Bo nodded, frowning. “Could also be that if he does have a buyer for what he’s stolen, he doesn’t quite trust that buyer.”

“Yeah, cats would step in to help him if he asked for it, or if he appeared in distress.” Armand folded his arms. “I know you want to bring him in but we can ask the cats to do it.”

Bo went to agree; none of this was about ego. “I’ll take whatever help I—”

“No.” Kaia stepped forward. “George gets frightened easily and he’s already emotionally unstable. He could destroy everything if he’s scared or startled.” Kaia had scared him once, quite by accident, and the resulting carnage had taken the two of them an intense hour to clean up.

Kaia had never said a word about his lack of control, getting rid of the evidence by throwing it in the kitchen recyclers, and she thought maybe that was why he’d become a touch more comfortable with her—enough to ask for a burger every so often. “All he’d have to do was shift form,” she explained to Bowen and Armand. “His tentacles are capable of massive amounts of crush pressure.” He’d almost wiped her out with one when he shifted so suddenly that time.

“The DarkRiver leopards are deadly, Kaia.” Bowen put his hands on his hips, his eyes wholly focused on her in that way he had of doing. “They can take him.”

“But will they try to take him alive if he’s hurting their people?” Kaia knew the answer and so did Bowen and Armand. “He’s one of ours. We have to give him a chance.” George was wounded in some terrible way and Kaia understood wounds, understood that the deepest ones never stopped hurting.

The ruthless and bloodthirsty leader of the Human Alliance gave her a lopsided smile. “I bet you’re going to rescue stray cats and dogs and ferrets and fill our house with them.”

“Don’t forget the mice,” she said, playing the game, imagining the impossible dream.

He tugged lightly on her hair in punishment before turning to Armand—who wasn’t doing a very good job of hiding a smirk. “How about asking DarkRiver to keep an eye on George as he moves through their territory? No approach, nothing to tip him off.” The leopards were stealthy hunters while George was a scientist out of his depth.

“The commander will have to make the contact—strict protocols.” Armand stepped out to find their aunt, who happened to be Lantia’s commander even when Malachai and Miane were in residence. Each member of the clan had different duties, different responsibilities.

“Are all your male cousins in BlackSea’s security forces?”

Kaia shook her head. “Eddie is an explorer. His job is to update our maps of the ocean floor, find interesting new things for our scientists to study, mark any spots that might provide valuable salvage.” She smiled. “He found a centuries-old sunken ship full of gold bullion once. Miane’s always said he can take a percentage of what he finds because of how risky his job can be, but he usually never does—that time, though, he brought each one of us a coin.”

Bowen’s eyes gleamed as men’s always did when they found out what Edison did for a living. “He ever find any other treasure?”

“New deep-sea life forms, including a bioluminescent shrimp.” Laughing at his face, both parts of her happy to simply be in his presence, she said, “Two of the triplets are in security with Armand, but Taji’s an architect.”

“He moves like he has training in how to fight.”

“He started off in the same job as Teizo and Tevesi—I think it’s the first time the triplets have diverged on something that really matters.”

Bowen’s eyes held hers, a sudden intensity in them. “You want children, Siren?”

Stomach clenching, Kaia dared admit one truth. “Yes. Lots of them.”

“Cats are on it.” Armand walked back into the room on those words, froze. “New rule. No meaningful looks across the room while I’m in the vicinity. Have some respect for those of us who are hopelessly single.”

Grinning at his aggrieved tone, Kaia went over to press a kiss to his modelesque jaw. “Single, yes. Hopelessly? I don’t think so.” Armand’s face would fit perfectly under the dictionary definition of “player.” Kaia might’ve worried about Tansy’s heart if her friend hadn’t already been well aware of Armand’s love-’em-and-leave-’em ways.

Regardless, Kaia had still raised the subject with her friend. She adored both Armand and Tansy too much to see either hurt.

Tansy’s answer had been simple. “Sometimes, a woman has to walk on the wild side.”

Bowen stirred, his lips curved, as Armand pretended to strangle her with one arm around her neck. “Cats agree to the commander’s request?”

Armand gave a short nod. “They’d already spotted him by the time we called and were planning to ask him what the hell he was doing in their territory without notice, but the sentinel the commander spoke to has given the order for their people to fall back.”

