Astral Tide (The Otherborn Series) (21 page)

London stared at Rye. Her eyes followed the contours of him with a hunger she’d never felt before. Like he was the last meal she would ever eat. She stared at the way his hair fell into his face now, at the fullness around his jaw and the force of bone underneath. She looked into the warm, spicy brown of his eyes and there was kindness there, and sincerity, and love. There were all the moments and all the words that had ever passed between them. London’s own eyes grew fat with tears. “Rye?” she whispered.

His expression faltered, the urgency slipping into something else for a second, something sad. Then he turned around to look over his shoulder. At what, London didn’t know. She could see nothing behind him except the dark stone of Elias’s wall.

Rye turned back. “I can’t stay. She’s coming.”

London shook her head. “Who?”

Rye reached out again and stroked at a lock of dark hair that edged London’s face. She could feel it give beneath the pressure of his hand. When he touched her, there was sensation, light and diluted, but there nonetheless. When she touched him, there was nothing.

“God, London. There’s so much I want to say. I just—there’s no time.” His eyes implored her to forgive him.

“But—I—” London couldn’t get anything out fast enough. Her words were a string of misfit thoughts and questions.

“Get out of here. Stay safe,” he said again, deadly serious. “Promise me.”

“I promise,” she managed, desperately trying to hold herself together. She felt like an unstrung marionette, a disconnected puzzle of limbs and brain and heart.

Rye’s eyes raced over her features as though memorizing all the changes they found there, as she had his. Then, they bored into her own with the ferocity of a savage animal. “Don’t believe everything you see and hear. Do you understand me? Things aren’t always what they seem.”

London opened her mouth to speak, but only a squeak emerged. What did he mean? Who was he talking about? Himself? Avery? Elias? Zen? Her eyes rolled wildly around the room, taking in all the possibilities.

“London,” he said and her name sounded like honey on his lips, like relief and pleasure and pain all rolled together.

She looked at him, blinking mutely, hearing the desperation in his voice and fighting her own intuitive sense that this was it—this was the last taste of him she was going to get. There was a half a second more for them together, just them, and then they would be apart again.

He opened his mouth to speak, and like her, seemed to choke on the hundred different things that were fighting to emerge at once. At last, three words fought their way through to the surface. “I love you.”

Can I believe him?
Her fingers grazed something sharp on the floor, where her crystals had rolled from her pocket during sleep, and a high-pitch hum floated up to her ears.
Truth
.

And then he was gone.

London felt the darkness creep in on her like a childhood nightmare, returning with all the fears she could forget in the light of day. And the space of him, where he was, where he’d just been, pulled at her like a vacuum in his absence. Her heart folded in on itself, crumpling like paper, withering inside her without him. Wilting like a plant without water.

It was all she could do to get the words out before it completely collapsed, even though he was no longer there to hear them, even though the darkness mocked her and she was too late. She needed to say them.

“I love you, too.”

“GET UP.” LONDON’S nudge was anything but gentle, and she’d already strapped her boots on, but she didn’t have time for niceties and Zen was a heavy sleeper. “Now, Zen. We have to go.”

He stirred and wiped at his face with both hands as London struck a match nearby, lighting two skinny beeswax pillars on Elias’s table. “What time is it?”

“I don’t know,” London told him. Elias didn’t have windows; the stone tunnels were disorienting. She’d lost track of day and night behind these walls. But she was willing to guess the sun hadn’t risen yet. “I think it’s early morning.”

“How early?” Zen asked, rolling over. “What’s the rush?”

London crouched next to him and began shoving random things into a small canvas pack she’d found tucked away in one of Elias’s lonely cupboards. She wasn’t trying to steal, but there was no time. The Beekeeper wouldn’t miss the stuff anyhow, a few candles, two jars of honey, a wrap of cheese and some biscuits that were hard as packed dirt but better than Dehydrated Dinner any day. She added two or three of the Beekeeper’s books to this stash, praying he would forgive her. Every one of their paper pages were as good as a pack full of ration tickets inside the walls. Their high value could come in handy in a trade.

London thumped Zen on the head with one of the books before throwing it in. “I’m serious, Zen. Help me get the others up.”

