Warix kept knocking at the panels as he made his way around the room.
The music grew louder. Marlowe winced and ducked her head.
Plum stuck her fingers in her ears. Jude shook her shoulder. When she turned, he pointed.
Warix had taken one of the panels off the wall. Behind it was a high-tech array of wires and blinking lights.
The music suddenly stopped. Warix spun, holding up a wire in triumph. “Ha!” he yelled.
Plum’s ears still rang.
“I knew it was going to be in here!” Warix continued. “When the phones started going off!” He was still yelling.
Plum felt like her eardrums might burst, the noise throbbing in a wub-dub rhythm, almost unbearable, growing louder.
“WAIT!” Cici yelled, her hands shooting out to grab Shelley’s and Dude’s hands.
Dude pulled away from Cici’s hand like a toddler trying to escape their mother’s grip.
“BE QUIET!” Cici shrieked.
That was when Plum realized the throbbing thumping in her ears wasn’t because of the loud music.
“It’s a helicopter!” Shelley yelled. She clapped her hands. “We’re saved!” she screamed. “It’s landing, right?”
“Go light the signal fire!” Dude yelled.
Warix was the first to reach the French doors. He threw them open just as the cacophony of the blades sounded like it was directly above their heads.
“Where could it land?” Cici asked, but no one was listening. Everyone else, including Plum, Sofia, and Marlowe, rushed out onto the terrace.
The twap-thwap-twap started to recede.
“It’s leaving!” Shelley wailed.
There was a rush of wind, from the helicopter blades, or simply from the ocean; Plum couldn’t tell. She craned her neck. “Hey!” Plum yelled.
“Is it looking for a place to land?” Jalen suggested as the helicopter banked.
“No, it’s heading back to Saint Vitus!” Dude yelled.
They all started screaming, jumping up and down, waving their arms.
The tail rudder of the helicopter moved away from them.
“There’s no way the pilot can see us!” Sofia shouted. Henrietta was struggling in her friend’s arms, flapping and squawking with the commotion. One wing got free from Sofia’s grip and buffeted her in the face.
Plum didn’t know the cruising or highest speed of a helicopter, but the one that had just flown over the island was growing smaller with startling rapidity.
“No!” Marlowe moaned.
“The signal fire!” Jalen yelled. He took off after Warix.
“Yes!” Jude took off after him.
“Dudes! I have the lighter!” Dude yelled, trailing the two younger men.
“Do helicopters have rearview mirrors?” Shelley asked. “How are they going to see us with the island behind them?”
“I don’t know,” Marlowe murmured. “But what else are we supposed to do?”
“Why did it even fly over?” Cici asked.
Sofia had Henrietta firmly under control again, although there were a few scratches on her arms from the panicked bird.
There was a bright crackle of orange from the cliff edge. As if drawn by primitive instinct, the remaining group on the terrace started walking out toward the fire.
The fire had immediately doubled, then tripled in size.
The helicopter could only barely be seen. A disappearing speck in the sky. All their hope for rescue, gone.
Plum grabbed Sofia’s and Marlowe’s hands and squeezed. Cici and Shelley sighed, looking disheartened and completely exhausted. Marlowe squeezed Plum’s hand back and bumped her hip. “We better go join the others.”
Plum’s heart flip-flopped in her chest, but she tried to jam any feeling down. Not the time for this. Instead she nodded and caught Sofia’s eye, and together the group joined the others at the signal fire.
“Damn,” Warix cursed. “It’s gone.”
They all stood in a loose ring, watching the empty horizon. The fire crackled merrily.
“We’re going to have to build another bonfire.” Dude sounded despondent. “When this one burns out. Just in case. Another helicopter or boat . . .”
He couldn’t finish his sentence, he was too sunk in sorrow over their missed opportunity.
“If it was a sightseeing company, they’ll be back,” Plum said, to encourage herself as much as anyone else.
“Right.” Cici nodded so vigorously her ponytail bobbed. “And I bet we weren’t the only ones who heard about Pyre Festival. Maybe others are curious—they’ll come out.”
“There’s always party crashers!” Shelley said.
