’s definitely worth celebrating.”
Everyone attacked the refreshments. Aster lifted pizza slices in both hands, while Tyler scooped ice into plastic cups and poured soda. Logan gave Nico a friendly nod. Nico nodded back.
“I still can’t believe our dads will be working together,” Logan said, his mouth half-stuffed with pepperoni.
Opal couldn’t help but jump in. “Pretty crazy for you two. But also pretty cool.”
Nico couldn’t mask a nervous frown. “It might be a total disaster though. I mean, seriously. This could go so wrong.”
“Maybe it’ll be great,” Opal countered. “It says a lot that they’re both up for trying it out.”
Desperately relieved that the world was not about to end, Sylvain Nantes had recently hired Warren Holland as an environmental consultant for the Nantes Timber Company, to help reshape the business into a more sustainable and eco-friendly operation. It meant Nico’s dad was leaving the Park Service he loved, but it also meant the Hollands could stay in Timbers.
Opal thought it was cool to see Logan’s father take a renewed interest in the health of his hometown. He still wouldn’t touch his family’s Torchbearer legacy, but at least he wasn’t giving up anymore. Or standing in Logan’s way—Sylvain spent days talking Logan through everything he knew about the Order, then officially turned the responsibility over to his son. He was out, but he wouldn’t interfere.
Or tattle, which is basically the same thing.
“My dad’s willing to give the job a year,” Nico said, between bites of cupcake. “We’ll just have to wait and see how it goes.” Spying the tower of pudding cups, he snagged the topmost one and spun it in his hand. “Opal, did you bring these?”
“Of course. Is chocolate-vanilla swirl still your favorite?”
“You know it.” Nico peeled away the foil and tipped the cup in a cheers gesture. “To the Torchbearers.”
“Wait, wait!” Emma held up her drink. “We all need to get in on this.”
The others followed suit, though Aster looked slightly confused. Inside its jar, Thing lifted a hand as well.
“We watch the Darkdeep, and watch out for each other,” Tyler intoned, quoting the Torchbearer oath they’d invented on this very houseboat. The others repeated it, Aster solemnly speaking the words for the first time.
“May I say something as well?” she asked.
“Of course,” Emma said.
Aster carefully put down her cup. “I want to say that, as I embark on this new adventure, I will never forget you. I will return to visit as often as possible. And to tell you what I find, in France and with the other Rifts.” She cleared her throat. “I am grateful. I have lost my family, but found true friends.”
Emma threw her arms around Aster, accidentally splashing Sprite on the older girl’s braid. “We’re gonna miss you so much!”
“I made you one of these,” Logan said awkwardly, stepping forward to hand Aster a carved Torch necklace. “We all have them. It’s kinda, like, our own personal thing. For this group of Torchbearers.”
“Thank you.” Aster tied on the necklace and smiled. Logan turned a deep shade of crimson.
Tyler elbowed Emma in the ribs, spoke under his breath. “What’s his deal?”
Emma shrugged. “No idea. Are there any Twinkies left?”
Logan cleared his throat, tearing his eyes away from Aster. “And one for you,” he said, stepping over to Thing’s new heavy-duty plastic jar, which was resting on the tiny alien’s old pedestal. “Do I … what? Drop it inside?”
Wood will boil into particles in my liquid environment.
“Um, right.” Logan placed the necklace around the neck of the jar. “This works fine.”
I am honored.
Thing had instructed Opal on how to mix a new liquid habitat formula for him after they’d resurfaced through the pond. She hated that Dax was back in a jar, but Nico was investigating potential natural habitats for the little green hero. Until then, Thing intended to see as much of Earth as possible, now that its home world was all but destroyed.
“Okay, enough with the jewelry,” Tyler snarked. “Let’s get down!” He turned on a portable speaker sitting next to Thing. “This is gonna be more lit than a radish-festival remix.”
Opal made a face. “Don’t remind me.”
But she joined the others, everyone laughing and bouncing up and down until Thing’s jar wobbled to the beat.
It’s time.
Thing was right, but Opal could tell the others felt the same way she did—a mixture of bitter and sweet. The group followed Aster down the winding staircase to the Darkdeep.
Logan grunted, scuffing a shoe. “Take care, Sure Shot. We’re, um, gonna miss that cannon around here.”
“Enough with the silly name, please!” Aster protested, but Opal could tell his joke pleased her. After their return to Earth, the group had demanded to know how Aster had vanquished the Stalker.
The onyx queen, she’d said in a pleased voice. A fitting tribute to my father and governess.
Aster had guessed the same thing as Nico—that the harsh peppery smell blossomed when the Stalker was about to shape-shift, and the black cloud was meant to camouflage the creature during its transformation. By hurling the chess piece into the noxious vapors at exactly that moment, Aster had struck the demon during the only time it was vulnerable. Then she’d booted it right out of Thing’s dimension.
They still didn’t know what happened to the slippery, yellow-eyed monster—they’d seen no sign of it inside the Void—but that was a worry for another day. At least the weather was back to normal, which meant the Stalker wasn’t likely on Earth. Aster had the other chess pieces in her backpack just in case, including her wooden queen to replace the one she’d sacrificed.
