Setting aside that deeply problematic truth for this moment when he was getting to know more of Kaia’s family, he said, “Suzuki a family name?” He was curious of everything about his siren.

“Dad’s surname,” Armand shared. “He took Mom’s surname since one of her sisters decided to be a Lunatic and the other a Rhys.”

“Kahananui is way more awesome,” Tevesi said. “Suzuki Kahananui is even better—both names go all the way back to the founding of BlackSea. Girls are always like, wow, that’s such a cool name, tell me more. And boom, I’m in.”

All five brothers grinned in agreement.

“We have Suzuki cousins, too,” Armand added. “All much older than us, since Dad’s the baby of his family. Seven brothers and sisters.”

“Is he the one who brought in the fertile gene?” Bowen joked.

“He takes total credit,” Teizo confirmed with a grin. “Mom keeps pointing out he couldn’t exactly reproduce by himself, but Dad’s all ‘La-la-la, I can’t hear you, I’m the maaaaan.’”

The five cracked up in a booming bass of laughter.

By now, Bo had them all separated in his head.

Edison had the scar on his jaw and a presence that shouted his big- brother status.

Armand was the one who’d found a comb and the time to fold up the short sleeves of his black T-shirt to better show off his biceps and the intricate tribal tattoo that circled his upper left arm. He was also the one with razor-blade cheekbones fit for a catwalk model.

Teizo, Taji, and Tevesi were each unique in personality, but had faces and bodies so similar that . . . “Triplets?”

“Identical.” Tevesi bumped fists with the other two.

Bo looked from one to the other. “You have a freckle on your left cheekbone below your eye.” He switched his attention to Teizo. “You have a tooth that’s just slightly out of alignment.” Last was Taji. “And you have a small mark on the side of your neck that’s probably a childhood scar.”

“Fuck it,” Taji muttered. “You’re just like Mal.” A glare.

Armand shrugged. “He’s always been Kaia’s favorite.”

“Speak for yourself, asshole,” one of the triplets muttered. “I’m her favorite.”

The entire atrium went dead silent when Bo walked in with the five brothers. Clearly, they’d all expected him to end up at least a little bloody. He was happy to see that, Alden aside, the others looked relieved—Oleanna and KJ even sent him discreet thumbs-ups.

An odd twisting in his chest.

It was good to know Ryūjin’s residents liked him enough to worry about him—and respected him enough to leave him to deal with the Kahananui brothers on his own.

“Sera, my darling, my delicious cupcake, where are Attie and Kaia?” Armand lifted Seraphina off her feet to her shriek of outrage.

One of her emerald green heels fell to the floor.

Slapping him on the chest, her nails polished a matching green, the assistant station commander said, “Attie’s in her lab and Kaia’s making a very sensitive soufflé, you pest. Wait thirty minutes before bothering her or she’ll serve you deflated soufflé as punishment.” But Seraphina couldn’t keep up the stern tone when brother after brother picked her up for a cuddle and a kiss on the cheek.

It was as obvious as the nose on his face that the six had a relationship that permitted such familiarity. Changelings, he’d come to see, were more careful about skin privileges than the outside world realized—they never took physical contact for granted or treated it as anything but a cherished gift.

Seraphina’s laughter was husky and as open as her affection for the Kahananui brothers. “Menaces, all five of you,” she said. Then she grabbed Edison’s face and planted a kiss on his lips that had steam coming out of the man’s ears.

Other clanmates hooted and hollered, while his brothers stamped their feet and let out a set of piercing whistles that sounded strangely familiar to Bowen’s ears.

Sliding her foot back into her lost high heel afterward, while quiet, intense Edison stared at her like he’d never before seen her, Seraphina turned her formidable attention on Bowen. “Since you survived them, I’m beginning to believe that you, too, are a menace.”

Bo smiled slowly. “Mahalo.”

Scowling when Edison rumbled a question at her, Seraphina turned to respond. But Bo didn’t hear either question or answer: his head throbbed.

Once.

Twice.

Sharp spears of electric sensation down his arms.

Sudden numbness in his fingertips.

Chapter 46

I can’t see any damage, but there are indications that the compound is beginning to crystallize around the implanted chip. If the process continues as modeled, the final injection should complete the crystallization and freeze the chip in place—and in its current state.

