Chapter 15

C HAPTER 15

I've lost all sense of time since the plane crashed. It feels like it happened in another lifetime, but we can't have been here for more than three or four hours. Unless I'm totally wrong, which is possible. You could tell me it's been ten hours, or ten minutes, or maybe ten days, and I'd probably believe you, especially if you distracted me with something to drink.

Time is meaningless, except that it's not. We have three days from the time of the crash to find water, or nothing else matters.

(When Reggie said rescue would come soon, he must have meant sooner than three days, right ?)

At this point, water is kind of all I can think about. I'm 3:00 A.M. thirsty, the kind that wakes me up with a dry throat only to realize I forgot to bring water to bed. And because I'd rather die than get out of bed when I'm cozy and comfy and warm, I become the thirstiest person who has ever existed on the planet.

There's something about wanting what I can't have that drives me to the brink.

"We can survive three weeks without food, three days without water, three minutes without air," I tell Theo as we walk along the coast, the phone still clutched tightly in my sweaty hand.

He smiles to himself. "I remember when you told me that at the corner shop in London. I didn't think it'd be relevant."

"We didn't think the world would exist long enough to worry about drowning or starving or dehydration."

"Lucky us, to have made it this long," he says.

"An honor and a privilege," I agree. The line between sincerity and cynicism has never been thinner, and even I'm not sure which side I'm on.

Every day since the comet didn't hit has been a bonus, and I'd started to foolishly believe that I had an entire life of bonus days ahead of me.

"Have you been brushing up on that bucket list?" he asks.

"Skinny-dipping was the only thing that ever mattered," I tease.

He shakes his head with a smile, his eyes downcast, and it stirs something in my chest that I'd thought died in Greece.

I don't want to want him again. Not like this. Not when my future is so fragile and unclear.

I'd convinced myself my feelings for Theo weren't real because they were so tangled up in the fear and chaos and hope of Comet Week, but maybe I was wrong. What if the fact that I can't separate Theo from all my biggest emotions is a feature, not a bug? The thought of brushing my knuckles against his makes me so sick with vulnerability that I could pitch myself off this cliff, and that has to mean something.

What if what we had was the only thing that meant anything, and he doesn't want it anymore?

"You're thinking about skinny-dipping, aren't you?" he asks.

I smile to myself. I wasn't, but he definitely was. "What's the plan here?" I hold up the phone.

"We should stay along the coast and away from the trees and the mountain for our best chance of picking up a signal."

"If you say so." I'm starting to wonder whether Theo imagined seeing a signal on the phone. The ocean stretches forever in front of us, an empty horizon from here to the end of the world. I'm not sure where he thinks the cell towers are hiding.

"You don't agree?" he asks, his brow raised in that cocky way of his.

The opportunity to banter with him materializes effortlessly, a bright, shimmering invitation. I want to engage, but I'm worried it'll only make me feel worse. We bantered nonstop on our trip from London to Greece, and that ended with a wedding on the beach and a honeymoon night that I can't forget, no matter how many times I've tried.

I sidestep the bait. "I'll take the phone off airplane mode when we get to the spot where it had service."

"Here," he says after another minute of walking. "This was the spot."

I switch the phone out of airplane mode and watch the battery immediately drop to nine percent. My stomach tightens. "Are you sure?"

Theo glances around, doubt creeping over his features. "Maybe not. Let's keep walking." After a long stretch of silence, he speaks again. "How's your arm feeling?"

"It's fine."

"Did Henry do all right?"

"I'm no longer on the verge of bleeding out." I walk faster.

"Did it hurt?"

I stop walking and whirl around. He crashes into me. "Yeah, Theo. It hurt! "

If I'm "just a girl" to him, I don't want him to pretend that he cares about me. A flare of annoyance burns in my chest. I seize that feeling and wrap myself in it. If I direct all my attention at being Mad. At. Him, I don't have to feel scared or heartbroken or anything else.

Theo looks pained. "I knew he'd take care of you."

"Well, he did," I say flatly.

Dueling hurt and defensiveness flash in Theo's eyes. He crosses his arms with a scowl. "I was looking for something important."

"And lucky for us, you found it! A completely useless brick!" I wave the phone in the air.

It vibrates with an incoming text.

I fumble the phone. It slips out of my hand and lands on a sharp rock. The screen splinters. Theo and I both lunge for it, but our competing hands send it right over the edge of the cliff.

