I looked up at Daniel again, caught his grin, and felt an extra jolt of adrenaline zip through me. Get to him. Just focus on that. Getting to him. Two more handholds. One more. Now reach—

“We have a winner!” Daniel shouted, and pulled me up for my victory hug.

We had our little party after that. I’d had pizza delivered by one of Moreno’s security guys. They’re very useful for that sort of thing. The Nasts aren’t keen on announcing our presence to the outside world, so we can’t order anything in, and the nearest village of any size is a thirty-minute drive down crappy roads, meaning our parents aren’t eager to just “run into town” for us. That’s what the security guys are for, apparently. It’s not like we require much actual security.

We’re more isolated than we were in Salmon Creek, but we’re dealing with it. Monthly helicopter trips into Toronto help. They give us the Friday off so we can make a three-day weekend of it. They aren’t yet letting us go without our parents—and Moreno’s men—but we’re working on that.

So we had our pizza-and-beer party. Derek and Chloe slipped out as soon as he got his pizza, Chloe saying they’d be back for the cake and gifts. Like Ash, Derek wasn’t good with crowds. Or parties. Simon had no such reservations. He’d made himself a part of our group from the start. I had wondered if that would bother Derek, but it didn’t seem to. He was happy to relinquish his brother to us and hang out with him other times.

Tori wasn’t exactly a core part of our group. Neither was Hayley. They’d become fast friends, and tended to keep to themselves, though they’d join us for group events like this. I’d found a friend in the Genesis group, too. Or we were working in that direction. Chloe was still quiet, a little unsure of herself, most comfortable with Derek and her “tribe,” but we hung out together more and more, which was nice. She didn’t quite take Serena’s place but was filling that void.

Of the Phoenix kids, the one Derek got along best with was Daniel. In him, Daniel had found a good sparring partner. And a plotting partner, too. Derek wasn’t just the biggest and strongest in our group. He was also the smartest. Scary, off-the-charts smart. That intimidated Daniel a little at first—he’s bright, but he needs to work for his grades. But Derek wasn’t a show-off or a know-it-all, so they got past that and we would hang out together, the two guys, Chloe, and I planning and plotting our future, bouncing ideas off one another.

As for romance among the others, there was little of that so far. Corey and Hayley had taken another run at it, but I think Corey just felt bad about how he’d treated her before and when they tried again, they realized it wasn’t really a good match. Ash and Tori snarled and snapped at each other enough that I thought there might be something there . . . if they didn’t kill each other first. And Sam? Well, there was no one for Sam, which was one of the problems with our isolation. Even for the heterosexual kids, you couldn’t expect everyone to just pair up out of necessity. A bigger dating pool was needed. I’d told Sean that. He understood and was working on ways to get us involved with our larger community, maybe lessons of some sort in a nearby city.

So life in Badger Lake wasn’t perfect. But as much as we might hate to admit it, it was good. Really good. It wasn’t a forever kind of life, but when I chafed at the boundaries, I had only to look at the kids who’d grown up on the run—Ash, Derek, Simon, Rafe, Annie, and Sam—and see them relaxing and flourishing, and I’d know we’d made the right choice.

“Okay,” Daniel said as we picked our way along the boggy path. “You stay right there while I find a place to release these guys. And no peeking. I don’t want you knowing where I’m hiding potential snacks for cougar-time.”

“Ha, ha,” I said as I hopped over a wet patch. “I keep myself well fed before I shift. Fixing animals up only to hunt them down would be kind of pointless.”

“Or diabolically clever. They’d smell you, think food was coming, run over to greet you, and . . . chomp.”

I made a face at him. “It’s Ash we need to worry about. Ever since he started shifting, I’ve noticed him gazing longingly at the animal shed. I’ve told Dad we need pick-proof locks.”

Daniel laughed and waved me off the path. We’d left Kenjii behind. Fitz was out here, somewhere, but he knew to keep away when I had prey animals or he’d find himself locked in the shed. We continued to a drier spot, over by the cliff. I found a deadfall and we opened the box. The rabbits—orphaned by a mama-bunny-killing hawk—made their way out. They sniffed around, then zoomed off, some making a break for freedom, some zipping under the deadfall to safety.

“You’re welcome!” I called after them, then muttered, “Ingrates.”

Daniel laughed. “Good prep for having kids, I bet.” He glanced over. “Back to the subject of snacks, did I hear that there’s food in that basket?”

“Yes. For those of us who didn’t eat five slices of pizza and two pieces of cake.”

“I’m in training.”

“You’re always in training.”

“That’s why I’m always eating.”

We kept talking as we continued on a little, closer to the cliff, looking until we found just the right picnic spot. Then I set out the blanket and we ate. We talked more, mostly about issues we were working on with our powers. Dr. Fellows—Lauren—had been monitoring me over the winter and concluded, after consultation with others doctors, that my “rage attacks” were indeed a form of regression. She’d been treating me, like they’d treated Annie, but I’d asked for fewer drugs and more training to learn to control it. That seemed to be working.

Daniel was dealing with some anger-management side effects of his own. In his case, it wasn’t misplaced rage, but a disproportional reaction to a threat. Like a bull seeing red. Sam was experiencing the same side effect, and probably had been for longer. Daniel was dealing with his in the same way I was—some drugs, lots of training, and talk, the two of us hashing it out, what caused it, how we dealt with it. Mutual support and kicks-in-the-ass when needed.

As we finished, we compared schedules for the week. Life was busier now than it had been in Salmon Creek. Busier and more complex. Not just the added complications of dealing with and working on our powers, but personal stuff, too. I had Ash and Antone to factor into my life. Daniel was dealing with his brothers, one of whom wanted to come live in Badger Lake for the summer. He was pre-med and the Cabal had offered him work here, then wanted him to go to medical school in Toronto. Daniel was happy to have his brother around, but not really sure how he felt about him joining a Cabal. He was coming tomorrow for a birthday visit . . . and a recruitment chat. So, yes, complications.