Astral Tide (The Otherborn Series) (17 page)

Zen looked at Kim and Tora, who both nodded, and then back to London. “One night, London. Then we all go.”

LONDON THOUGHT HER friends would never go to sleep. She’d tossed restlessly on her pallet, just waiting for that steady rhythm of breath to let her know it was safe to slip out and find Elias. Tora and Kim were snuggled up together across the room and Zen, though still not sharing a space with her, had moved his pallet a little closer. It was a start, at least.

Finally, when the forms of her friends lay like perfectly still shadow heaps in the dark and you could wind a watch by their breathing, London kicked off her blankets and got to her feet. She left her boots beside the pallet, afraid they’d make too much noise and wake the others, and tip-toed in stocking feet toward the tunnel she’d followed earlier to Elias’s giant bee hive/bed chamber.

She had to step over Zen to get there, which was easier said than done since he was so broad, but her legs were longer than they used to be—
thank you, Si’dah
—and she seemed to have gained an added ounce of grace along with them. He never stirred.

In the tunnel, the hum of bees reverberated all around her like a torturous lullaby. She might have liked their honey, but the bees themselves unnerved her. She’d been stung once as a kid in Capital City when she was playing near some reprocessing bins. Hurt like hell and she swelled up like a balloon full of puss. It took a fistful of Diane and Pauly’s medical rations together to get her the shot required to stop the swelling and keep her alive, along with an extensive supply of hydra cream. She itched for a month.

London took deep, slow breaths and focused on putting one foot in front of the other. The terror of that morning, of what she had seen and was about to see again, threatened to send her screaming back into the other room, but she needed this and there was no way she would get Elias to herself tomorrow. Not now that the others knew what he was and what he could do. They still had so many questions and their time was severely limited. Only two days remained.

It was dark, but a shaft of moonlight bathed the end of the tunnel in a bluish glow. She could see the bend drawing closer, and across from that, the dark hollow of the cleft. Even in the night, she could see a few dark bodies buzzing about, but not very many. Not by comparison to what she knew awaited her in the cleft.

London closed her eyes and exhaled. “Steady,” she said to herself. “Stay calm and they won’t harm you, not if they don’t think you’re a threat.”

She inched toward the cleft and leaned in. Instantly alert to her presence, the bees seemed to grow louder and a few buzzed around anxiously, but she tried to keep her heart rate steady through controlled breathing and it seemed to be working. The colony settled and London scooted toward the mass of bees resting on the floor, presumably Elias.

“Elias!” London said in as loud a whisper as she could manage. “Elias! Wake up.”

The form stirred and the bees hummed and crawled about. London cringed, every muscle tensing, but forced herself to relax.

“Elias, wake up. I need to talk to you,” she tried again. This time, he shifted and what appeared to be his head shook. A few dozen bees flew away and vanished into the hive. Elias’s eyes blinked at her from the bit of his face that was exposed, but the bees framed it in an ever-crawling flurry of activity.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he said.

“I know,” London whispered. “But I have to talk to you. Alone.”

Elias nodded. “Be quick about it. They won’t tolerate a foreign presence this close for long.”

Great, more time limits,
London thought, but she launched into her questions anyway.

“How did you know about the plane last night? About Rye…and Avery? Why did you take me there?”

Elias blinked. “The Astral is so much a part of me now. There is little that happens there that I am not aware of. Especially when it overlaps this world.”

“So you knew about them,” London said as she slid slowly down to a crouch, “just because. And you knew they were spying on us?”

Elias nodded.

“Then how did you not know about the Circle, or Hantu, or us even?”

“I have known about the Circle for ages, though I have no part in it. It is folly, to think the Astral as small and manageable as the Circle does. And it has been corrupt for a long time. But the Circle protects its own and cloaks its doings when it can. That is what the grove is for. So I did not know about you and your friends until very recently, when you began working outside the Circle and the grove and therefore made yourselves evident to me.”

“And Avery and Rye?” she asked him.

“Have been even longer outside the Circle’s protection. Their activity is obvious to me.” Elias yawned and it was a wonder to London that his mouth wasn’t instantly filled with bees.

