“What the hell?” Katsu hisses.
Sebastian’s smug smile drops and turns to one of horror. “Oh, a miscalculation. Big miscalculation.”
He steps behind Katsu and cringes.
“Cordie’s going to kill me.”
I track the sudden pouring of people from the Sol and Lake house and step back. “What did you do?”
“Hunt them down! Bring them back. No stone unturned. Pull out all the blackmail on Devon, Mack, and Elijah. Grandma, I need you to go cause a massive drama at the gallery. And let everyone know that Asher’s dolphin is here.”
“Oh. My. God. We’re dead. Cordelia is going to kill us,” Sebastian whispers in horror.
“Why? What’s going on?” I ask, puzzled.
“The whole of Sunshine Cove is going to know we’re bonding today within the next thirty minutes. The whole district in an hour.”
I nod my head, suddenly feeling sick.Yep, this is bad.
Sure enough, within thirty minutes, Cordelia is shoved out of a car. Her wrists are tied in front of her with a blue scarf.
“Get in that house and do some biting!” Sofia shouts out the window as the car squeals up the road.
My face flames. Her face flames. I think the collective humiliation level could keep the town in heating for a year.
Cordelia stands in the street, staring after the car, before slowly turning to face us. Her expression says it all.
We’re in so much trouble.
I dart forward and undo the bindings holding her captive.
“Whose bright idea was that?”
Sebastian clears his throat, and then again. “I didn’t think it through.”
“They will be timing us and wanting to see the bites. Everyone will be talking about this from now until eternity,” she says with absolutely no inflection in her voice.
“I’m sorry,” he whimpers.
I open my mouth, but she cuts a glare at me. “Why didn’t you stop him?”
“Well,” Katsu says, “I was wondering why you didn’t tell them no.”
Cordelia’s mouth opens and closes. “I actually did. I was on the way home.”
“Oh.”
Well, now I feel a hundred times worse.
The two of them stare at each other for a long minute.
“My family is important to me, but you are family now, too. As soon as I realised it wasn’t life and death, I came back because this moment, this thing we’re about to share. It’s everything.”
Katsu opens his arms, and she steps into them.
“And now everything is back on track,” I say hopefully.
“Don’t jinx us!” Sebastian growls.
