Chapter 19

C HAPTER 19

DAYS ON THE ISLAND: TWO

I wake up at dawn and am not lucky enough to have even a second of groggy confusion. I know exactly where I am, because even in my sleep, it was impossible to forget the scratchy moss under my cheek or the stitches tugging at my itchy skin.

I've never been this filthy or sore or exhausted in my life, so of course it's the perfect time for a sharp cramp attack. I curl into a ball while I wait for the pain to pass. Mercifully, it's just from hunger. (But also, I didn't know it was possible to be this hungry.)

Comet nudges my side with his snout. "Hey, boy." He nudges me again and whines.

Victoria, Winston, Henry, and Naomi are asleep around the dying fire. My eyes sweep over Victoria, who looks okay, as far as I can tell, though I'm not sure what symptoms I should be looking for.

Brooke is lying on her back with her eyes open, a look of intense concentration on her face.

"Help me get Comet a drink," I whisper. She pours water into my cupped hands and Comet quickly laps it up. "What were you thinking about?" I ask as we repeat the process.

"I was retaking the LSAT in my head. I think I could have gotten a higher score than 178."

I shudder, remembering the stressful month when Brooke locked herself in her bedroom while she studied for the law school entrance exam and cried a lot. "That's normal."

She puts her hand on her hip. "Don't sound so judgy. I have to think about something to keep myself from going crazy."

"No judgment!" I say seriously. "But everyone knows you're supposed to be a lawyer. Unless you're suddenly dying to be as directionless as I am."

She rolls her eyes. "Yes. Obviously, I'm thrilled to be back at square one, exactly like an undeclared college freshman." She takes the now-empty water bottles and leaves with a huff. Comet follows her, a stick in his mouth.

"Do you really feel directionless?" Naomi asks as she rubs the sleep out of her eyes.

"Compared to you and everyone else who knows what they want to do with their lives, yes. How's the foot?" I'm in desperate need of a subject change.

"Really bad! The worst," she says brightly. "I'd show you the blisters, but Winston told me to keep them covered so it doesn't get infected."

"We'll be off this island before that can happen. I predict that help will be here in five, four, three, two… one."

We stare at the empty sky.

"I could have sworn that was going to work," I say.

She bites her lip. "Do you think anyone is looking for us?"

" Yes. They know the route our flight was taking. The British government is definitely looking for us. Well, they're looking for the royals, but I assume they'll let us hitch a ride home too."

She sighs dramatically. "I bet everyone at home thinks we're dead. Oh my gosh, Levi thinks I'm dead. "

I wince at the thought of my parents watching news stories about our plane. The stomach cramps are back with a vengeance. "He'll know you're alive soon."

"I bet he posted something sad about me and a bunch of grief vampires are in his DMs, trying to hook up with him."

"Levi would never."

"Tom Hanks's wife did, in that movie with the volleyball," Naomi argues.

"Tom Hanks was on that island for years. Theo's too important to be left presumed dead. They will find us."

She rubs her eyes with her hands. "At least your boyfriend knows you're alive. Really, I love that for you."

I roll my eyes. "Theo's not my boyfriend." I watch him pacing with Reggie at the edge of the cliff. Unlike yesterday, when his temper matched the weather, the gloomy clouds have been chased away by sparkling sunlight, which is glinting off the crystalline water that might as well stretch from here to the end of the world. A gentle breeze ruffles the trees behind us.

Naomi gasps and sits up tall, grabbing my forearm. "Forget about the boys. What if I'm dropped from my classes and Northwestern makes me enroll in Psych 101 or Intro to Acting?" She looks like she's going to pass out. "I need a distraction."

"Turn around. I'll fix your hair. That way you'll look hot in the rescue pictures."

I extract two elastics from what are left of her bedraggled and lopsided space buns and finger-comb her hair into two Dutch braids while Naomi ponders what kinds of memorabilia will be left outside the dorms in her memory, and whether it would be tacky to keep them when we get back to Chicago.

"We survived a plane crash. If you want to keep the teddy bears, you're allowed to keep the teddy bears."

"People left hundreds of teddy bears in front of the palace after my mum passed," Victoria says, finally waking up and joining our conversation. "As if Mum was the teddy bear type."

My eyes sweep over her face. Does she look clammier than yesterday? I squint and lean closer. Or am I imagining things?

She wrinkles her nose. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Sorry." I straighten.

Naomi's stomach growls loudly. "What's the first thing you're going to eat when we're rescued?" she asks. "I want peanut butter."

