PROLOGUE

PROLOGUE

Friday, April 1

Mu Mariculture Farm

Offshore from the island of Hawai‘i

Luahine stood

on the polished teak deck of the

Tesoro

, the superyacht owned by her project’s partner, Julian. The sun would set soon, and they needed to get Kaili to her new enclosure. That was their sole mission today—to oversee this vital operation here at Mu, Julian’s mariculture farms offshore of the Big Island.

Mu, named after the legendary lost continent of the Pacific, was a sea of soccer-field-sized, heavy-duty netted enclosures that from a distance looked like a city of circus tents. But what was seen at the surface was just the tip of the iceberg. Below were thousands of hybridized fish with dagger-like teeth, looking like nothing Luahine’s fishermen brothers had ever caught.

Luahine cared little for these mutants’ provenance other than to note that they were

haole

, decidedly not native. And though she loathed invasive species, her priority was to prevent an impending disaster soon to be brought on by the hands of time. The earth’s warming might be slowed, but it was unlikely to be reversed any time soon. She had to do her best to protect her

‘ohana

.

She fiddled with the jasmine lei that Julian had given her earlier, anxious to get started. The day was slipping away quickly, and a storm brewed in the distance. The winds had already picked up around them. Julian’s fedora, which matched his pastel pink linen suit, had just flown away, souring his mood. He reached into his suit pocket, withdrew a tin, and lit up another cigar. She leaned away from the reek of the smoke.

Truthfully, she was beginning to wonder what she’d ever seen in him. If she could go back in time, she’d pick a different partner for this endeavor. But here she was, and to protect her Dragon Clan, she had to make the best of it. She would do everything in her power as a caring

kahuna

of the almost lost spiritual art of

ho‘omanamana

to thwart the disaster that loomed.

Her lengthy spiritual training had been in creating power, specifically in the area of deification of objects, and that’s exactly what she’d done with Kaili, as Julian called the

mo‘o

, but in private Luahine knew this shapeshifting spirit by her full name, the name of her own ancestor: Kaili’ohe Kame’ekua of Moloka‘i, whose oral history could be found in

Tales of the Night Rainbow

. Luahine prized her tattered copy, and it was there that she scribbled project notes.

But today they were doing the rather mundane work of transferring Kaili to a bigger and more secure enclosure. Kaili had escaped her current home and gotten in with Julian’s hybrid monster fish, making a feast of the mutants. They would have moved her soon anyway, but this hastened the timeline. She’d grown faster than Luahine or Julian’s scientist, Dr. Li, had expected, and Julian was now concerned that she was eating his profits.

Despite the urgency of the situation, it was a welcome trip for Luahine, as she needed desperately to get away from her daughter, Koko, and the doctors who were working her up for dementia. Koko, an anthropologist who’d run away to Kansas to marry and had abandoned her Hawaiian heritage in favor of bland

logical

explanations for everything, had become convinced that something was wrong when she’d found the

mo‘o

’s project notes and, invading Luahine’s privacy, had read them.

She’s been gone for far too long and lacks understanding,

Luahine thought.

Yet Luahine feared that soon they would try to put her away in a nursing home. Luahine hated the idea. Nursing homes were for old people who needed help bathing, not someone like her, who was only now reaching her prime in her spiritual gifts.

Luahine’s role in Kaili’s move was to help keep the

mo‘o

dragon calm. She only wished she could have the same effect on Julian. At the moment he was getting rather impatient with his staff. The yacht’s crane had swung over Kaili, her black scales glittering like onyx in the setting sun, but the workers were having difficulty getting the net over her. Not only had she grown quickly, but she’d also gotten

strong

. When she snapped at one of the workers with her sharp, conical teeth, it was clear there was no room here for error, and that was why they must stay composed. Julian included.

Calm is contagious

.

Luahine put a reassuring hand on Julian’s arm. He sighed and quieted. But that would likely last only a moment.

“Stay calm, gentlemen,” Luahine called out to the workers. “You’re doing well. Don’t let yourself get anxious. She can sense fear.”

Luahine didn’t like how Julian treated his workers. They were all locals, working hard and doing the best they could, and caring for a

mo‘o

dragon was a new experience for all of them. An ounce of patience and encouragement could go a long way. Luahine, a

tutu

with accomplished grandsons, understood this. Julian did not.

