Free Astral Tide (The Otherborn Series) by Anna Silver

him to move up front. London looked up and saw Kim’s dark eyes watching them in the rearview. She could tell by Zen’s posture that he was straining to listen.
    Tora frowned. “You have to stop evading your destiny. Pretty soon, they’re going to have us backed in a corner, and if someone hasn’t learned how to pull the Astral through to help us in this world, we’re not going to get away.”
    “Why me?” London asked with a sniffle. She rubbed at her nose with a hand. She was suddenly exhausted and Astral work was the last thing she wanted to deal with right now.
    “You know why.” Tora gazed at her intently. “You’re the strongest. Or Si’dah is, anyway.”
    “Avery’s stronger,” London said matter-of-factly. Avery had been able to reveal her Astral form in this world, and to manifest as a Luna Moth guiding them to New Eden. Now, she was using the Astral to track them somehow. She had to be.
    “No, she’s not. The only difference between Avery and you is that she accepted what she was a long time ago. And you’re still fighting it.”
    London let out a sigh. Tora wasn’t going to back down on this. Hantu told her she would need Tora’s help to learn how to draw on the Astral even when she was awake. She thought of the large guns they’d just seen hanging casually from the shoulders of the regiments and shivered. Tora and Hantu were right. It was time for her to stop resisting and start pushing back. Rye had broken her heart, but she wasn’t going to let him or Avery do any more damage.
    London wiped at her face, pushed back the newly relaxed waves of her hair and straightened her shoulders. She took a deep breath and looked into Tora’s green eyes. “Teach me. I’m ready.”
     
    “IT’S NOT WORKING,” London said, lifting one eyelid to glare at Tora.
    The Seer buried her face in her hands. “London, you have got to try to stay with me. Just relax.”
    London shrugged her shoulders a few times and shook her head. She worked her jaw for a moment and laid her hands in her lap, ready to start again. “Okay.”
    “Close your eyes,” Tora commanded. “Both of them.”
    They’d been at this for nearly an hour, as Kim guided the truck stealthily through the most abandoned roads they could find in the Ag District. By now, they all wished they’d circled wide around Ag altogether, but it was too late. Avery was a step ahead of them and the Tycoons had regiments at the ready all over the place. Their best bet for getting out of Ag unharmed was to avoid the cleanly paved roads and wind their way through the gravel paths and dirt lanes that criss-crossed the crop fields. So far, they hadn’t seen anyone, but it was still dark. If they weren’t out of the district come morning, they could run into any number of Ag workers. And there was a good chance they’d run up against a barricade or regiment truck in the road. London needed to get this if she was going to be any help.
    London did as Tora told her. She closed her eyes and began the deep breathing exercises Tora was leading her into.
    “In…one…two…three,” Tora said rhythmically. “Out…one…two…three.”
    London let her eyes soften. She let the beat of her heart slow to match the swell of her lungs with every breath. Just like before. But every time she tried to let her mind go, all she saw was Rye’s face on that screen.
Don’t underestimate her.
    “I can’t,” she whined, opening her eyes.
    Tora threw her hands up. “You’re not trying.”
    “I am!” London fumed. She was so frustrated she could spit. “Every time I close my fucking eyes, I see his face!”
    “Whose face?” Zen asked, turning around.
    “Nothing. No one,” Tora piped up. “London has to concentrate. We’ll talk later.”
    Zen ran a fist through his hair, obviously frustrated, too. London tried not to notice. She needed to put him and Rye out of her mind if she was going to do this.
    “I don’t get this,” London told Tora. “No one is