Shawn breaks off from me. He dives down, a bird swooping in on its prey. Instead of landing on his feet, he tucks and rolls to the ground. Charlie and I land more safely behind him. We run after him and almost collapse like dominos when he comes to a sudden stop.

"Willow?"

Following his line of vision up to the trees, I spot Willow. Her red hair is reaching towards the ground as her body lays horizontally towards the sky. With the moonlight bathing her pale skin, she's stunning. The only issue is everyone else is stunned too, so no one reacts when she plummets from the bewildering height.

Her limbs shoot up in shock and she lets out another bone chilling scream. I shoot out my arm and she comes to an abrupt stop only a foot from the ground. The whiplash sets her head back violently. For a second, I worry she might have hit the ground after all.

I lower her onto the dirt. Shawn crumbles at her side. "Are you okay? Willow!"

She's unresponsive.

My heart pounds in my chest. Did she hit the ground? I want to ask Charlie but I'm scared of what the answer might be.

It happened so fast.

I didn't see them before but Logan and Jimmy are standing between the trees. The shadows of the leaves had kept them hidden. Jimmy is trembling like he's been dunked into a frozen lake while Logan holds a lantern from the ship at his knee.

"We were running to the other side of the island and then she just lifted in the sky . . ." he says.

"She said she wanted to get a view of how close we were to the boat," Jimmy adds, his lips trembling.

"So Nakpuna gave her powers too? Maybe she didn't know how to use them?"

Logan lifts a shoulder. "It was like she was being tossed around -"

"One of you, help me carry her," Shawn says, hoisting Willow into his arms. "We need to get to the otherside of the island as quickly as possible. We don't know how big the explosion Nakpuna set off is going to be."

Charlie helps Shawn lift Willow up as I reach out my hand for Jimmy to take. His fingers brush mine. Then I'm plucked from the ground like a petal of a flower.

An arm binds me as strong as rope. When I look down, the faded red on the white sleeve tells me all I need to know. We're soaring back across the island in a reckless blur of greens and blues. The air zips by quick enough to suffocate and my stomach drops with every last second avoidance of an obstacle.

The Jolly Roger comes into view once more. Knowing that it could burst into a flaming heap of parts at any second makes my head spin. It doesn't help when I'm tossed to the ground, rolling and scraping against the deck.

My vision is blurry. Boots make their way to me and I use my abilities to throw them back to avoid getting kicked. He recovers immediately. I force myself to stand and face the doctor once and for all.

"You've already lost."

His nostrils flare. Beads of sweat trickle off of his forehead as he rips off the labcoat and throws it to the side. He exposes his arm, pointing to a bloodied injection site that's festering with infection.

"It worked. I gave Aaron flight and I gave myself flight!" The levelness of his voice that he always seemed to keep has diminished. Every word holds more madness, more desperation.

"And what will you have to show for it? A life sentence and the ashes of a ship?"

As I speak, I test to see if the temporary flight Tina granted me will still work. As much as I will myself to take flight, I don't. I am stranded on the ship that's going to blow up.

"I will not spend the rest of my life in jail!" he yells, spit flying out of his mouth. He points his narrow, crooked finger at me. "I will die on this ship, as will you. This is all your fault and you'll suffer the same as me!

I ball my fist, pressing my fingernails into the palms of my hand until it hurts. I need to be creative here. I need to be quick.

My eyes land on the crates. I can't fly but I can make other things fly. If I make something fly when I'm on it - that should work.

But there's Nakpuna. No matter the move I make he'll be chasing after me. The only way to ensure my plan can succeed is to eliminate the threat. I'll have to eliminate Nakpuna.

Without warning, I send a metal bar at his head. He lifts into the sky and dodges it. He forms a sick smile.

"Okay," he says. "We won't wait for the explosion. I'll kill you myself."

As if he cued it, a thunderous noise tears through the night. My ears ring and the ship groans underneath me. Another popping sound and the ship tilts sideways.

I fall over and slide across the deck, only catching myself by the crates that block me from falling into the water. Nakpuna hovers over it all, fear creeping into the edges of his expression.

The next thing I see is truly horrific.

The crates are tipping over. They're big enough to make me nothing more than an ant squashed at the bottom of a shoe. There are so many of them, so many piles of them, that I don't see how I could possibly escape them all.

Bracing myself to be squashed if it does not succeed, I lift my hands over my head. A red crate the size of a classroom falls over me. I can see the shadow it casts around me but it never hits. I keep it hovering over me and then with a scream, fling it into the ocean. The action drains me and I immediately know I won't be able to do this for long. I don't even know how that worked.

There's another boom. This one shakes the ship like an earthquake. More crates fall, crushing the deck and making giant holes. A crate lands a few feet to my side. It blocks me in with nowhere to run.

Nakpuna lands on top of it with the iron bar I had thrown at him in his hand.

"I've made up my mind. I'll beat you half to death and let the fire finish the job."

Scrambling to my feet, I get to work on moving the crate from my path. I'll try to make it to the opposite side of the ship and use a crate to fly me to the other side of the island.

I can't help but yelp as the crate ever so slowly moves. Not only does it hurt to use this amount of strength but when I finally move the crate, I am greeted with fire.

The tall flames are growing at a rapid speed. I cover my nose with the crook of my arm and back away.

