Chapter 55

She won’t talk to me, just shuts down no matter how I approach the topic. We should consider alternative methods of reaching her.

—Note from Counselor Mei Shi to Natia and Eijirō Kahananui regarding Kaia Luna (9)

SHIVERS RIPPLED INSIDE Kaia’s skin as the jet came in to land a long eight hours from takeoff, the response driven by her visceral and irrational fear that this landscape was inimical to her survival.

The second dose of the medication was wearing off.

She glanced at her watch. Another hour until she could safely take the next dose.

Her heart skipped a beat, two. Her skin flushed.

Falling back on the breathing exercise her counselor had taught her as a child, she somehow managed to hold herself together as they left the jet. Bo had taken her hand inside the plane and she clung to his warmth, his strength.

“You should’ve told me you were afraid of flying.” It was a scowling statement.

“I’m not.” An honest answer that only made his scowl deepen.

But they had no more time for private conversation; waiting at the bottom of the disembarkation steps was a red-haired woman with brown eyes and creamy skin kissed with sun-gold. Her hair scraped back in a high ponytail and her body clad in blue jeans, work boots, and a zipped-up black leather jacket, she fairly pulsed with dominance.

Kaia didn’t have to be told she was facing one of the DarkRiver sentinels.

Shooting Bowen a deadly glance, the redhead said, “Fair warning—I’m fighting the urge to shoot you.”

Kaia bristled. “That’s rude in any language and for any clan, I don’t care how dominant you are.”

The redhead narrowed her eyes at Kaia . . . before groaning and throwing up her hands. “Sweet insanity, you brought a maternal with you?” The words were directed at Bowen. “I just got away from a whole cabal of them.”

Maternal.

What an odd thing to hear herself described as; BlackSea had no such position in the hierarchy—and Kaia didn’t have children.

Bowen blew out a breath, his expression drawn. “Mercy has reason to want to shoot me.” Open regret in his tone. “I did something unforgivable the first time I entered this territory.” He shifted his attention back to the sentinel. “How are they?”

“Fine. Now.” Calm words but her eyes had gone the dangerous gold of a large hunting cat. “The family and the pack appreciated your personal apology—but the rest will take time.” Turning her attention back to Kaia, the sentinel held out her hand. “Mercy, and I’m scared of maternals.”

Kaia’s lips twitched; the other woman might be holding a serious grudge against Bowen, but she had a lethal charm it was difficult to ignore. “Kaia, and I’m protective when it comes to my people.”

“What did I say? Maternal.” Her handshake was firm without being a display in aggression. “We have your man in our sights.”

Kaia’s heart twisted at the thought of George alone and emotionally lost in unfamiliar territory. “How is he?”

“Appears stable enough, though obviously you’d be a better judge of that.” Shifting on her heel, Mercy began to lead them to a heavy-duty all-terrain vehicle. “He’s working his way toward SnowDancer territory—way inland for a sea creature. Hitchhiking.”

“No plan, movements that can’t be predicted.” Bowen nodded slowly. “Smart if he doesn’t want to make it easy for anyone to find him.”

“Except that he’s in DarkRiver territory and sticks out like a fish out of water—pun intended.” Mercy got into the driver’s seat, with Bowen jumping in the back and nodding at Kaia to take the passenger seat.

Though her stomach wasn’t exactly settled, Kaia took a deep breath and accepted the offer.

“This have anything to do with the Consortium?” Mercy asked once they were away. “Or is it just a clanmate gone AWOL?”

“We’re not sure yet,” Bowen said. “I heard you had triplets. Congratulations.”

Kaia momentarily forgot her nausea. She couldn’t imagine this sleek and deadly woman having given birth—it was like trying to imagine Miane doing the same. “Do you have photos?” she asked, and when Mercy shot her a cat-curious look, felt compelled to explain. “I have triplet cousins. They once booby-trapped my room with extremely realistic rubber spiders.”

