I’m overwhelmed with a rush of hope. It’seuphoric.My body hums with a surge of adrenaline, and unlike Naomi, I have no way to channel it. I can’t casually hug him like she did. Nothing between us has ever been casual—not since the very first day.
I fall into stride next to him. “You’re lucky I’m too excited to give you an ego check.” I nudge him with my uninjured shoulder.
He nudges me back, and for a second, it feels just like three months ago, before the weight of the future smothered whatever we had. Back then our circumstances were even more impossible, but at least we both wanted to try. Now, I force myself to remember what I overheard in the hotel, and step away from Theo, allowing the distance between us to grow.
The phone rests flat in Victoria’s palm; all six of us gather around her and stare at it like it’s the Holy Grail. Naomi’s nails dig into my skin as she squeezes my hand in excitement.
“That’s mine.” Henry pretends to shrug modestly. “You may direct your thanks toward me. I’m accepting cash, compliments, phone numbers…”
Theo’s expression turns stormy. “It might be your phone, but I found it,” he grumbles. “It was on the rocks underneath the luggage. If you weren’t such a wanker, you’d have remembered to check your trouser pockets before climbing the cliff.”
“How much battery is left?” Winston asks from his spot on the ground. We were all relieved to see him aware and talking after his short nap.
“Twelve percent,” Victoria says.
“Is it in airplane mode?” Brooke asks.
“Was it supposed to be?” Henry asks sheepishly.
Naomi’s eyes widen. “Phones can interfere with airplane signals!”
All eyes snap to Henry. He shakes his curls out of his eyes like a guilty puppy.
“Bloody hell.” Theo lifts his gaze to the sky.
Reggie frowns. “It wasn’t the phone, it was the storm.”
“Whatever it was, we should conserve the battery while we decide who to ring,” Theo says.
I grimace. “I hate to be the one to point this out, but now there’s no service.”
Reggie grabs the phone and starts pushing buttons. He holds the phone up to his ear, shaking his head when the call doesn’t go through.
“Don’t drain the battery!” Theo reaches for the phone.
Reggie jerks away from him and pushes a few more buttons before dropping the phone back into Victoria’s outstretched hand. “Now it’s on airplane mode,” the pilot says.
“And ten percent battery. Well done.” Victoria takes the words right out of my mouth.
“Why would you try to make a call with no service?” I ask, and I’m not even being sarcastic. Genuinely,whywould he do that?
“To prove that this is a waste of time,” Reggie says defensively. “We’re better off working on a fire so the planes know exactly where to find us.”
“We’re better off not wasting our battery on calls that won’t go through,” I mutter under my breath.
“We’d have a fire by now if you’d listened to me,” Brooke tells Reggie, and suddenly everyone is arguing, and the phone is being yanked from hand to hand.
“You’re not going to find a signal—”
“We wouldn’t be here if—”
“Stop yelling—”
“Help is coming—”
“What if it doesn’t—”
“Stop!” I scream. Shockingly, the group falls silent. My need to dosomethingis stronger than ever. “We need to find a signal.” I pluck the phone out of Theo’s grasp. The sudden motion of skin tugging against stitches hurts like hell. I breathe slowly through my nose. “Where were you when the phone had service?”