Running his fingers through the relentlessly straight strands of his hair after releasing Kaia, Armand carried on. “I didn’t have Bo’s contact details, so the commander gave them yours,” he said to Kaia. “DarkRiver will keep an eye on George and send updates directly to your phone.” Nothing but grimness on his face as he added, “But if George threatens to hurt anyone, all bets are off. Sentinel was very clear about that.”

Bo had expected nothing less. The cats hadn’t held their territory against all comers—including the lethal SnowDancer wolves—because they were in any way weak. Bo had made one of the worst mistakes of his life in their territory and he was still fixing the damage from that mess, but he had nothing but respect for both the cats and the wolves.

“According to the cats,” Armand added, “George is fully dressed and carrying a large pack.”

“He only left the station with a small pressure-proof case.” Bo had spoken to Oleanna while waiting for the submersible, gotten the dimensions of the case George had been carrying. “Means he must’ve cached the other gear elsewhere.”

“He’s been planning this for a long time.” Kaia hugged her arms around herself. “I feel like I never knew him at all, that none of us did.”

Closing his hand over her nape, Bo ran his thumb in a gentle, soothing motion across her skin. “We’ll find the truth soon enough.”

Her pulse jumped erratically under his touch.

“Jetboat’s ready,” Armand said before Bo could ask Kaia if she was still worrying about Dr. Kahananui. “I sent someone to retrieve your gear.” His eyes flicked to Kaia. “You ready, Cookie?”

The question seemed natural enough, but the tone . . . Bo watched Kaia’s face as she answered, saw the sudden lack of color in it even as she nodded firmly. The tension beneath the surface, he realized, had nothing to do with Dr. Kahananui. This was Kaia’s secret, the shape of which his brain had just barely begun to glimpse.

* * *

• • •

THE sleek silver boat cut through the water like a knife. There was just enough light in the very early morning sky that Bowen clearly saw an orca rise up in the distance. It dived back in in a smash of droplets.

His heart thudded. “Was that one of you?”

Kaia, her eyes focused resolutely forward and her hands fisted to bone whiteness, nodded.

Closing his arms around her from behind, Bo didn’t ask probing questions, didn’t demand as was his nature. Kaia had told him she wasn’t ready to share her secret and he’d honor that wish, but that didn’t mean he had to stop looking after her.

Her spine stayed stiff, but she lifted a hand to wrap it over his wrist, and they sliced through the water together, bodies braced against the rolling waves. Armand was piloting the boat while Teizo and Tevesi had jumped in for the ride. All three kept shooting Kaia careful looks that she studiously ignored.

Land appeared on the horizon.

Chapter 54

What I wish for you, my curious little monkey, is adventure, freedom, love. All these things and more. I want the stars for you.

—Elenise Luna to her daughter, Kaia (3)

NAUSEA THREATENED TO steal Kaia’s faltering courage as she stepped out of the boat Armand had coasted all the way to shore. Her boots sank into the sand, the water close enough that she could cling to the illusion that she wasn’t leaving the blue.

“You have everything?” her cousin asked, but what he was actually asking was: You really want to do this, Cookie?

She nodded and tightened the straps of the little pack that held two changes of clothing, a few toiletries, and a first-aid kit packed with the anti-anxiety medication Ryūjin’s healer had prescribed her. “Yes,” she said simply, because if she turned back now, she’d never again be able to look at herself in the mirror. “Go.”

Bowen took her hand into the rough warmth of his. “I’ll take care of her,” he said. “I’ll bring her home.”

Kaia could’ve told all four males she was quite capable of getting home—that wasn’t the problem—but Bowen’s words made her cousins’ shoulders ease, the strain disappear from their faces, so she left it.

“Good luck,” Armand said before the three of them pushed out the lightweight craft, then jumped in and started up the engine.

They headed off into an ocean still shrouded in the dark gray of early morning.

While she stood on land.

Far from the safe cocoon of Ryūjin.

Swallowing hard, Kaia looked at Bowen. “Our ride will be waiting.”

He nodded but took a moment to touch his fingers to her jaw. “Just hold on to me. Whatever it is that’s put that look in your eyes, I’ll fight it beside you every step of the way.”

Kaia squeezed his hand tight.

He never let go of her as she took another step onto land, then another, and another. The thread that tied her to the ocean stretched tauter and tauter and tauter. Her stomach, it threatened to lurch. And her mind, it wanted to drown her in the horror of the last time she’d set foot on land.