She ran over to where Kim and Tora lay cuddled together and began vigorously shaking the pair. “Rise and shine, lovebirds. We have to roll.”

She turned around and Zen was sitting up staring at her. His eyes narrowed suspiciously. “What the hell is going on?”

London threw the pack over one shoulder. “Look, I can tell you everything once we’re on the road, but there really isn’t time to explain right now. You just have to trust me.”

From behind her, London heard Kim ask, “We’re leaving? Why?”

Zen tugged a long-sleeved shirt on over his tee and London blushed as she looked away, afraid to admit how much the bulge in his shoulders still turned her on. The memory of Rye’s face only moments ago swam before her and she was flooded with guilt. What was she going to do? Part of her heart would always belong to Rye, but she’d just given another part to Zen.

“Ask Miss Ants-in-her-Pants over there,” Zen grumbled back. “This is her bright idea.”

“It’s not
my
idea,” she said defensively before she could stop herself and the words hung conspicuously between all of them, dangling in the center of room. London bit at her bottom lip until it hurt. Why did she say that?
Foot in mouth.

Everyone stopped and stared at her. Kim took a step forward. “Then whose idea is it?”

Tora pulled her arm into a sleeve of her brown, reprocessed jacket. It rustled like dry leaves. She echoed the boys. “London, what’s going on here? I thought we needed more time with Elias to learn all we can? We have one more day here at least. And I’m sure we can convince Ash to give us more.”

London spun around toward the opening that led to Elias’s beehive. “I have to go find the old man. Just…keep getting dressed. I’ll tell you all about it on the way.”

But a large hand landed over her shoulder and pulled her back around before she could escape. “Whoa,” Zen said. “Not that fast. I’m not going anywhere until you tell me why we’re bailing on our deal with Ash and Elias.”

Kim was combing his fingers through his hair. “Exactly where do you expect us to go anyway? This was the end of the road, remember?”

London decided to address the concerns that kept her farthest from having to talk about Rye. “We’ll think of something. There has to be another camp that’s none the wiser.”

They all stared at London dumbfounded. Finally, Tora said, “London, you killed an Outroader. A scout. You shot the messenger! Right now, there are other scouts criss-crossing the landscape from one camp to another spreading word.” Tora affected a mock news anchor voice, “Murderer on the loose. She’s about five foot seven, maybe taller now, with long black hair and a major chip on her shoulder. Goes by the name of
London
.”

“Yeah, we’re lucky we got in here at all. And since you haven’t stabbed anyone
yet
, there’s a chance we can convince Ash to let us stay and lay low,” Kim agreed.

“Not to mention the hordes of Tycoon regiments and black trucks that are probably stationed from here to Kingdom Come by now,” Zen said.

London was spinning between the three of them, looking from one to the next with her mouth hanging open, unable to get a word in edgewise. Rye’s warning kept ringing in her ears:
if they won’t get up then just take off on your own...get everyone you can and get out of here.

She could just run and leave them there arguing. But, no matter what Rye said, she couldn’t leave them behind. Even he had to know that. She’d already done that once, and never forgiven herself for it.

London swallowed. “They’re coming. Okay? They’re going to be here any minute and we have only a tiny window to get out before they show up.”

“Who?” Tora asked.

“Tycoons. Regiments. Avery. Take your pick.” London stared at Tora, daring the Seer not to believe her.

“But I would feel it,” Tora said softly. “Wouldn’t I?”

“I don’t know, Tora,” London admitted, bending to snatch up a spoon that had fallen off the table and stuffing it in her pack. “Avery’s flown under your radar before. She’s sneaky. And she’s getting better.”

Kim was rolling up a couple of the blankets and tucking them under his arms. “If what London says is true, we need to hustle.”

“How do
you
know that?” Zen asked. “Especially if Tora doesn’t?”

London took a deep breath.
Here goes nothing.
“Someone…someone told me.”

Kim stopped wadding blankets and looked at London. “Someone told you? Someone who isn’t one of us? Someone outside this room?”

London just nodded.

Tora’s sharp eyes zeroed in on London and she knew what was coming before the Seer even asked it. “Who?”

