Theo and I pull apart and stare at Henry, who looks at us like we’ve lost our minds.
“Lava, remember?” He nods in the direction of the crater.
Theo and I look up. A stream of lava as wide as the length of a semitruck gushes toward us, devouring everything in its path. Theo yanks me up and we run, Comet leading the way, down the side of the volcano and away from certain death.
I run until my vision blurs and my windpipe feels like it’s collapsing. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve fallen andscraped my knees, my shins, my palms, but we keep moving forward, and we’re faster than the lava. We’re outrunning it.
“Can we stop?” I gasp.
Theo and Henry slow down; I don’t so much slow as I come to a crashing, fumbling stop. I trip over my own feet and land on my bad arm, a shock of pain reverberating all the way to my bones, and I realizethisis how I’m going to die. Not from the volcano, but from the pain in my arm. “It was nice knowing you both. Theo a little more than Henry, no offense.”
Theo kneels next to me. “You all right, Wheeler?”
Wheel-a.I’m obsessed with the way my name sounds in his mouth. He was right. I am half in love with my new nickname, and I’m fully in love with him.
I push his hair out of his eyes. “I can’t move. I’m leaving this world Pompeii-style.”
“It’s hardly a Pompeii-level volcano.”
“Donate my GoFundMe money to Comet, and make sure he knows it’s from me and not Victoria.”
Theo’s sigh is long-suffering. “When we’re rescued, you and Victoria are going to have to figure out this Comet issue on your own. Maybe work out shared custody.”
“Between countries?”
He tucks an errant strand of hair behind my ear and trails his hand along my neck. “Sometimes I like to pretend it’s possible.”
I don’t think we’re talking about my dog anymore, and suddenly I can’t move for completely different reasons. I’m paralyzed by fear. The closer we get to the bottom of the volcano, the closer we are to rescue.
Ahead of us, Comet barks, and a voice calls my name.
“That’s Brooke,” Theo says. His hand is in mine, and I don’tknow how long it’s been there, but it strikes me as important that we keep reaching for each other. He helps me to my feet. “Just a little further.”
“Do we have to?” I sag against his body. “We could build ourselves a tree house and learn how to fish.”
He smiles sadly at me, and I wonder when I’ll stop wanting things I can’t have. “Victoria needs us to keep going,” he says, and I know he’s right. She’s what matters right now.
At the bottom of the volcano, we enter a forest like the one on the other side of the island, where Naomi, Winston, and Reggie are hopefully safe from the eruption. The trees filter out some of the ash, and it’s easier to breathe under their cover. We catch up to Brooke and Victoria, who are both covered in so much ash it’s hard to see anything but the whites of their eyes.
“You look awful,” I say, because it’s the only thing that won’t have me bawling on Brooke’s shoulder.
“So do you,” she agrees. She leads me away from the group so they can’t hear us. “You’re really in love with him, aren’t you?”
I glance over her shoulder at Theo, who is almost strangling his siblings in a hug, and it’s hard to breathe. “Yeah,” I sigh.
It’s gut-wrenching that the only part of my future that I’m sure about is the one thing I’ll never have.
We find another stream and take a minute to scrub the ash off our faces in hopeful silence. We’ve almost made it. Rescue is imminent.
“How close are we to the beach?” Victoria asks, her eyes bright with anticipation.
“I can hear the waves again. I think we’re close,” Brooke says.
“Let’s get moving,” Theo says.
We’re coughing, wheezing, and limping as we push throughthe forest. The sun sets, but we don’t stop. We get closer and closer to the water, the salty air providing a welcome relief from the oppressive smell of sulfur and ash as the volcano continues to emit a column of steam into the atmosphere.
We walk until we hit sand. This beach doesn’t have the same cliffs that we left behind on the other side of the island, but otherwise, it looks the same.