Laughing with a deep warmth that made Kaia certain she could come to like this lethal woman very much, Mercy slid out her phone and passed it over. On the home screen was a shot of three naked babies against the wide chest of a heavily muscled brown-eyed man. His smile made it obvious he was hopelessly besotted with both the photographer and their babies.

Kaia sighed, her anxiety not proof against such gorgeous sweetness. “Your mate is wonderful.”

“No argument.” Tapping her finger on the steering wheel after putting away her phone, Mercy began to go through George’s movements to date. “He’s not very good at being stealthy, but he mostly seems to be trying to avoid DarkRiver. One of our people got close enough to sniff out his pack and caught chemical scents she couldn’t identify, but she was able to confirm no trace of explosives.”

Though the DarkRiver sentinel kept her eyes on the road, her attention was a scythe against Kaia’s senses. “You two know anything about those scents? Your commander assured us this guy isn’t carrying a deadly pathogen or disease.”

“He isn’t,” Bowen confirmed before pausing. “Kaia?”

Realizing what he needed to know, she said, “Atalina’s been in touch with Ashaya Aleine. DarkRiver knows about the project.”

Mercy’s gaze connected with hers for a heartbeat, a powerful understanding in them. “Brain chip?”

And at that second, Kaia realized Mercy wasn’t as hardhearted toward Bowen as she appeared. “Yes.” That was all she could say before her throat dried up, the fear this time having nothing to do with being on land and everything to do with the clock that continued to count down in her head.

Nineteen hours.

“How long to get to George after you leave us?” Bowen asked from the back, his tone as pragmatic as always.

Bowen Adrian Knight would never surrender, Kaia thought. He’d never slide silently into the forever black. He’d fight to the end. And yet, in an effort to save those he loved, he’d agreed to be part of an experiment that wrenched control from him.

Clenching her hand against the side of her thigh, Kaia spoke to the gods she’d broken with the same day her parents’ bodies were consigned to the ocean that had been their home through all cycles of life: You do not take his life. You do not punish his courage and honor by consigning him to an existence where he’s a mindless ghost of himself. You don’t do that!

“I’ll get an update as we go”—Mercy’s voice, breaking into her furious thoughts—“but currently, he’s three hours from our present location.”

That wasn’t so bad. Until you factored in that Atalina was in the deep, far, far from here and she was the only one Kaia would trust to inject the compound into Bowen’s brain. Others might attempt to follow her notes, but only Attie knew exactly where to inject and how to do it. And no one would want Atalina putting her body through the strain of surfacing to Lantia, not with her due date so close.

Don’t panic, another part of her brain said, reminding her that Mal could pull down the submersible, increasing its speed to the level of madness. That was true, but they had no margin for error. A single lost hour could end Bowen’s life.

Kaia’s heart thumped double time. Her skin flushed. And her hands began to tremble, her anxiety about being on land colliding with her anxiety about Bowen to create a toxic stew that threatened to overwhelm her.

She’d slipped a preloaded injector into her pocket, knew she had to use it before she curled up and began to whimper like a trapped animal. Clearing her throat, she said, “Could we stop for a quick bathroom break?”

“Oh yeah, sure. I should have asked earlier.” Nothing in Mercy’s tone betrayed whether she’d picked up the scent of Kaia’s fear.

She must have, was simply being polite in the changeling way in not drawing attention to it.

Not long afterward, the sentinel pulled to a stop in front of a small café on the road out of the city. Backed up against tall green firs and painted pink and white, then decorated with strings of tiny white lights that glinted against the fading light, it looked like a fairy-tale cottage.

“Belongs to a packmate.” Mercy opened her door to the icily crisp air. “Restroom’s through the back.”

Avoiding Bowen’s incisive gaze, Kaia slipped inside the café. She knew she had to tell him, but every time she thought about it, she couldn’t make her mouth work; all she could think was that she should’ve gotten over this fear long ago. It was childish and stupid and oh God, it hurt.

A sob caught in her throat.

Her hands began to tremble.

She barely made it inside a private stall before shudders racked her body so hard that her bones rattled.