19.Burning Up

19. Burning Up

"You don't have to do this."

"Yes, I do."

Everything is still inside the cave, and the only sound is the soft lapping of waves outside. Samson and I sit on a dry section of the cave floor, our backs against the smooth stone.

Just a few moments ago, everything was different. Then the nymphs burst in on what sounded like the beginning of a heartfelt declaration and now Samson is staring so hard at his father's cracked cell phone I worry he might accidentally set it on fire.

"Not right now," I amend. "You don't have to listen if you aren't ready yet." I already sent Anemone and Pearl back out to check the water near the boat, even though Anemone told me there was already a group doing just that. More nymphs and river gods can't hurt.

None of them have returned with news yet, meaning Solis isn't at the bottom of the sea somewhere. If Samson doesn't want to listen to the message, we can join those already searching.

Then Samson's jaw tenses and I know he's going to completely ignore what I just said, along with any of his own misgivings about listening to the recording.

Sure enough, he presses play. The last recording on Solis' phone, left less than an hour ago.

Grainy sound fills the cave. It sounds like the recording happened as he was sailing. Solis has to speak up over the roar of the sea and the howling wind in the background.

"In case, in case… well, just in case. There are things I need you to know, Sorin."

Alright then. The nymphs briefly told us about the crashed boat breached on a dune just past the waters we officially regard as our own. No humans or bodies or human bodies were discovered on the dune or in the nearby waters, but whatever became of the person in the boat… well, it doesn't look great, even if a body wasn't recovered.

And not only is this the potentially last message from Solis, it's also a last message intended specifically for Samson.

"—looked into Zale, had to know everything," the professor says on the recording. "Eventually led me here, to one last mess. I decided I had to solve it. There’s nothing I can do to change the mistakes I made, but I can undo the damage he’s caused."

Samson's face is a mask of impassivity. But his eyes tell a different story. They're fixed on the phone he's gripping so tightly. I end up prying it from his grip as gently as I can, afraid he's going to further destroy the already cracked screen and then the circuitry inside before we listen to it all.

"Don't blame you for not trusting me, son," Solis continues while the surf crashes nearby. "But it's not what you think. All I want is to fix things. On my own, without needing to rely on you and Argyle. After all, I already asked too much of you once. I didn't want to do it again."

The wind and waves die down momentarily, and I hear his heaving breathing.

"So sorry for everything. Spent so long chasing more power. It cost me everything. My control over my magic, my relationships, my family, and you. When I finally looked around and re-evaluated what I really wanted, I realized that more power wouldn't give me a damn thing. It wouldn't bring back everything I lost."

The recording cuts out for a long time, going static-y and leaving us in relative silence. Samson closes his eyes. "Do you think that's it?"

"Don't know. Might as well just let it play."

"Yeah… I guess so."

"Samson," I begin.

"Don't… just don't say anything."

Solis starts talking again, but I speak over him.

"Samson, we don't know for sure… We can go search…"

"To fix this," Solis's voice resumes from the phone. "Target the source. The landslides, the sludge that spreads, it's all the effect. Not the cause."

"Samson—"

"Argyle, he's not done talking."

"So what?"

"That sounds important!"

"It's all important. We can replay the message."

"Fuck no. Can't sit through this again."

"Then I will. Sorin, it's okay to care about—"

"Shut up!" He sighs after he shouts. "Just… shut up and let me hear the rest, okay?"

Fair enough. I let Solis' voice fill the cave once more.

"—Where I'm heading, what I'm going to do, it's best to leave this behind. I truly hope I can destroy Zale myself and you don't need to do a thing."

"What the fuck," Samson mutters, echoing my own thoughts. Zale really is the one harming the bay? And Solis is going to kill him to stop him from creating more black sludge?

"—may want to take care of it myself, but I already prepared for the possibility that I fail. No, I prepared you and Argyle , started you down the right path. I love you, and I truly believe you can do this if you need to. You can—shit."

He curses quietly, but there's a thud that accompanies it, and I already know exactly what's going to happen. It's the kind of dramatic cliffhanger that happens in thousands of human movies—and occasionally in real life.

"Shit!" Solis shouts and then there's a tremendously loud bang and a few moments of chaos before the line goes dead.