“Why did you help us, Elias?” she asked, seeing the slivers of moonlight reflected across his large pupils.

“Because you needed it. Because you are trying to save this world and I wish there had been someone like you and your friends to save mine.”

London pursed her lips. Elias’s face was barely visible, but even so she could read the sadness there, the grief and regret. “I’m sorry, Elias. I’m sorry about what happened to you…to your world.”

“So am I,” he said and the words were a breezy, resounding hum like a sorrowful wind.

Her eyes blurred with tears. Here they had left their worlds to try and save another, and Elias had fled his to save himself. What if they failed? Would they have a chance to flee into the Astral like the Beekeeper? Would they want to? How many wouldn’t even get that option? People like her mother and Rye’s dad. People they cared about.

“What do I do now?” London asked. Even though she was grateful for the information on Avery and Rye, she wasn’t exactly sure what to do with it, how to protect them.

Elias looked at her, and something she imagined was as akin to fondness and affection as he could get washed over his face. “You return to the grove and you teach them the error of their thinking. You show them the Astral is much, much bigger than their small minds. And you turn the tricks of your enemies against them.”

London nodded. She wiped hastily at her eyes and rose to leave. Turning her back, she heard Elias make a final request from over her shoulder.

“London, tomorrow, okay? Tonight, you sleep.”

With another nod, she left Elias to the comfort of his bees.

LONDON MOVED WITH her head down into the abyss of the tunnel, the moon at her back, and ran smack into the hard-as-rock wall of Zen’s chest. “Dammit, Zen. You scared me,” she snapped. A heady drone buzzed behind her.

“You’re the one sneaking around at night,” he shot back.

London, hearing the bees respond to his tension, placed a finger over her lips. “Keep it down, unless you want to know what it feels like to be stabbed by a million needles all at once.”

Zen knit his thick eyebrows together with irritation, but he nodded. “What are you doing?” he whispered.

“Nothing,” London said. “Just going to look at the stars.” As if to prove it, she moved toward the precipice and sat down with her back to the stone.

Zen stood over her. “Bullshit,” he whispered. “Then why were you coming out of that cave?”

London motioned for him to sit. He crouched in front of her, his face finely revealed in the incandescent light of a beautiful moon.

“I heard you talking,” he added. “I heard Avery’s name…and Rye’s.”

London stiffened.

“What did you see on that plane last night, London?”

London was holding her breath but she finally let it escape. She was so tired of lying and secrets, but she didn’t know what Zen knew, she didn’t know if disclosing what she saw last night would only wound him more. “I saw them,” she said at last. “I know how they’ve been spying on us. Kind of.”

Zen moved next to her and propped his elbows on his knees. “What else did you see?”

“What do you mean,” London asked. “They were talking and…and…” London tried to hold it back, but images swam before her and suddenly the tide of pain Si’dah had wept the night before rushed over her again. Her eyes flooded and spilled over and all she could do was bury her face in her hands.

“Oh, London,” she heard Zen say before he wrapped his giant arms around her and pulled her close. “I never wanted you to know. I can’t stand to see you hurt like this.”

London pulled away a bit, so she could wipe her face and look up into his misty eyes. “What about you? Is it fair for you to carry that pain alone?”

Zen shrugged. “Maybe not. But I’m more than strong enough for it—for the both of us.”

“Still, you should have told me,” London said. “This was so much worse.”

“I guess I didn’t think you’d see it like I did. If I had known, I would have prepared you. I thought…I thought I could spare you.”

“I know,” London said. “What did you see exactly?” she asked him now. “Will you finally tell me?”

Zen took a deep breath and cocked his head. “Probably a lot of the same. I saw him at her side. Saw his arms around her. Saw them kiss. I mean, really kiss. Not some peck on the cheek. They were enjoying it, taking in the Outroaders. Both of them. It was sick.” Zen’s face tensed with anger, then relaxed. “I saw her…saw her tell him she loved him. I could read it on her lips.”

London looked at the stars for real now and their beauty was staggering in light of her own suffering. Rye could stop loving her and the universe would go on as though nothing had changed. Somehow, it didn’t seem possible.