"Are we talking about food?" Henry asks, shaking the curls out of his eyes as he joins our little group. We spend the next several minutes daydreaming about all the food we're going to eat when this is over. Henry wants shepherd's pie, Naomi wants chocolate and peanut butter babka, I want deep-dish pizza, and Victoria wants us to shut up because we're making her hunger worse.

"What was that?" the princess suddenly asks. She presses her hands to the ground on either side of her.

"What?"

"You didn't feel that?"

I glance at Naomi, who shrugs. "Feel what? A raindrop?" I ask.

"With cirrus clouds in the sky? Be serious," Naomi says, motioning to the wispy cotton candy strands.

"Brilliant. I'm losing my bloody mind out here," Victoria mutters.

Reggie struts back toward our makeshift campsite and glances at us, clearly unimpressed. "When you're done with your makeovers, we need more firewood."

"Already taken care of," Brooke says, dropping two handfuls of wood next to her fire, waking Winston up in the process. "I also refilled our water supplies." She drops a full bottle next to the wood. "Do you think rescue will find us today?"

"These things take time," Reggie says.

"That's not what you said yesterday," Winston points out.

Brooke crosses her arms. "It's been what—eighteen, twenty hours? Shouldn't they know where our plane went down?"

All eyes turn to Reggie. He doubles down. "The most important thing to remember is that we must stay together—"

"Where are they?" Brooke demands.

Reggie's eyes dart around the group, sensing an impending mutiny. "Our radio went out before the storm forced me to reroute. I was attempting to make an emergency landing in Portugal, but unfortunately, no one on the ground knows that."

My lungs feel like they're collapsing. "What does that mean?"

Reggie wets his lips, his expression uneasy. "There is a chance that they're looking for us in the wrong place."

Naomi's hands fly to her mouth, Henry drops his head into his hands, Victoria swears loudly, and Brooke and I exchange a wary glance. This is so much worse than we thought.

"Why didn't you say that yesterday?" Brooke asks.

"We're not far off course. Help will come."

"I'm leaving." Theo appears, shouldering a backpack that must have been salvaged from the rest of the luggage. "I'm going to look for help on the east side of the island."

My stomach sinks, but I'm not surprised. After last night, I knew Theo would never agree to sit here and wait.

"No," Reggie says.

"I don't need your permission," Theo says sharply.

"Your Majesty, I can't climb that mountain." Winston gestures to his broken leg.

"Technically it's a volcano," Brooke notes.

Reggie continues. "Winston can't move, and we need to stay near the scene of the crash where we're safe."

" Victoria's not bloody safe!" Theo cries. "Every minute that we sit here and do nothing is wasting time she doesn't have."

"And what if I don't want to go?" Victoria asks. A line of sweat beads on her upper lip, and she's as pale as Naomi's cirrus clouds.

Theo's face falls. "I'm trying to help you."

She crosses her arms. "I want to stay with the group."

"I'm with Wren!" Naomi blurts out. She elbows me in the side and everyone's attention swivels to me.

I elbow her back. "This isn't about me." I want to support Theo's decision, but I can't ignore the foreboding feeling I get when I think about trekking over the mountain.

Henry holds up his hands. "Let's not do anything drastic, Theo."

"Our situation is drastic!"

"We can wait a little bit longer and think this through," Henry says.

"No, I can't. Winston—mind if I ransack the first aid kit?" Theo asks.

"Take whatever you need. If one of you lot dies on my watch, I'll be sacked for sure."

Henry grabs Theo's shoulders. "You don't always look at things rationally."

Theo shoves his brother away from him. "Sod off. I'll go alone."

"Sir—" Reggie tries again.

"I can't just sit here and wait for help!" Theo turns to Victoria, his voice thick with emotion. "I don't want to wait until it's too late. We've lost too much. I can't go home and look Louise, Charlotte, and Andrew in the eye if something happens to you. I won't survive it." He turns to me, pleading for someone to take his side, to trust him. "I have to do this."

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Victoria's hand tremble as she takes a drink of water. My stress level rises by a factor of ten.

Winston holds his hands up. "Sir. If I may, sometimes your mind lies to you—"

"Don't tell me about my own mind!" Theo shouts. His eyes travel over everyone in the group, landing on me last. "Wheeler."

My name is a sigh and a plea that cracks my heart open all over again, and I can't help but wonder how many times it will break for him.

Theo and I may be doomed to live in terror for the rest of our lives, but at least we've always been in this together.

I can't justify it, can't put words to the part of me that is willing to put my destiny in his hands. I fell in love with him and gave fate a hostage.

"Let's go."