Well… shit.

Samson jumps up, so fast and sudden he scares me. I can practically feel the turmoil radiating off him.

"Oh my god." His voice sounds distant. "He didn't cause the landslides. He didn't do any of this."

"Samson." I get up more slowly.

"My dad meant it when he said he changed, so that means… that means all he wanted was to get to know me again and apologize." His face is twisted with regret. "And I wouldn't let him."

"That's not your fault. You had every right to doubt him." My heart aches at the raw pain in his voice. I reach out, ready to comfort him but he shakes his head, and stumbles back, not letting me get close.

I move into his space again, reaching out to place a steadying hand on his shoulder. His skin feels warm beneath my palm, but there’s a chill in his eyes that I want to melt away.

He lets me touch him for a few seconds until the agony on his face melts away, replaced with something hard. "Now he's gone."

"You don't know that," I say.

My skin grows warmer, and I realize it’s not tension radiating from Samson, it's heat.

With a whoosh of sound, fire envelops him. I jump back. He’s lost in the flames, consumed by grief and guilt.

“Samson! You deserve to feel this grief, and you will! But take a breath! Reign in the fire!”

He doesn’t respond, his features twisted in anguish. Does he even hear me?

“I’ll help you, okay?” With a flick of my wrist, I conjure a mist of vapor.

I aim to cool the fire gently, but as the mist meets his flames, he howls in fury, a sound that pierces my heart. He roars and backs away, the fire burning brighter, almost as if it’s trying to consume him whole.

“Samson, you’re stronger than this!”

“Leave me alone!”

I take a deep breath and move closer. "No chance. If you want to burn, then you're going to burn me too because I'm not letting you go."

Slowly and deliberately, I reach out and place my hand on Samson's shoulder. The heat radiating off him is intense, and for a moment I'm sure I'm going to get scorched. But the instant my skin makes contact with his, the flames under my hand go out.

Even as the inferno within struggles for control, he won’t let the flames hurt me. Carefully, I slide my hand down his arm until I can lace our fingers together. The fire recedes everywhere I touch him.

Samson's shoulders slump and the tension drains from his body as the rest of the fire extinguishes.

"Argyle?" he rasps.

"I'm here."

He searches my face, looking lost and vulnerable in a way I've never seen from him before.

When I try to wrap my arms around him, he slips out of my grasp.

“Fuck, were you not listening to any of that? Did you not see what just happened to me?”

“Come here,” I plead, stepping closer to him.

“Argyle, stay away!” He backs away, his eyes wild.

“You won’t hurt me.”

“You don’t know that!”

“Listen to me. Your control hasn’t always been where it should be, but when listening to something like that from your father? That’s one of the exceptions that would cause anyone’s control to waver. It doesn’t matter how experienced—”

“Waver, sure, but I turned into a human bonfire. I run too hot, get carried away—”

“Sorin.”

“I burn everyone I love," He shakes his head, an absolutely devastated expression on his face as he stares at me. "You need to stay away before I burn you too.”

With that, he turns and exits the cave, leaving me behind.

~

What a mess.

“What am I supposed to do now?”

The waves of the sea don't answer, crashing against the rocks and spraying surf as I watch. Sitting on the rocks before the waters, the spray flies over my face, droplets raining down on me, but the cool water brings no relief.

Samson ran away. The nymphs are going to sacrifice themselves. I’d be left to pick up the pieces. Like a hurricane, I could see the storm bearing down on us with its ferocious might, and I was powerless to stop it.

"Do you mind if I sit with you?" Maris asks softly.

I shake my head, motioning for her to join me. She settles beside me, and we watch the waves together. It's almost peaceful. With the danger lurking below the surface concealed from sight, it feels like a normal, quiet morning.

"Mom, everything is so messed up.”

"I'm sorry, Argyle. I never wanted this to fall on your shoulders. I sent you away, and it did no good. I'm so sorry." Her voice trembles, and when I look away from the waters before us, I see her eyes brimming with tears.

"No, it doesn't matter now. I'm not angry anymore." I reach out and take her hand, trying to offer her some comfort. The anger I felt about her letting me believe I was exiled seems like a distant memory now. Anger is hard to hold onto when these might be my last moments ever with her. No point wasting them on resentment.

