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I don’t care. I know I saw Dean come in here. And I know it wasn’t for nothing.
I swim hard, checking each cavern I pass, trying not to get turned around in the gloom.
I’m looking for Leo, but also for Dean. Or possibly the two of them together.
The time is slipping by too fast—I’ve already used up half the remaining air. I’ve got to swim faster, though that makes me take deeper breaths.
As I kick my way down a narrow limestone tube, I see something that pulls me up short: something black and metallic. I dive down to retrieve it.
It’s a regulator, attached to a short length of hose.
The dread I feel then is vast and suffocating.
Someone is down here without any air.
I’m trying not to sob as I keep swimming forward. I know in my heart that the only thing I can find now is a body—either Leo or Dean. I turn one last corner and I see it—someone bobbing awkwardly against the roof of the cavern, their face twisted up. Someone tall and tan and long-limbed. Someone I love more than anything on this earth.
I swim to him, choking on my mouthpiece, sobbing behind my mask, sure that Leo is dead. I grab his body.
And it grabs me back. The hands gripping me are alive and warm. I can’t believe what I’m feeling, until Leo puts his face under the water and looks right into my eyes.
He gently takes the regulator from my mouth and sucks in a deep lungful of air. Then he puts it back between my lips and hugs me hard.
The dial on the tank beeps furiously. We’re almost out of air and there’s two of us now.
But we know where we need to go. Hand in hand, kicking hard, Leo and I swim out of the caverns. We only pause to pass the regulator back and forth so we can share the last dregs of the air.
It’s getting harder and harder to draw breath. The tank is beeping continuously, the dial far past the red line.
Leo and I keep swimming. My muscles are cramping, and my head is getting light. I don’t think we’re close to the last pool. It’s impossibly far away. We’re not going to make it.
I’m slowing down. Like a nightmare, no matter how hard I paddle, my progress is nil. The water is thick as oil. I can barely kick my feet.
I gesture to Leo to take the tank.
Instead he grabs my hand and kicks with all his might. He’s pulling, dragging me along. I can’t see the light of my headlamp anymore. I can’t see anything, everything is black . . .
Leo wrenches me out of the water and throws me down on the limestone. He presses hard on my chest, forcing the water out. Then he covers my mouth with his, breathing air into my lungs.
I roll over on my side, vomiting seawater.
Leo covers me with his body, trying to warm me up. Then, thinking better of it, he picks me up in his arms and carries me out of the caves, into the sunshine.
Gulls are wheeling and cawing overhead. The waves wash rhythmically against the rocks.
I squint up at Leo’s face, at the brilliant drops of seawater glinting in his eyelashes.
“Did you get the puzzle piece?” I ask him.
“Oh my god. Is that what you’re thinking about right now?”
“I got mine.” I fish it out of my bra. “You could still win, Leo . . .”
He pulls his own puzzle piece out of his pocket, holding it up so it blazes in the sun.
“Do you think you can run?”
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