Nakpuna greets me from behind, aiming to bring the iron into my skull. I hold it back with my powers to slide past him but he grabs me by my hood. He slams me into the crate face first and my powers shove him back into the crate behind him.

Blood trickles from my nose. Pair radiates through me.

He growls, righting himself to get ready to strike again. There's a sliver of space between the crates I could slide through if I squeezed. Upon approaching it, I feel heat lick at my skin. Pressing my hand to the crate, I nearly burn myself.

I let out a cry.

We're surrounded by flames. We're going to be burned alive. The ship is tipping over too slowly to have the flames extinguished by the water.

I am reduced to begging. "Doctor Nakpuna, you don't want to burn alive here. You have to get us out!"

"There still remains one more explosion. It'll be painless. One second I'm here, the next I'm gone." He swings the iron bar like a batter warming up. "You, on the other hand, will not meet such a painless end."

I'm unable to use my powers to block his strike as the crate to our left is sliding towards us. It's either I let it crush me or I get hit by Nakpuna. Neither are ideal but one is far more deadly than the other.

The iron bar gets me right in the stomach. I think I hear something crack. By God's grace, it doesn't release my grip on the crate. Keeping it in place grows even more challenging as another crate slides into that one, doubling the weight.

"I can only hold them back for so long!" I shout in agony. Blood sputters out of my mouth. "Get us out of here!"

"We wouldn't be here if it weren't for you! You'd be resting easy in your room while I became a rich man!" He brings the bar to the back of my knee and I crumble. The crates slide a few inches closer.

"Charlie! Think about Charlie!" I'm grasping for straws here but I don't care. I can't think of what else to do. "He loves me and he loves you too. Get us out! Do it for him!"

"I care for Charlie as much as I care for coffee in the mornings. As long as it's convenient, I'll stop for it. The moment it's not, it ceases being important to me."

"What about Lizzie?!"

The crates slide closer. It's too much to hold them. I can feel myself slowly letting go. I'm uncurling my fingers from the life I am clinging onto. Death is becoming more and more comforting in my mind. I'll see José. I'll be totally and completely free at last.

His expression darkens despite the growth of the flames. Sweat rolls down my back. He whispers softly, "Lizzie will not love me once she knows the truth."

Sucking in a final breath of air, he raises the iron bar above me for a blow I am certain will kill me - either by the strike itself or causing me to let the crates turn us into a bloody sandwich. The wrinkles of his skin look like scars and his eyes are black holes against the drop of the starry night. They will consume me. They will be the last thing I see before death.

"Burn in hell, Dovie Scarlet."

He brings the iron bar down.

I scream.

Wind rushes against me. It dances across my skin and ruffles my hair like a proud father does to his child. My chest explodes with warmth and a queasy sensation that is similar to the one felt when going up on a roller coaster overcomes me.

I am being hugged. It's not warm but rather cold. Very cold. But the cold is refreshing, it's the very sensation of adrenaline condensed into a strong and tangible experience.

My breath is stolen. My lungs are empty and I forget what it means to breathe. There is no oxygen available, even if I were to reach out for it. It would be like trying to grab onto a cloud - impossible.

I know these sensations are only a fraction of time. They are a sliver of the grand scheme that has been my life. Yet, they feel like forever. I am forever floating in a weightless section of time where nothing is happening. It is just the wind, the cold, and no breath.

I open my eyes.

The crates slide together. Nakpuna and I disappear.

No.

Nakpuna disappears.

I watch from a bird's eye view. My spirit has already left my body. He's already killed me. My corpse was already sprawled across the deck in a bloodied heap. He is the one that dies by the crates.

An angel is carrying me.

I have been caught up. The stars grow nearer and I am certain we will go far past them. I have fallen but not in the direction the doctor had wished me to go. I am falling towards the stars.

I think the angel's eyes are reflective because they are filled with the rich greens of the forest, flecked with the browns of the earth and the yellows of the fire.

"Say something, Dovie."

I glance up at the angel. I had not expected it to talk and had not expected it to sound so familiar.

"You're going to be okay," he says. A tear falls from his cheek and into my hair.

I think this is a silly angel for it to cry for me. Of course, I am going to be okay. Everyone is okay in Heaven.

"You saved us. You saved us all -"

The angel is cut short. I hear the beginning of a sound. A sound like a roll of thunder but amplified to if we were in the midst of the storm cloud. Then my ears are shot. I can't hear anything.

A massive ball of light - a supernova explosion - crashes into the ocean. Its flames shoot out in all directions, pieces of it launching itself further out to sea or onto the island. Water ripples away from it, sending up waves that tower to the heights of trees.

The angel and I go tumbling across the sky. We're spinning and falling all at the same time. We're a shooting star. The angel takes great care in trying to make the forced landing as smooth as possible. The sand breaks his fall but the angel breaks mine.

The sand that used to be as white as sugar is now coated in ashes.

I roll off of him. He has no wings but he was flying. He appears to look like an ordinary man. What kind of angel is this?

I wildly wipe at the ashes on his face. I'm certain that if I clear enough of it off, I'll recognize him. On his cheeks are freckles that make out constellations. His eyes flutter back open.

He's not an angel and I am not dead.

My hearing comes back to me. His words are sweeter than honey and as refreshing as the icy wind breaking through the heat of the fire that burns beyond the shore.

"It's over," he says. "We won."