"You deserve to be angry," she whispers. "Either way, I knew you would get hurt. I thought the only way to guarantee your safety was to send you away, but now you're the one left to pick up all the pieces."

I sink against her side, putting my head on her shoulder. She scoops me into her embrace, comforting me as I struggle to hold it together.

"It's going to be okay," she whispers, her hand carding gently through my hair.

"It's not. And there's nothing I can do."

Her arms tighten around me, and she presses a kiss to the top of my head. "You always find a way to help, Argyle. That's why I thought I needed to send you away. I worried something terrible would happen to you because I knew you wouldn't give up. You'd keep trying to help until your last breath."

"I don't know what to do now," I admit. "I feel so lost."

"Really? From where I'm sitting, it looks like you've finally become who you were always meant to be." She pulls back and smiles, nodding down at my scales. "It suits you, your scales being the brand that connects you to human magic."

I looked down at my arm, where my scales shimmer in the sunlight. "You can see that?"

"Of course I can." She shakes her head, gazing out at the sea, a faraway look entering her eyes. "There was never supposed to be this much distance between us and the human world. Before you were born, your father was supposed to be part of your life."

Whoa, just when I thought this conversation couldn't get heavier. "What? You never talk about my father."

"We might be running out of time and it's better you know while I can still tell you," she reasons. "Your father was a park ranger in the preserve. I have no idea if he's still there, but you were supposed to grow up knowing him. When we decided to retreat underwater and be done with human influence, I just couldn't see a way where he could be involved anymore." She sighs. "I probably should have told you this before, but it seemed so cruel, like taunting you with stories about places and people beyond the bay, things I thought you could never know."

"I understand now why you couldn't give me that," I say. Once things settle down, I will definitely need to process this. It's strange to imagine my father had been so close and I had no idea. "The whole community cut themselves off from anyone else."

"Almost the whole community," she corrects. "Except for you. I'm glad you found a life above the water anyway. I think you have just the perspective this community will need going forward. And whenever you struggle, you'll have Samson there to help you."

About that… "Mom, he left."

My mother's eyes drift to the horizon, contemplative. "Don't take it personally," she decides after a moment. "He's doing what he thinks is best to protect you."

I blink in surprise. "What? How could you possibly know that? I wasn't even sure whether you liked him or not."

"I liked him from the moment I met him." She turns to me, looking almost carefree for a moment as she smiles and her long hair blows in the sea breeze. "Because I knew you cared for him, and I knew he cared for you more. Leaving you behind now might not be right, but his heart is in the right place. So forgive him quickly because you need him. You need each other."

She's right, of course. I need him. That’s why it hurts so much that he left. I thought we were both on the same page. Does he not feel the same pull?

I know he was scared. Scared of losing control, scared of hurting me.

But Samson doesn’t realize how strong he really is. Even when lost in grief and guilt, his fire didn’t burn me, he wouldn’t let it. He can’t see how far he’s come, that he has everything he needs already and he can succeed—especially if I’m there with him.

We do need each other. I have faith in him and his magic, and whenever I get insecure and doubt myself, he has the same trust in me. He made a mistake, but I can’t let that discourage me. Whether he knows it or not, he needs me. And I need him too. I can’t give up on him.

I snatch Solis's phone up from its place beside me and pull up his message. My mother arches an eyebrow. “What are you doing?”

“I need to hear the message again." Samson and I were talking over parts of the recording the first time, and we were both worked up. Maybe there's something important I didn't hear or couldn't focus on the first time.

I swipe the screen, tapping the play button.

This time, I hear everything.

Solis has been looking into Zale and the damage he caused. He had a theory and it explains everything. Zale’s motivations, why he targeted the nymphs, the landslides, and how to fix everything. He even came up with a solution for how I could help save the bay.

But I can't do it alone. His idea requires Samson and I working together. That's the way we work best.

“I know what we have to do to save the bay," I say.

Mom says something, probably questioning me, but I don't wait around to explain things. The nymphs are running out of time, and we need to act now.

Rising up, I dive into the water and head towards the beach. Time for me to find my rogue pyro and make him understand everything we can accomplish together.