Chapter 38 Lyx
THIRTY-EIGHT
Lyx
Sand kicks up behind Cav and Lyx as they run. The island is covered in wild shrubbery, vines and brambles that stretch out along the beach. They maneuver the coastline, pushing through bushes and branches until they come across a clearing.
It hosts a slipway hidden from view of the other islands. A metal rail slopes out of the water and up to a cradle that holds the Indulgence aloft. Its hull is exposed, already scraped free of barnacles and seaweed. Otherwise, the ship is dark and empty.
On the ramp below are half a dozen nets, full of oysters and clams and scallops.
It looks like a haul fresh from the ocean, but Lyx knows better.
These are no ordinary mussels. These mollusks are coming off the ship.
The shells look almost natural, but when she creeps closer, the undertones ripple with magic.
Fiery red, aquatic blue, deathly white, like the pearls she found on board.
Something shatters next to the ship. Lyx and Cav move through the shadows until they find a clam smashed on the ground. Tidus kneels over it and curses when he slices his finger on the jagged shell, but the pain is soon forgotten. With one hand, he lifts a shimmering pearl from the wreckage.
He wastes no time pocketing it and moving onto the next shell. His greedy, roughened fingers force their way between the oyster’s lips and pry it apart. The shell flickers, but when Tidus wrenches the pearl free, the oyster’s hue fades in a dying gasp.
Only now does Tidus notice Cav and Lyx. He jerks the gun from his waistband and points it toward each of them. “How the fuck did you get here?”
Lyx tries to keep Cav behind her, but he has the same idea. When Cav steps forward, Tidus hones the gun on him.
“You left me to drown!” Lyx shouts.
Tidus jerks the gun back to her. “That’s chaos, baby!” With his empty hand, he lifts a bag of mollusks and slams it onto the ground. Every swing makes Lyx flinch as the air fills with a chorus of cracks, stirring a sickly feeling in her stomach.
Pearls roll and bounce at Tidus’s feet. His movements are loose and easy now, but it won’t last. It never does.
“Is this your plan?” she calls. “Destroy the shells to get back at Heathen?” If Tidus starts talking, maybe they can slip away. Maybe they can find Heathen and the others. With one hand on Cav’s shirt, Lyx takes a step back.
Tidus cocks the gun.
Lyx’s heart thuds. She knows what’s coming from the sharpness of his smile. His temper is a tidal wave, rising inside him and sucking the life from everything else. With his boot, he kicks the mollusks aside and steps over them.
Cav presses Lyx behind him, but Tidus keeps prowling toward them. They back up into the bushes, Lyx’s nails digging into Cav’s arm to shove him aside. He doesn’t move.
“I’m not going to destroy them,” Tidus murmurs.
He lifts the barrel of the gun to Lyx’s head, and a nauseous tide rises inside her.
Then Tidus turns the gun on Cav. “Because you are.”
Lyx’s mind stutters, repeating the phrase to make some sense of it.
“You won’t do it for me, of course,” Tidus admits. When he lowers his chin to his shoulder, there’s a vicious glint in his eyes. “Kiss her goodbye.”
The shell glows. Ice seeps through Lyx’s blood. The shell has never glowed for anyone else. She doesn’t know what that means, what Tidus expects to happen…
Until Cav turns to face her.
Something is wrong. His eyes are panicked, but then clouds drift across his gaze like fog over the sea. There is no emotion any longer. He grabs her waist and presses his mouth to hers like it’s the last time.
Her head swims. “What are you doing?” she hisses and clutches at him, but it’s no use. He has one thought on his mind.
Tidus laughs in surprise, uncocking the gun and stuffing it back into his waistband. “Now, Cavalier: burn the Indulgence to the ground.”
Unblinking, Cav releases Lyx and moves toward the ship.
She struggles to hold onto him. “Cav! Stop!” She rushes in front of him, but it’s like fighting a rip current, the dead weight of his goal pushing him forward. He doesn’t hear her. He doesn’t see her. He’s possessed, a pirate locked inside her song.
“That’s not how it works,” she pants. She whirls back to Tidus. “You can’t use my song. It’s impossible. You tried it before —”
“We just weren’t doing it right.”
We. Like the two of them are in this together. Like she wanted this. Her feet are filled with lead. She moves toward the ship, but it’s too late. Cav is already there. All she can do is watch when his lips part, fire billowing from his throat and spreading across the hull.
Tidus settles beside her. “I couldn’t be sure.
The shell’s been acting strange since you saw him again.
But in the boathouse, I knew.” Firelight bounces off his smile.
“When I told him to stop, and the shell lit up, and he couldn’t move…
” He whistles. “The song works. We just needed someone who wanted to hear it. Someone who’s in love with you. ”
The fire spreads, eating up the sides of the ships and lighting the ropes.
Tidus cups his hands around his mouth. “Climb aboard, Cav!”
Mindlessly, Cav walks through the smoke toward the ladder. Lyx scrambles after him, but it doesn’t matter. Nothing will keep him from his goal. Wincing, she hangs all her weight on his wounded shoulder, but he barely flinches.
“Stop him!” she begs. “Call him back!” Desperately, she pries his fingers from the rungs, but he’s so determined. He has only one thought. One desire. One purpose.
A flaming rope falls and singes her shoulder. She jumps back, watching the fire spread onto a bag of mollusks. It slowly consumes the shells, making them hiss and scream until the fire catches onto the next net.
“We can do so much with this!” Tidus calls.
Chaos clogs Lyx’s throat, followed by smoke billowing so thick she can no longer see Cav. She feels for the ladder hanging from the ship, but it crumples at her feet and burns through the last of her hope.
