“Shit, Sam. You haven’t tripped since Toby! And I knew you wouldn’t. No matter what I said, you wouldn’t have believed me. I tripped you to get you going again, give you a taste of what you’d been missing, to prove how gifted you really are. You’ve never appreciated what we have.”
Sam doesn’t move. “And what else? Say it. Say what you mean.”
Costa drops his hands to his sides and meets Sam’s eyes. “And you let Toby drown in that frozen lake. You killed my son.”
“And you had to retaliate.”
“Yes.”
“You saw me happy when you weren’t.”
“Yes.”
Sam looks off to the side for a minute and sniffs. “Fair enough.”
“What I did wasn’t right. I know that.”
“And why Stella? Why did you drag her into this shit?”
“I thought she could make you more powerful if she tripped with you. It was a stupid idea. I can see that now.”
I look to Sam, and he nods. He knows that he has to tell Costa. “It’s actually not a stupid idea.”
I go to the kitchen and shake up three strong martinis while Sam explains how significantly his hearing power has increased since he tripped to get me.
“You had your hearing power when you wereunder? Wait, did youhearhim? Did you hear Toby? You’d know his babbling as well as I would.” Costa is at Sam’s side when I return. “Anything?”
“No, no, Costa. It was just all noise, way too much to decipher. I could hardly take it. It was so loud. Nothing distinct. Just chaos.”
He doesn’t mention all the other voices, I notice. Sam gladly takes the martini from my hand.
I give one to Costa and sit back down. “There’s no way to know if this would work.”
“It could,” Costa says. “If there’s any chance—”
Sam finishes, “Then, we have to try.”
“And we found out that you couldn’t surface Stella,” Costa says. “That has to be because I tripped her.”
Sam shifts his eyes away. “So, I’d have to surface Toby.”
Costa nods. “Sam, I’m sorry. I get it now. Finally, I get it. I was still mad and hurt…and…bitter when I got back to town. I did a lot of crap I shouldn’t have. I’ve been sober for two weeks. I’ve been trying to calm down and get my head on straight about everything. Toby was not your fault—not really. Sometimes, I try to tell myself that you’re solely to blame, but…we werebothtripping hard and way too much, and we werebothout of control with it. It was just an accident, a horrible accident. We didn’t understand tripping then like we do now, and—”
“We don’t understand shit now, Costa. Every move we make is a guessing game, so this very likely won’t work, and you have to be prepared for that.” Sam takes a drink and then another. “And if I’m supposed to have some kind of amped-up vision while we’re under, this means that Stella would have to trip again, too.”
Nervousness crawls through me. I dread the idea of tripping again.
But I also can’t wait to.
Sam downs the rest of his drink and sits silent. Eventually, he looks at Costa. “If you’re lying to us about any of this, I will dismantle what’s left of your world.”
“Hate me all you want. Just help me get my son back.”
“I’ll do anything you need,” he says.
