It had been beside her parents’ dying bodies, Kaia running to the jet-chopper as BlackSea paramedics carried her mother and father to the same gleaming machine while a healer worked frantically on them. Dust had swirled in the air, her hand locked safely in Aunt Geraldine’s and her dirty summer dress twisting around her knees.

The medication stopped the nausea from becoming sickening reality, but the healer had been very strict in saying she could only take that medication for just over twenty-four hours before her system would begin to violently reject it. “It’s powerful stuff, Kaia.” Concern in the soft blue of eyes that had known her since she was an infant. “You shouldn’t be using it to suppress your emotional hurt. You have a phobia and you need to work through it with counseling and—”

“I don’t have the time.” Kaia accepted the truth of the healer’s words; she also knew that once Bowen left her, she’d have no more reason to ever again step on land or venture beyond the safe seas around Ryūjin and Lantia. “I just need to be able to function until we find George.”

Adding to the strain on her already stretched psyche was the countdown that continued to tick in the back of her mind.

Twenty-eight hours.

But though it was his life on the line, Bowen kept on going, his concentration a laser.

So would she, Kaia vowed. Never would she give up. Never would she surrender. And never ever would she permit fear to steal her time with Bowen.

* * *

• • •

THE BlackSea changeling who waited for them beside a beat-up truck had skin the color of strong black coffee and nearly as many wrinkles as Bebe. He also drove like a bat out of hell, rocketing them down the potholed road that looked as if it had come straight out of the nineteenth century.

A surprisingly gleeful Kaia held on to the side of the open-topped vehicle, while Bowen fought his instinct to reach over and grab the steering wheel. The cool air whipped across his face, the weather here not exactly tropical despite the palm trees zipping past the truck.

He was almost startled to discover they were still alive when they skidded into the parking lot of an airport so tiny, it didn’t even have an air traffic control tower. From what he could see, all it had was a tin-roofed shed that functioned as the administration building, snug up against a large hangar.

Bo was certain the place had far more tech than was visible to the naked eye. Teizo had let it drop that this was Lantia’s preferred airfield. “Too much wear and tear on the city with the heat from the jets,” the younger male had said. “Lantia’s strip can accommodate all aircraft, but mostly everyone uses the island.”

“Safe journey,” the driver said after Bo jumped out.

“I think I’ve survived the most dangerous part already,” Bo pointed out as he swung Kaia down to solid ground.

The driver was still cackling at Bo’s response when he drove off in a whirl of dust.

Glancing at Kaia, Bowen raised an eyebrow. “He’s Bebe’s boyfriend, isn’t he?”

Her eyes sparkled as she looked around, her face full of color once more and the stiffness gone from her spine. “It’s been a long time since I was on this island. I’d forgotten how beautiful it is.”

“Oh?” From what Armand had said at the start of the journey, BlackSea visitors and residents powered the island’s entire economy. The only reason the roads were potholed was that repairs hadn’t yet been completed after a storm a week earlier.

Lifting her face to the sky just kissed by the edge of dawn, Kaia said, “I tend to stay in the black.” She took a long breath of the island air. “But I think I’ll come up more often now. Sit at the bar my cousins talk about, have a cocktail or five.” A kind of taut desperation in her.

And Bo wondered if she was thinking about the hours racing past.

“I’ll buy you those cocktails.” He kept his tone deliberately light. “And when you’re drunk, I’ll carry you home and tuck you in.”

“Deal,” she said huskily, her eyes no longer human brown but an inky black.

“I see you,” he murmured.

Convulsively squeezing the hand she once more held, she nodded to the runway. “Is that our ride?”

Bowen crushed his own desperation under the weight of grim determination and took in the sleek black jet that looked as out of place on the two-lane runway as a tuxedo would in a village where everyone else dressed in shorts and Hawaiian shirts. “Fits Armand’s description,” he said as they entered the administration building.

A man and a woman Bo immediately tagged as pilots were hanging out inside, shooting the breeze. Another woman, this one round-faced and matronly, stood behind the counter. “Kaia!” Her hands flew to her mouth. “Girl, you could’ve warned me!”

Grinning in delight, Kaia dropped his hand to run over and hug the other woman.

A scruffy-jawed male leaning up against the counter a few feet from the pilots grinned along with the two of them. Dressed in grease-stained blue coveralls, he might as well have had “mechanic” painted on his forehead.

The final occupant was a good-looking young male who stood in a large doorway that had to lead to the hangar. For some reason, he made the back of Bo’s neck prickle, agitated his instincts.

Dressed in blue coveralls identical to the mechanic’s, he was currently frowning at a piece of metal in his hand. “Hey, Rick,” he called out, his rich auburn hair streaked with grease. “I can see a crack in this. On the underside, hidden by the charring.”

“Well, thank bloody Poseidon I finally have a competent apprentice. You’re the first one who’s passed the bloomin’ test!”

Smile sharp and brilliant, the young man turned to walk back into the hangar. There was something about the way he moved that told Bo he was a changeling—but not BlackSea. No one in BlackSea moved with such distinctly feline grace.

His eyes narrowed. But the unknown male wasn’t his concern right now. “We ready to go?” he asked the pilots.

“Just waiting for an update on the winds,” the older of the two replied. “They can be a touch unpredictable here.”

Kaia’s friend handed over a thin organizer a bare two seconds later. “You’re good to go. Clear skies.”

Twenty-seven hours and twenty-eight minutes until it was too late.

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.