We look at each other for a few seconds, not sure what to say. And then Willa seems to remember that there are two dozen or so other people in the theatre. I glance around, and nobody else has moved. They’ve all become statues with identical chiseled faces.

Wide eyes.

Open mouths.

Willa tells us all that we can go. The audition is over. She reminds us of the rule. Nobody outside the cabins after eleven o’clock. “You need your rest,” she warns us. “The next few weeks will be busy.”

I move back to my seat and gather up my things. Everyone is still staring at me, but I manage to get my backpack and start toward the door.

“Avril,” Willa says, and I turn back to look at her as the others file out, whispering to each other. “Nicole was special. She loved this place, and it loved her back. What happened that summer was an unbearable tragedy, but it doesn’t change that.” She pauses for a moment. “Whisper Cove will love you, too, if you give it the chance. I promise.”

“Thank you,” I tell her, and I run my hand along the rough wall of the barn. Feel the wood floor under my feet. My mother was here, I think. She was alive here in this place. And for the first time in my life, I feel like I have a home.

I know everyone is gathered in front of the barn. I can hear the murmur of voices, but they all fall silent when I push open the big double doors.

Lex slips a protective arm around my shoulders. “Jesus Christ,” he mutters as he guides me over to the edge of the crowd where Jude and Val are waiting for us. “Everyone back the fuck off.”

“What the hell just happened?” Val asks. She looks worried. Like she thinks I might pass out again.

“Wait. Wait. Hold up.” Jude is staring at me like he’s trying to make sense of something. Big brown eyes blinking in disbelief. “Your mom was Nicole Kendrick?”

“Yeah,” I say. “She was.”

“Who?” Val asks.

“My mom was a friend of Willa’s,” I explain. “She drowned here. One summer a long time ago.”

“Oh my God,” Val gasps.

“I almost died, too,” I tell them. “They found me washed up on the beach.”

“Holy shit.” Jude breathes out the words in a long, low whisper. “Wow.”

“Someone please tell me what’s going on.” Lex looks so confused.

“It’s like an urban legend around here, what happened to Nicole Kendrick.” Jude stops and shakes his head like he can’t quite believe it. “Or a rural legend. Whatever. Everybody knows the story.” He pauses a moment. “She was called into the sea. Just like the women Cole told us about back in whaling times.”

“Jesus, Jude,” Val says. And she reaches for my hand.