The symptoms you’ve described are most probably a side effect of the crystallization process. The models do show an eighteen percent chance of some discomfort during this phase of the project. Alert me at once if the symptoms return. Now, let’s get back before my brothers come searching.

—Dr. Atalina Suzuki Kahananui to Bowen Knight

KAIA REMOVED HER noise-canceling earplugs; everyone in the clan loved these soufflés and she enjoyed the challenge of making them, but concentration was a must. A single mistake and she’d end up with sad-looking sunken abominations. But the hard work was now done; all she had to do was take them out of the oven in exactly twenty-one minutes.

Hearing a commotion out in the atrium, she wondered if Junji had started up a dance-off. A fan of late twentieth-century breakdancing, the air-systems engineer had delusions of his own skill, but he was fun to watch. A few more months’ practice and he might actually become as good as he thought he already was.

Then laughter erupted, big and bold and brash.

Kaia’s heart bloomed. She knew the tones of that laughter, as she knew the sound of the deep male voice that answered whatever had been said.

Temper licked at her a second later, but it did nothing to lessen her searing joy. She did miss the idiots.

Walking out of the kitchen after pulling off her apron, she came face-to-face with a scene she’d never expected: all six of her Kahananui cousins, Attie included, at a table with Bowen, eating and drinking, and not killing him.

Dex leaned on his forearms on the back of Attie’s chair, listening to something habitually-grumpy-but-always-ready-to-hug Taji was saying.

Inside her, her other self dived and splashed.

So many of her pod here!

It was Bo who spotted her first, though he wasn’t facing her way. Looking back, he began to rise. But Kaia was already closing the distance to the group, came to a halt beside his chair with her hands on her hips. “What,” she said to her smirking male cousins, “are you five doing down here?”

Armand, to the left of her, snaked out an arm and tumbled her into his lap. “Hello, Cookie. We just missed you.”

“Do you think I was born yesterday?” She poked a finger into his left pectoral muscle. “This is ridiculous. The five of you have jobs.”

“We took a day off,” Teizo said from the other side of the table before shoving his mouth full of scrambled eggs and toast that a beaming Oleanna had just carried over from the kitchen.

When Tevesi and Taji complained, she winked. “Down, boys. I have enough tentacles for all of you.”

Leaving the triplets to fend for themselves against Oleanna’s attentions, Kaia pulled Armand’s perfectly combed hair. “You do realize Bowen can break your heads with his little pinky finger?”

“Hey!” came the cry from several throats.

Rolling her eyes at the insult in their tones while Atalina laughed, she finally managed to get off Armand’s lap. “How long are you idiots down here?”

“Only a couple of hours,” Taji said around a mouthful of food another clanmate had delivered. Oleanna, meanwhile, was whispering in Tevesi’s ear.

Bowen’s hand curled around hers. A slight tug. A request. She went into his lap, frowned at the lines flaring out from his eyes, but she knew him well enough not to ask what was wrong in public. “So,” she said to her cousins, “what’s happening up above?”

Their stories were as wickedly amusing as always and she was sorry to disappear even for a minute when it was time to take the soufflés from the oven, but Bowen came along to help her, which gave her time to brush her fingers over his cheekbone and say, “You’re in pain?”

“No, but I was,” he said after checking to ensure they were alone. “Dr. Kahananui says the models predicted the likelihood of pain during this stage of the process.” He put a tray of the miniature soufflés where she indicated. “It means we’re on track.”

Gut twisting, Kaia put down her own tray. “You’re sure?”

He pulled another tray out of the oven. “I’d never lie to you, Siren.” Leaning in, he kissed her. “It hurt like a bitch, but it’s gone. As if my brain misfired for a second, like it didn’t know quite how to direct the signals, then figured it out.”

Tugging off her oven mitts, Kaia walked into his arms after he’d put down the final tray. She held him fiercely tight, holding off the future. She wanted to live a little longer in this impossible, extraordinary dream. Nuzzling the side of his face against her temple, he said, “Seraphina kissed Edison and I’m pretty sure he’s still on fire.”

Her lower lip trembled at how he was attempting to distract her, and inside her, the creature who was her other half slid along her skin. It wanted his touch, wanted him to swim with her in the sea. “You’re making that up,” she said, pulling back to look up into a face that held far too much life to be on the edge of oblivion.

“Cross my heart.” That too-long hair sliding over his forehead, he took a kiss of his own that left her breathless. “Come on, Siren. The men want to spend time with you.”