“MEH!”
Shelley jumped and Cici let out a stifled cry as a goat’s head lifted over the scraggly brush about six yards away. The large shrub was the last growing thing before the outcropping fell away into nothingness.
The goat tilted its head to one side, fixing their group with one profoundly creepy eye, a bright yellow iris with a horizontal slit of pupil. Judging by the stains on its beard, it was the same goat from before. It lowered its head, disappearing into the bush again as it ignored them to continue to graze.
Behind them was a soft rumbling sound and a frustrated woman’s voice. “Ugh! Where is everybody?”
The voice was familiar.
Plum held her breath and turned around.
On the marble terrace behind them, a slender and eminently stylish young woman was struggling to pull a large suitcase behind her. She wore a broad navy sun hat, almost as large as Marlowe’s, and platform sandals tied with crisscrossing white fabric bands that twined up her golden-tan calves. Her off-the-shoulder minidress looked almost like a high-fashion impression of a kitchen-window curtain, diaphanous, studded with eyelets, and such a bright white it was almost beyond the Pantone color spectrum.
“Peach?” Plum breathed.
“Oh my God,” Jude exclaimed in a loud voice. “Peach Winter!”
Peach turned to their bedraggled group with a bright smile. The smile wavered, then widened when she saw Plum.
“Oh my God,” Sofia said.
Marlowe started to laugh weakly. “This is absurd,” she gasped.
“Plum Winter, you surprising little minx!” her sister called from the terrace.
Peach Winter sent a dazzling smile to the ragged group. She tossed one arm in the air and held the other out wide, as if posing for a picture. #LivingTheDream #Blessed. “Pyre Festival!” she chirruped. “But I don’t have to tell you, do I?” Peach singsonged at Plum, seeming completely delighted that her little sister was there. “Bet you’re surprised to see me!” Peach smiled, then curtsied lightly, a little dip of ta-da and yes, it’s me all in one.
“I saw your post, Plum! The bucket and the boat!” Peach explained, mistaking their blank faces. “I wasn’t going to come, but then I saw that you were here, and I looked up the website, and thought, Why not? So Andre loaned me his helicopter and here I am!”
“Call him to come back!” Shelley insisted.
“I would never! And he doesn’t have a phone anyway, because he’s on a tech cleanse. Isn’t that so vital? So proud of him.” Peach fluffed her hair and glanced at her own cell phone at the same time.
“Yeah, well, we . . .” Plum began. “The thing is . . .” Where to begin? How to explain?
“Plum, you bold little thing. I didn’t know you had it in you!” Peach came forward and twined an arm around her sister’s shoulder.
In spite of missing possible rescue, Plum still felt the warm rush of affection she always felt for Peach. “I did have it in me,” Plum said, thinking of the feelings that had driven her here. The feeling that nothing was enough, that she was desperate to do anything, be anyone, just to get away from herself. Away from her boring life.
But now all that had changed. The things of real importance had been thrown into stark relief by actual life-and-death. Her friends’ lives, and her own life, were in danger every moment they stayed on this island.
Peach gave a vague yet benevolent smile and fluffed her hair again. “Aaaannnyway,” she began.
“Hi!” Jude waved at her. “I’m Jude Romeo!”
“You’re adorable,” Peach declared.
Jude fizzed with delight.
“I don’t believe this.” Dude’s voice was exasperated as he stalked away.
“Another victim has entered the fray,” Jalen narrated into his phone.
“Peach, you met Marlowe and Sofia that one time at Christmas, remember?” Plum interjected, indicating her two friends.
“Hi. Been a while,” Marlowe murmured.
Sofia gave a small wave. Plum continued. “So, we came here together, but the thing is—”
Peach interrupted again. “That’s so sweet! Isn’t this fun?” She smiled around at the entire group. “Pyre Festival!” She held her phone up, frowning. “Does anyone have a signal?”
“No,” Plum answered. It was going to be a long explanation. “The thing is—” Plum began, trying to think of the best place to start.
“Oh my God, tell me everything,” Peach said, but held up a finger. “But first . . . where’s Diplo?”