It lands ten feet below us on a flat rock, just inches from the water. The screen is shattered, but the phone lights up and vibrates as dozens of messages flood in, one after the other. The phone dances closer to the edge of the rock with each vibration.

Theo and I are sprawled on our stomachs, our heads hanging over the edge of the cliff. We look at each other with wide eyes.

"It has a signal," he says.

"And almost no battery left," I reply.

"We need to get down there."

"There's not room for both of us on that rock." There's barely room for one of us. Unlike the cliff that we scaled to get onto the island, this one doesn't have handholds and footholds to follow. The ten-foot drop is sheer, and the rock holding the phone can't be wider than seven or eight inches.

I hold my breath as a wave crests precariously close to the top of the rock.

"I'm going," Theo says.

"How will you get back up?"

"One problem at a time, Wheeler." He takes off his shoes and pulls his shirt over his head, and it's not lost on me that my stomach fills with butterflies. I shake away visions of skinny-dipping in the Mediterranean and fix my eyes back on the phone. Another wave nearly sweeps it away.

"Don't jump too close," I warn. Theo springs away from the mossy cliff and dives into the slate-colored water. He waits for his own waves to settle before doubling back to pick up the phone.

"Four percent battery," he yells before chucking it up to me. "My hands are too wet."

I catch it with a scream. "Who do I call?" I yell.

"Penny, or my sister Louise." He pulls himself out of the water and balances on the rock. He leans his forearms against the cliffside, craning his neck up to see me.

I scroll Henry's contact list with shaking hands and find "Penny," the woman who has been the royal nanny since Theo was a baby. He once described her as his second mother. I bite my lip and hope she's waiting for a phone call.

I press her name.

The sound of the phone ringing catapults my heart straight into my throat. "It's ringing!"

The call drops before the second ring. My hope collapses in on itself like a building marked for demolition. Turned into a pile of smoke and ash in three seconds flat.

Battery life: three percent.

"The signal's gone."

"Find it again!"

I keep my eyes glued to the phone screen as I jog along the edge of the cliff. My heart pounds so hard I might collapse. When the world's weakest signal bar flickers to life, I click on the contact "Lulu."

The phone rings once before sending me to voicemail. "My name is Wren Wheeler I was on a plane with your siblings. We crashed near an island but we're all alive—"

The phone dies in my hand. It's not perfect, but at least someone will know we're alive. If they look along our flight's route, they'll find us.

I turn and sprint back to where Theo is still waiting. I drop to my hands and knees at the edge of the cliff and gulp giant breaths of air, fighting a new wave of dizziness. "The phone's dead now, but I found another signal. I left a voicemail."

"For Penny?"

My left arm is trembling. I transfer all of my weight to my right elbow. "Your sister."

A full smile breaks across Theo's face, and it feels like seeing sunshine for the first time in days. "Louise?"

"Yeah. Lulu."

His expression clouds over. "Lulu? You called Lulu ?"

"You told me to!"

"Lulu isn't my sister."

"Then who is she?"

He drags a hand over his face and nearly topples back into the water. "Henry's ex-girlfriend!"

"Okay. Well. " I cross my arms defensively and try not to wince from the pain. I was too jittery to question it when I saw a "Lulu" in Henry's contact list; I assumed it was a nickname. "It doesn't matter. She'll get the voicemail."

"No, she won't."

A knot cinches in my stomach. "Why not?"

"She blocked Henry's number when they broke up."

"But the phone rang."

He looks skeptical. "How many times?"

"Once."

Theo sighs heavily. "That's what happens when you call a phone number that's blocked you. It rings once and then sends you to a separate voicemail box that doesn't send notifications."

The knot in my stomach doubles in size. "It might have rung twice." My voice wavers. I'd flop hard in Las Vegas.

Theo lets his head drop forward until it rests against the side of the cliff. "Do you know what this means?" His tone is resigned. He's not blaming me, but he doesn't need to; I'll blame myself enough for the both of us. I'm the "you had one job" meme personified.

Of course I know what this means.

Screwing up that phone call means I wasted our one chance to call for help. It means we're probably not getting rescued tonight, and maybe not tomorrow. It means I have to live with bloody stitches, and "three days without water" suddenly feels a lot more relevant.

I gaze over the cliff into Theo's eyes. "It means Victoria will finally have a legitimate reason to hate me."