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“I’m getting you out of here.” It’s only now I notice she has one of the braided vines she made around her waist and another one in her hands. I follow the other ends of them and see they’re tied to a tree near King and West. They seem to notice at the same time I do and quickly move over to them, getting ready to pull.

I watch in horror as she lowers her hands between us and the mud starts to swallow up the rest of her body. My hands shoot out to her neck, holding her head above the surface.

“Zee, stop! You’re going to go under!”

“I can do it. I just need to get this around your waist. I have to move closer.”

I don’t even think her arms can reach all the way around me.

What the hell isshe thinking?

She pushes her body right up against mine, and I feel her arms moving around me as I try to keep her head up. Mud covers her where I’m holding her face and it makes the panic in my chest grow.

“You guys need to pull her out! She’s sinking!” I yell to King and West.

“No! Not yet, I can do it!” she yells back with a determined scowl on her face as her arms keep moving around me.

“Tink,” I whisper, making her look at me as she continues working. “Don't make me watch you drown here. I can’t handle that.” I shake my head as tears fill my eyes.

Her scowl softens and she gives me a pained smile that hits me hard in the chest. “You think I could handle watching you drown? Bower, you need to get out of this pit and get off this island. You have a whole life out there waiting for you. I’ve known for a long time that I was going to die on this island. And if it’s my time now, at least I got a little bit of happiness in my final days, and get to die saving someone I love.”

My eyes widen at her confession and as I open my mouth to respond, she yells, “Pull!”

Her chin starts to lift from the mud, and her eyes widen in fear, confusing me. “Not me! Pull the other one!” she yells. But they,thankfully, don’t listen. They keep pulling on the vine tethered to her waist, dragging her from the mud, one long drag at a time.

I watch in relief when they finally get her entire body safely on the ground. They kneel beside her and look her over. “Are you okay?” King asks as West grabs her face, making sure she’s breathing and awake.

“Yes, I’m fine,” she says, batting them away and getting to her feet. “We need to get Bower!” She moves to the end of the vine wrapped around me and they immediately place themselves in front of her, taking the brunt of my weight.

“Okay, together now, ready and heave!” West calls. I finally feel the hard tug of the vine Zee wrapped around my waist. The next time they pull, I move, just an inch, but it’s something.

“I think it’s working!” I yell. West keeps commanding their synchronized efforts, as I’m slowly pulled, inch by inch, towards the edge. When my arms are close to reach, they drop the vine, and West and King run over to grab my arms, pulling the rest of me free. They don’t let go until we are twenty feet back from the pit, then they both sink to the ground beside me, exhausted.

Before I can even catch my breath, Zee is on me, literally. She drops down onto my lap, straddling my outstretched legs, and wraps her arms tightly around my neck. I pull her close, relief flooding through me that she’s okay. Thatwe’reokay.

We sit in heavy silence for a few minutes, the weight of what just happened pressing down on us. My mind races with a million thoughts; how close I came to dying, how Zee risked her life to save me, the terrifying idea of dying here, and the revelation that she loves me.

As my adrenaline starts to fade, I pull back and grip her face in my large mud covered hands. Her eyes are filled with tears, making my anger at her self sacrifice fade… just a fraction. “Tink, now isn’t the time, but you and I are going to have words about what you said out there.”

Her eyes widen slightly in fear, and I lean forward, gently pressing my lips to hers for a quick kiss. “I don’t know why you think my life is worth more than yours, but that is not how this works. The three of us,” I say, motioning to me and the other two guys, “aren’t leaving this island without you.”

“But I—”

“Shh.” I cut off her rebuttal, pressing my fingers to her lips. “Let’s talk about this later. Right now, I just want to get this mud off of me, what do you say we head back and go for a swim?”

Her shoulders sink in defeat and she nods. A squeak leaves her when West scoops her up from my lap, carrying her in his arms back the way we came.

King offers me his hand and helps me stand. He pulls me into a quick hug. “I’m glad you’re okay, man. You really scared me for a minute there.”

“I scared myself, too,” I admit, pulling back to give him a lopsided smile. Then we turn and follow West and Zee back to the safer part of the island.

Chapter thirty-six

Reece

Istare at the blinking dot on the screen, Hendrix, Jackson and Peters all frozen with wide eyes.

“It’s… it’s a location,” Peters finally says, breaking the silence.