London inhaled, bit her lip, squeezed her eyes shut and said it before she could lose courage. “Rye.”

Zen froze. His shoulders stiffened under his shirt. His nostrils flared and his eyes hardened into rocks. “
Rye
?”

Again, London nodded.

Around her his name echoed and ricocheted off everyone’s tongue. “Rye?”

“Rye?”

“I know it sounds crazy, but—but he was here. Kind of. He woke me up and he told me we have to go before—” London started but Zen’s voice barreled through her own.

“
Crazy
? Crazy, London? It sounds suicidal! Let’s just suppose for a moment that you’re not completely delusional and what you’re saying is true. Since when do we listen to Rye? Since when do we trust Rye? How do you know that this isn’t exactly what he wants? That we aren’t playing right into his hands? That they didn’t conjure this to stir us out of hiding?”

London wrung her hands. “If you could have seen him. I mean, I could tell that he meant it and…and I heard the truth alarm go off. My charm.”

“God, you are so gullible when it comes to him!” Zen flung at her. “We’re supposed to believe a rock over our own common sense now? One that only talks to you?”

London’s hands balled into fists at her side. “That isn’t fair, Zen.”

“What isn’t fair is you expecting us to pack up and ship off at the enemy’s bidding! You weren’t even going to tell us until we were out there, until it was too late.” Zen’s face was red and the veins on his neck were thick cords bulging beneath the skin.

“I didn’t think you’d believe me!” she whined and she hated herself for sounding so weak.

“Because we don’t!” Zen shouted back.

Tora was standing silently by and even Kim had dropped the blankets he was carrying. “London,” he said now. “It does sound a little far-fetched.”

London glared at him.

“We just—we need to talk about this first,” he finished.

London huffed. “There isn’t time to talk. Rye said—”

“
Rye said
? Rye said! I mean, do you even hear yourself?” Zen cut in.

“Zen,” Tora began, stepping between them. “You need to calm down. This isn’t helping. I’m sure if everyone just stays calm we can get to the bottom of this.”

Zen spun around so his back was to them and ran both fists through his shag of blonde hair.

London didn’t know what to do, what to say. She believed Rye, but Zen was so emphatic she was starting to doubt her own instincts. But she’d heard the truth alarm with her own ears, though it only sounded toward the end when he told her he loved her. The only thing she could logically guarantee was true was that Rye still loved her. For all she knew, the rest of it could be a lie. Would Rye do that to someone he loved? Would he lead her into Tycoon hands? And she couldn’t tell Zen any of this. Telling him Rye said he loved her, and that she said it back, would only send him into a bigger rage.

She looked at Tora with wide, wounded eyes that begged to be understood.

Tora stared blankly back. “London, what if Rye wasn’t telling you the truth? The only reason would be like Zen said, to flush us out.”

London’s vision blurred and the tears stung as they built up. She pulled at the corners of her eyes to dispel them. “But what if he was? What if Rye was telling the truth? They’re going to be here any moment and we’ll be caught. What then?”

Tora shrugged and looked away.

London tried again. “If we leave, it’ll take them some time to catch up to us. If Rye’s lying, and they’re trying to flush us out, it’s because they don’t know where we are. So it’s not like they’re lying in wait or anything.”

Kim and Tora looked at each other and Zen grunted from where he stood, both hands leaning against the far wall, his back to her.

London continued. “But if he’s right and he’s telling the truth, and I believe he is, then this is our only chance. It’s a risk we need to take.”

“She has a point,” Tora said and London breathed a sigh of relief.

“We can’t stay here forever,” Kim added. “Maybe it is time to move on. But we need to go totally off grid, no more camps. No more Outroaders.”

Zen spun around and looked at them like they’d lost their minds. “I can’t believe you’re buying this crap.”

Kim shrugged. “We were going to leave anyway. Maybe as soon as tomorrow. What’s a day early?”

“Everything, if there’s a trap waiting out there for us!” Zen shoved his hands in his pockets. “This is insane.”

“But you’re coming?” London asked, desperate to keep him with her, wanting him to be safe, too.

Zen glared at her. “What choice do I have?”