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There’s a scraping sound, and when I look up, I see blue sky.
Oh, fuck.
That’s enough space for Finley to slip through. I push the motherfucker one more time and the space widens. Finley’s shrieking.
Her body smashes into mine, her arms wrapping around my waist as her face pushes against my chest. “Oh, sweet baby Jesus! We did it!”
She squeezes me. I spread my hand out on her small back, feel her shake beneath my palm. She laughs but then it sort of sounds like crying.
“I am not a crier.”
“Sure you aren’t…” I rub big circles on her back, and Finley sags against me.
“I can smell the ocean,” she sighs.
I look at the swatch of sky. Then I scoop her up and lift her toward it.
“No!” She locks her arms around my head, her legs around my waist. “I won’t go up without you, crazy man.”
I set her down, and she gives me a look of disbelief.
I shrug.
“We’re a team.”
I nod. “Partners.”
I hold her pack as she stuffs everything inside. When we’re back at the cave’s mouth, she laughs. “Thank you!”
“You did most of it. Chipping all that rock away is what did it.”
Before I lift her up, I wrap my hands around the ledge of the cave’s mouth and ease my torso partway out. My burning shoulder makes my forearms quake. The sunlight hits me like a brick. But I can see the difference in the landscape. The slope-side and the valley—all of it a sea of broken rock. I look to my left and find the peak we traversed missing its archway and the rock spires.
“You were right,” I tell her, easing back down. “That arch fell, and most of it is right on top of us. I’m gonna lift you up into a field of rocks—but it looks stable.”
Shock moves over her face. “Did you see anyone?”
I shake my head, and she blinks.
“C’mon, Siren.” I shove her pack up through the gap and wrap my hands around her waist. A moment later, Finley’s smiling down at me.
“There’s so much wind! C’mon!”
My shoulder blazes as I lift myself, but coming out under the sky is worth it. Grass and wetness, stone and sea fill my nose. The sky has never seemed so big, so blue. I look up and down the valley.
“Rocks are everywhere,” she murmurs.
I nod. If they came looking for us, there’s no way they would have found us.
Finley touches my leg, laughing softly. “Your shorts.” I look down. They don’t look like khakis anymore. “They’re filthy!”
Fuck, they’re hanging off my hips. I fold my hand around the fly to hold them up.
“Showing your underpants,” she chides.
“You like it.”
We walk through the valley like we’ve just stepped off a spaceship. The scent of grass fills my head. Finley turns a circle, grabbing my hands as she comes to face me. She grins.
