I tip my head back, and in the last seconds before the water closes over my mouth, I fill my lungs with air. Theo places his feet against the plane and shoves hard, propelling us out of the cabin and into the water. He swims toward sunlight, but something heavy pulls at me, dragging me away from him. I kick frantically, only to be tugged back. A strap is wrapped around my ankle and pulling me down like an anchor. I try to untangle myself with my free hand but can’t, not with Theo tugging me in the opposite direction.
The water pushes and pulls, disorienting me. All I know is Theo’s hand in mine and his words.
Do not let go. Trust me.
If I hold his hand for another second, we’ll both drown.
I wrench my hand from Theo’s and reach down to feel for the strap around my ankle. It’s my backpack, and it’s tangled in a chunk of metal. Aliteralanchor. My lungs burn as I’m dragged toward the seafloor. I finally shake free and kick up, almost sure that I won’t make it. My lungs don’t have anything left in them. It feels like swimming through cement, but I keep kicking, rejecting the instinct to inhale a mouthful of seawater.
It’s over,my brain lies to me. I kick harder, my fingers clawing at nothing, until I finally break the surface and gulp for air.
I push my hair out of my eyes, trying to get my bearings,when a churning piece of metal drags against my arm. The pain is instant and blinding. I bite my lip and grab the wound; it grows slippery with blood under my fingers. I’m dizzy. I float onto my back and hope I don’t black out.
“Wren!” Brooke’s voice cuts through the din.She’s alive.I snap into focus and swim through the metal, luggage, and burning debris littering the water.
When I reach the rest of the group, I see that Winston is half submerged on a floating piece of wreckage. His leg is lying at an unnatural angle that makes me sick to my stomach. Brooke, Naomi, Henry, Victoria, Comet, and the pilot are floating around the injured bodyguard.
I turn back to the direction I came from, searching for Theo.How did I get here first?“Theo!” I yell. It’s hard to see anything with all the debris. “Theo!”
“Wren,” Naomi says softly. She shakes her head, and I must have lost too much oxygen underwater, because I don’t understand what’s going on.
“What?” I ask. No one will make eye contact. An abandoned life vest crosses my vision, floating away from the wreckage, and my brain struggles to keep up with what the rest of me already knows.
White-hot dread seeps into my veins.
“Where is he?” I snap.
“Looking for you,” Victoria says flatly.
“Why isn’t he wearing his life jacket?”
“He took it off to dive for you,” Naomi says quietly.
Victoria narrows her eyes. “If he dies, it’s your fault.”
“Oh, shut up!” Brooke says.
But Victoria’s right, I realize numbly; I abandoned the buddy system, and he put himself at risk just to save me.
There’s noise behind me, and Theo breaks the surface of the water with a huge gasp. I’m too weak with relief to speak.
Victoria doesn’t have that problem. “Don’t you dare do that again, you bloody, gormlesswanker!”
And she’s not the only one who’s mad.
“Bloody hell, Wren!” Theo pushes hair and water out of his face with an unsteady hand. A range of emotions flits across his brow before settling on fury. “Why’d you let go?”
“There was a backpack… it was an anchor… pulling me…” I trail off as the adrenaline drains from my system. He waits for me to explain myself, but I’m too exhausted from the emotional and physical whiplash of almost dying, not dying, almost dying again, then thinking Theo had died, to do it properly. Especially not when all I can focus on is the water dripping over the bridge of his nose and landing on his lips.
I miss the days when the end of the world had a countdown clock.
“I had to save myself,” I say weakly.
He blinks away the anger until he looks simply shattered. “I thought I lost you,” he says.
“And I thought I was being promoted,” Henry jokes.
“Sorry to disappoint you and the rest of the world.” Theo rolls his eyes.