She remembered Rye wiping at his mouth when Avery’s back was turned, the one seed of doubt planted in her about his affection for Avery, the one thing that kept hope alive in the deep recesses of her shattered heart. “Maybe it’s one-sided.”

“I saw him say it back, London,” Zen admitted. “And that kiss didn’t look one-sided at all.”

London sighed. She considered telling Zen about Rye wiping his mouth but thought better of it. He would only believe she was clinging to hope. It would only anger him. And if she was right, if it was one-sided, an act maybe, then that would only hurt Zen more. She just couldn’t leave him alone in his pain. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

Zen pulled her face towards his. “I hate him, London. I hate them both, but especially him. But if I could change it, if I could make him love you again just to see you smile like you used to, I would. You have to know that.”

London nodded and closed her eyes. What Zen was saying, it meant his feelings for her were real. Whatever he was processing about Avery, he really cared about her. Because he was willing to lose her for her own sake.

“Hold out your hands,” Zen said.

London gave him a puzzled look. “Just do it,” he told her, exasperated. Behind them, the bees had quieted into a low white noise.

London cupped her hands between them, palms open.

Zen twirled his fingers over them and series of sparks began to swirl from his fingertips, lighting the pads of hers in a warm light. The sparks came together in the center, a brilliant light hovering just over her palms, and formed a stone heart.

London gasped and Zen touched a finger to the floating heart of stone. Where his finger touched it, a crack formed, deepening, until it split the heart into two halves. Inside each of them glowed a million tiny, sparkling crystals, in a hollow like a miniature cave. They were luminescent, radiating with an inward light that London could practically feel warming her hands and her heart.

She looked up at Zen with wonder. He grinned at her, all rugged and lopsided. “I’ve been practicing,” he said. “It reminds me of home.”

“Geode,” London whispered with awe, looking back down to the floating halves of Zen’s heart.

“I want you to keep one,” Zen said, smiling. “So you’ll always have a piece of me no matter what happens.” He wrapped his hand around one half and the other dropped instantly into London’s palm.

“This piece is mine, so I’ll always remember this moment with you.”

London turned her oblong geode over in her fingers, marveling at the fine, intricate beauty of the little crystals. “It’s beautiful,” she told him. “Thank you.”

Zen bent down and placed a gentle kiss on her lips. “It’s not as beautiful as you, but it’ll have to do.”

“I’VE BEEN THINKING,” London said aloud, shattering the silence at the crowded table.

“Uh oh,” Kim responded.

Breakfast was small and redundant. More bread, more cheese, more honey. This time, a little butter too and one of those jars of jam Ash brought.

London glared at Kim and carried on. “I’m serious. Last night, Elias and I had a talk.”

Elias watched her intently.

“He thinks we should return to the grove. Apparently, it’s a shield of some kind. Avery’s been able to spy on us because we’ve been outside its circle of protection.”

Tora chewed slowly, swallowed, and said, “But Hantu thinks the Circle may still be corrupt.”

London nodded. “I know what Hantu thinks. But I have a better idea.”

“Oh?” Zen asked, brows raised, creasing his smooth forehead.

“I think we should return to the grove,” London stated.

Tora opened her mouth to contest but London interrupted her.

“
And
I think we should continue practicing outside.”

Now everyone’s mouths were hanging open and their eyes glazed over with confusion. Kim tugged the razored edge of his hair.

“Hear me out,” London continued. “Right now, Elias is the best weapon we have against Avery and the Tycoons. There’s been an open seat in the Circle ever since we uncovered Avery’s deception. And it’s high time we fill it with someone who can really help us. We need to bring Elias into the Circle, where he’ll be protected and where we can meet with him without fear of everything he has to teach us being overheard and used by our enemies. We’re going to need to keep working with him after we leave here and this may be our only way.”

London turned to Elias. “I know you don’t agree with the Circle, but we need you. You told me last night to teach them—show them—what they’re missing. But I can’t do that, not like you can. You’ve lived it Elias, every corner of the Astral. You can help us grasp just how limited our understanding of the Astral has been.”