Chapter 50

“I like your island, Bebe.”

“That’s because it’s safe and warm. But it’s not home for you, child. You’re meant to fly free, a wild and laughing creature.”

—Bebe to Kaia (10)

FOCUSING ON THE here and now to deal with her visceral rejection of losing Bowen to the land that was his natural ecosystem, Kaia said, “Something is very wrong with George,” after Sera left the room.

Bowen continued to pet her back in slow, warm strokes that made her want to cry. “That letter definitely wasn’t from a cold-blooded saboteur. This sounds personal.”

“I only know bits and pieces about him.” Kaia had tried with George, learning the foods he liked and providing those for him as she did with all her clanmates, but he’d always maintained a wall of remoteness she couldn’t cross. “The most personal thing he ever told me was that he was an orphan, too—he grew up with his mother’s family as I did with mine.”

Bo frowned. “Your father’s family?”

“Oh, my paternal grandparents are wonderful.” Kaia loved them to pieces and it had nothing to do with the fact that they’d paid for her training as a chef—no, it was because they deeply understood the artistic heart of her, the same heart as had lived in their son. “But they’re older, and my father was their only child. The entire extended family decided I’d be better off growing up in an active young family.”

Bo nodded. “George said nothing else?”

“I have a feeling I’m forgetting something,” Kaia murmured, “but I can’t put my finger on it.” A frustrating will-o’-the-wisp just out of reach. “Malachai might know more. He would’ve run a security check before George came to work on Ryūjin.”

But her cousin scowled when she told him what George had done, then read out his note to Sera. “There’s nothing in George’s records to hint that he might have an issue with the clan,” he said, his eyes the clear sunlight of his other self and his body swaying.

Kaia didn’t have to ask to know he was on a ship caught in a heavy swell.

“There’s been another vanishing,” Bowen said without warning.

Malachai’s mouth tightened before he gave a curt nod.

Fingers trembling, Kaia lifted her hand to her mouth. She never forgot Hugo and the others, not even when she smiled, but she’d hoped they’d lose no more people to this evil. “Who?” she whispered.

“Not a clanmate you know,” Mal said gently, but his next words were far harder. “They made a mistake this time around and left a witness. We have a scent.”

“I don’t think that’s a coincidence.” Bowen folded his arms, his feet set apart and his voice holding the same hard edge. “And I don’t think they made a mistake.”

Malachai braced himself against a swell as his eyes became even less human, his pupils nearly as light as his irises. “The ones behind this wanted me out of the way so I couldn’t go after George.” His shoulder muscles bunched. “Their fucking timing was perfect. I’m fast but even if I was willing to abandon our taken clanmate”—an act of which Kaia knew Malachai was incapable—“I’m not fast enough to get back to Ryūjin in time to follow George.”

“Do you have anyone else who can track him through water?” Bowen asked Mal, and in that moment, they were two sides of the same coin. One human. One changeling. Both with minds that could think with cold clarity even when in the grip of furious anger.

“Tracking through water is difficult at the best of times. It’ll be impossible if George is determined not to be found. The ocean is in constant flux and water holds no footprints, keeps no traces.”

“Then this is mine, Mal.” Bowen held Kaia’s cousin’s eyes, the space between them humming with a dark masculine power. “I won’t touch George if I find him, but he’s holding my life and the lives of my people hostage. Even if I have to steal a fucking submersible, I won’t be sitting on my hands.”

Forty-three and a half hours.

Kaia’s brain kept counting down, relentless and unwavering. “I’m going with Bo,” she said before she could surrender to the fear that lurked always at the back of her mind.

“Kaia.” Malachai shook his head. “You—”

“I’m going.” With her tone, she told him not to say another word, not to betray the secret she couldn’t bring herself to tell Bowen. “And Bo is right—this is his life. If you use BlackSea’s power to keep him trapped on Ryūjin, you’re no better than those who are stealing our people.”

Malachai flinched. “We have no confirmation he wasn’t involved with the movements of the Alliance Fleet.”

“You have my word.” She knew the truth deep inside in a way that was painful to look at, the promise there one that would never be fulfilled. But she could use that knowledge to make sure Bowen got out of Ryūjin.

Unlike most members of BlackSea, Kaia had an advantage with Malachai—she could stand up to his dominance because he let her. Older than her by three years, he was used to treating her as a younger sibling . . . and he’d been there when she’d come in, broken and lost.

He’d never hurt her.

“Kaia.” It came out a growl from two male throats.

Turning, she glared at Bowen. “Stop it.”

“This is my fight.” His eyes flashed fire at her.

Narrowing her own, Kaia poked him in the chest. “No. It’s ours.”

“Shit.” Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, he hauled her close. “Ours then, Siren.” His next words were to Malachai. “We’re going to do this with or without your authorization.” Not a challenge, simple fact.

But Mal wasn’t a man to back down easily. “I can get together a team that knows how to move in the water.”

“Will they fight as hard to retrieve what George has taken?” Bowen demanded. “Will it mean as much to them?” Each word was a gauntlet thrown down between them.

Malachai’s body jerked violently again.

“Why are you on a ship?” Kaia asked. “You’re so fast in the water.” Nothing got in Mal’s way when he swam, which made him the perfect playmate for a little girl who wanted to swim to Bebe’s island but was afraid to go out alone.

“Ship’s a quick one and the witness is wounded and on a damaged vessel.” His eyes took in the way Kaia had her hand over Bowen’s heart, returned to her face.

And she saw him realize the truth, realize how she knew Bowen was no liar beyond any shadow of a doubt.

Those sunlight eyes darkened. “Lunatic,” he murmured.

“It’s in the genes.”

Switching his attention to Bowen, Mal said, “Are you healthy enough to undertake the chase? George might look like a stick but he’s very strong.”

“I’m up to ninety percent of normal,” Bowen answered with security chief practicality. “It’ll be enough—George might be strong, but he’s still a scientist.”

“Do it.” Mal’s form swayed with increasing intensity. “I’ll alert my people in Lantia that you have my authorization. Use what resources you need—and bring George back alive,” he said, and it was an uncompromising demand. “He’s Miane’s, not yours.”

“Understood.”

Mal’s strange, beautiful, golden eyes landed on Kaia once again. “You sure, Cookie?” An unspoken question, a hidden worry.

Though her gut churned, Kaia nodded. “Bo will need someone with him who understands how to handle the compound once we retrieve it from George.”

“Will it survive outside the fridge?”

“Long enough.” Because if it took them longer than just over forty-three hours to find George, the experiment was over, Bowen’s life forfeit.