Her stomach heaves. She stumbles away from the ship and falls to her knees and tries not to retch.
Her eyes burn, but she can’t wipe away the tears.
Behind the ship, flames dance dangerously close to the brush.
At this rate, the Indulgence will burn to ash, and then the fire will eat across the rest of the island.
Everyone will die. Cav will die, if he hasn’t already.
Tidus watches it like it’s a beautiful sunset. With a sigh, he crouches beside her and offers his hand. “Come on. Let’s celebrate.”
Rage boils inside her. It lifts her onto her feet, slamming her into Tidus and knocking them both to the ground. They tumble over each other until he wrestles on top of her and strains to keep her pinned. “Do not fucking waste this! Think of what we could do. Look at what we’ve already done!”
Behind him, the Indulgence burns. Heat wafts over her body. It’s powerful, so much more powerful than one siren without her song.
“You could make a hundred people fall for you,” Tidus shouts. “A thousand. A whole fleet of pirates, desperate to serve. You’d never be hungry again!”
Her teeth grit. She knows where this is headed. She can’t go there again. She can’t. “Give me my song!”
Foolish, desperate hope lodges in her chest. Tidus got what he wanted. The Indulgence is burning and turning everything Heathen built to ash. The job is done. If she has her song, she can still save Cav. She can still —
Tidus gives her a pitying smile. “You know I can’t do that.”
Her body goes numb. She sinks out of herself and into a hole inside the earth.
Deep down, she knew this was coming. She was foolish to believe anything else, but it was all she had.
With her song, she could be free. She could be whole again.
She could get back to the life she had before all of this. Back to the person she used to be.
But her song is not hers any longer. It hasn’t been for a long time. It never will be again.
The resistance leeches out of her. Finally, Tidus rolls off her. He sits in the sand and watches the world burn. This feels like drowning, too.
Her hand brushes something cold and rough. She spreads her fingers over the weathered stone. In the corner of her eye, something glows.
Tidus doesn’t notice the shell flickering in his chest. Lyx’s throat aches to be reunited, but her song is different this time. It no longer reaches out to pull her toward it; instead, it seems to be pushing her away.
Her heart breaks. Sadness threatens to consume her, but she understands. No matter what else Tidus took from her, he could never take that.
She can’t keep looking behind her. She can’t keep fighting to return to a life she isn’t sure she ever wanted. She can’t go back. The person she used to be is gone.
Slowly, she pushes off the ground. Her fingers curl around the rock, heavy and solid amongst the fire and smoke.
Tidus doesn’t look away from the ship. “You’ll come around, Lyx. You’ll see.”
She swings. Pain jolts up her arm. The rock connects with the shell, and Tidus sprawls back and clutches at his chest.
The shell is still intact. He breathes a sigh of relief, snarling and raring back his arm to lunge for her —
The crack in the shell spreads. It splits like ice over water, a shrill scream building in the air. The light inside it glows so bright that Lyx has to cover her eyes and turn her face away before the shell bursts.
Shrapnel pelts her skin. Her throat grasps and tightens, reaching for the final trail of her song, but it’s gone. It slips away, fading further and further until she can no longer feel its pull.
Her song is free.
The husk of the shell topples from Tidus’s shoulder. He grapples to reassemble the broken pieces, but they fall apart in his hands. “Fucking bitch!”
He collides with her. It takes all her strength to jam her knee into his stomach and knock the wind from him. Even then, he keeps coming. She gets her feet under her and scrambles toward the blazing ship, searching desperately for Cav. Her song is gone. He should be free. He should be —
A bullet whizzes past her. She ducks behind a barrel, and through the smoke, she can make out a body lying limply on the boat ramp. Cav is blackened with soot, facedown and arms outstretched.
More shots fire. One pierces the barrel. Liquid leaks onto her feet, and when it becomes red and muddy, she realizes her cheek is bleeding.
Tidus circles in front of her and aims straight for her head — but the gun clicks.
He squeezes the trigger again, but the chamber is empty.
With a scream, he drags Lyx to her feet and flings her backward.
Something jams into her side, a metal switch creaking out of place as she slides to the ground.
The pain is dizzying. She tries to stand, but Tidus is on top of her, falling to his knees on either side of her. “You threw this away. For what?!”
Beneath the ship, its wooden supports begin to burn. They char and crack as the full weight of the hull settles onto them.
Tidus’s fingers dig into her throat. “For him? He’s nothing! He’s dead!”
Gravity takes its toll. The metal carriage holding the Indulgence shifts inch by inch.
Tidus’s face distorts. “You can’t even love him! You can’t love anything!”
Darkness creeps in from the edge of Lyx’s vision. This is drowning, she remembers. Her fingers fumble for something, anything, but all she finds is a pile of rope.
Beside them, the ship picks up speed. The rope slips through her hands as the coil unravels. Her mind is cloudy. She doesn’t fight Tidus’s hold. She grabs the rope, entangling and knotting it hopelessly around Tidus’s thigh.
He bears down harder. He never looks at where she’s scrabbling at his leg, where the pile of rope is growing smaller, where it finally pulls taut.
Tidus is yanked off her, dragged behind the ship while he shouts and claws at his leg. His fingernails scrape the ramp for purchase, but there’s no stopping it. He can’t free himself.
The Indulgence crashes into the water and sends up a massive spray. Waves pour over the ship’s railing and roll to the other side. It’s like the ocean is stirring the water back and forth, rocking the ship side to side until the entire blaze is extinguished.
There’s nothing left of Tidus. Not even a struggle.
The sea always claims its due.