Opal watched her approach the slowly swirling well. After consulting their world map, Aster believed she could travel through the Void to reach a Rift in Germany. From there, she’d journey by train to her hometown of Toulon, then begin a survey of the marked locations, starting in Vichy. They still didn’t know if other active chapters of Torchbearers were out there—or, if not, what had happened to them. Sylvain Nantes had rejected the Order early in his training and never learned that information. But this was the way they’d get answers. Opal felt a pang of jealousy that she wasn’t going along.
“Still active,” Tyler said, nervously eyeing the Darkdeep’s motion. “I really hope we got all the figments from our last jump. I feel like we might’ve lost track.”
“We counted a dozen times,” Nico pointed out. “Aster will make another one now, though. The grind never ends.”
“Thank you for taking care of that for me.” Aster’s voice trembled slightly. She cleared her throat. “My father always said to say adieu with enthusiasm. Because, if we do not see each other at the end of one grand adventure, we may meet yet again at a greater one.”
Tears burned under Opal’s eyelids. “Goodbye, Aster. Take good care of Dax.”
Emma bowed regally, filming on her phone. “Bon voyage!”
“Ciao!” Logan added.
Tyler gave him a withering look. “That’s Italian, you dork. They’re going to Germany.”
Logan scoffed. “I was being continental.”
Aster and I will report back what we discover. Thing’s smile was infectious. I’m finally the explorer I always wished to be. I will put truth to the Traveler name the Order gave me.
“We will examine the Rifts and search for more Torchbearers,” Aster confirmed. “And you will let us know what you learn here.”
She carefully placed Thing’s jar inside a backpack Emma had liberated from her parents’ supply store. Aster strode to the edge of the Darkdeep, hesitated a moment, and then stepped off into the well.
In a blink, they were gone.
“Good luck,” Nico said softly.
Tyler surreptitiously wiped his eyes. “Okay. So. That happened.” He exhaled a deep, melancholy sigh. “At least we still have the Beast.”
Days after their return, they’d spotted the sea creature cavorting in the foggy inlet. The Beast had appeared most days ever since, often regarding Tyler and the others with unfathomable eyes. It appeared that they were now acknowledged neighbors in Still Cove.
Logan clapped a hand on Tyler’s shoulder. “Let’s eat a ton of HoHos. I haven’t eaten dessert in so long, I’ve forgotten was happiness tastes like.”
“I’ve had it worst,” Tyler clapped back, shaking his head in sorrow. “Your three weeks in solitary confinement are Easy Street compared to my new house rules.”
Upon their return, the Torchbearers were horrified to discover that almost two full days had passed since they’d entered the well. The fallout from that time jump had taken a bite out of their lives ever since.
Opal’s parents had gone to the police, even forming a search party. Nico’s father had led it, canvassing the western hills while the Watsons and Fairingtons posted missing persons signs all around town. When the six of them had rolled back into town with a story about a storm-wrecked, wayward camping trip, a turned ankle by the French girl, and text messages they’d been so sure had gone through, the Torchbearers had been simultaneously swarmed with bearhugs and scolded within an inch of their lives.
Groundings. Punishments. Loss of freedom. No one escaped unscathed.
Another schoolyard legend added to their reputation, but this one bought them a weird kind of respect. Things were just finally getting back to normal, though getting out to Still Cove remained tougher than ever. The party had been a carefully orchestrated exception.
“It feels good to be home again.” Emma linked arms with Logan and Tyler. “Let’s go dance battle. Or do figment charades. Or read old books. Whatever.”
“Sounds good,” Tyler said. They headed for the steps. Logan glanced back at Opal and Nico. “You guys coming?”
“In a sec,” Opal answered, at the same time Nico said, “One minute.”
Emma poked Tyler in the side. “Why are they being weird?”
“Who knows,” he muttered. The trio tromped upstairs. Seconds later, music started blaring again. Opal felt a smile tug the corners of her lips. Nico chuckled softy.
At their feet, the black well churned. Slowly. Implacably. Opal thought back to the beginning, when Nico’s worst fear had appeared from the Darkdeep. A version of his father who didn’t care about him at all.
“Remember your scariest figment?” Opal asked.
“Yeah.”
“And now your dad is taking a new job for you.”
“Well, don’t forget the owls. He really loves owls.”
“Right,” Opal giggled. “But, I mean …”
“I know.” Nico sucked in a deep breath. “He wouldn’t have accepted the offer if it didn’t interest him, but he still did it for me. For our family. For now,” he couldn’t help adding.
Opal wanted to hug him. Instead, she asked something else.
“I’ve been wondering. Those gray creatures—the howlers. What were they, really?”
Nico stiffened. Hesitating, he shuffled his feet awkwardly, wiping at his brow.
“You don’t have to tell me,” Opal said in a rush. “Not if you really don’t want to.”
Somehow, her hand found his. They stood there, fingers entwined. The way they’d held on to each other during their first battle inside the Darkdeep.
“Loneliness,” Nico said finally. “Those creatures were loneliness in physical form. My new worst fear. Or maybe one I’ve had all along.”
Opal exhaled in surprise. “And you summoned it voluntarily. To help us on Thing’s world.”
Nico nodded. “Because I know now that everything will be okay. Even if I have to move one day after all. As long as you guys are my friends, wherever I might be, I won’t be alone.” He cleared his throat.
“You’re right.”
Opal squeezed his hand. Nico squeezed back.
They stood together, watching the Darkdeep spin in quiet circles.
In her mind, Opal wished Aster and Thing safe journeys. Whole new lives were waiting for them.
“Go and see,” Opal whispered. “Go and see what the world has for you.”