Luahine also understood the

mo‘o

. Or at least, far better than Julian did. After all, it had been one of Luahine's followers, a caretaker of a hidden cave on Kaua‘i, who had found the dragon bones from whence Kaili’s DNA had been extracted. And though Julian’s genetic engineer had grown Kaili’s corporeal body from that sample, it had been Luahine, as

kahuna

, who’d conducted the sanctification ceremony to breathe the spirit of her ancestor into the

mo‘o

. This was what had transformed Kaili into the

‘aumakua

, the guardian spirit, of the Dragon Clan.

And this was also where her conflict with Julian began. Although he’d promised she could keep Kaili in the islands to protect Luahine’s kin, apparently all along his real plan was to engineer miniature

mo‘o

dragons to sell on the exotic pet markets in Asia. To Luahine, this was sacrilege. Those dragons would not have the spirit of her beloved ancestor—so they couldn’t possibly be true

mo‘o

but rather an abomination—and although smaller, they were likely to be vicious little creatures. Even as a toddler, Kaili had looked like a full-grown Komodo dragon, and Luahine knew enough about those creatures to be wary. A bite from even a small

mo‘o

dragon could be venomous and get easily infected.

Julian snapped his fingers in front of Luahine’s face, bringing her attention back into focus. “Do something,” he said. “If she gets any bigger or any more out of control than she is, we’ll have to sell her to the highest bidder. This is the States, you know, and I can’t risk the liability over her here.”

Luahine gasped at his impertinence. “How could you consider such a thing?”

Julian shrugged. “She’d be worth a lot. I never believed in this rubbish about some spirit guardian watching over your precious Dragon Clan anyway.”

Luahine’s face went hot, and her vision narrowed. A nasty argument ensued, with voices raised. Later, Luahine wouldn’t even be able to recall everything that was said, her rage was so acute. Julian grasped her arms trying to control her. She tried to shrug him off. Yet, she was so focused on making Julian see that her family’s

‘aumakua

must stay in the islands to protect her people that she lost all awareness of the men and their struggle until Kaili shook off the net, sending the workers flying into the water.

The water filled with Julian’s vicious hybrids.

The men began to scream, the water becoming bloodied. Kaili, loose from the net that had covered her, unfurled her wings—which looked like those of giant Pteranodon—and began to flap them. For the umpteenth time, Luahine considered that the

mo‘o

shouldn’t have wings and could only guess where that DNA came from.

Kaili shook her giant triangular dragon head and bellowed, the sound like a mixture of a lion’s roar and an elephant’s trumpeting, and then looked directly at Julian with a hot, snake-like stare.

Luahine recognized her mistake. She shouldn’t have argued with Julian in front of the

mo‘o

. She of all people knew better, but the egotistical man had a way of pushing her buttons.

Kaili slowly rose up, her wings flapping, and flew through the open net toward them. Julian let go of Luahine and began to back up, terrified but clearly unwilling to turn his back on his creation.

Luahine had to do something. And quickly.

She centered herself and stepped forward, putting her hands out in a staying gesture, as if trying to quiet a tiger. Kaili turned to her and slowed in the darkening sky and hovered over the water, just off the stern of the

Tesoro

. The water beneath her moved away in a circle of ripples from the flap of her wings. Nearby, Julian’s injured men struggled to get out of the water, climbing over each other up the ladder in an effort to get back on the platform.

The

mo‘o

ducked her head deferentially toward Luahine and made a low rumbling sound. Luahine reached out her hand and rubbed the spot between Kaili’s eyes, just like she used to do when Kaili was a little dragon. Kaili closed her eyes, and the rumble turned into a purr.

A crash sounded as Julian tripped over a lounge chair. Kaili opened her eyes at the noise, shifted her head to see what was happening, and snarled at Julian, showing her sharp, conical teeth.

Kaili turned and looked out at the horizon longingly. She then looked back at the enclosure and made a pitiful howling cry. Like a true

mo‘o

, she had her own wants and desires.

Luahine shook her head. Her heart ached with her decision. She gestured to Kaili with a small flick of her hand, and whispered, “Go, Kaili’ohe Kame’ekua. You’re free. Protect us.”

Kaili cocked her head and gave Luahine a long, appraising stare. Then she flapped her wings more strongly, rose above the water, and flew away, over the open ocean. Luahine envisioned the

mo‘o

headed toward Moloka‘i, the home of her

‘ohana

, the Dragon Clan.

And in that moment, Luahine was eternally grateful for Julian’s scientist’s forethought in adding the unorthodox wings to Kaili’s code. But her musings were immediately interrupted by a screech from Julian.

“What have you done? Are you crazy?” Julian screamed.

But Luahine just crossed her arms over her chest, watching Kaili fly away to freedom. “Put a lid on it, Julian. I’ve never been saner. I did what’s best. For

most

of us,” she added with a laugh.