Rae turned a cool look on her. “I’m not actually talking to you. I don’t know you.”

“Oh, sorry,” Maya put out her hand. “Maya Delaney. Seventeen. Grade twelve. Skin-walker, as you saw. I love animals, science, track-and-field and long walks in the rain. Well, no, actually, I hate the rain. It’s a cat thing. But while I might not have as good a sense of smell as Derek here, mine’s not bad, and it’s particularly attuned to the smell of bullshit. I’m guessing, though, that yours isn’t quite as good. You bought their story, right?”

Rae bristled. “Of course I did. Because it’s true.”

“No,” Daniel said. “It just has enough of a ring of truth to make it believable. Everyone knows the Nast Cabal is capable of exactly what you’ve been told. You want to believe it, because you want to make up for what you did to Chloe. But take a good look at their story, Rae. They’re saying that Chloe and Derek have been brainwashed into thinking they’ve got it good in Badger Lake. Yet, according to them, we’re living in some kind of institution, our parents dead or missing from our lives. Doesn’t that sound exactly like the lab Chloe escaped? What amount of brainwashing could make her accept that life? What amount could make Derek accept it?”

Oh, and another gift that benandanti get? The power of persuasion. Daniel knows how to formulate and deliver a good argument, and his powers give him an extra boost that ensures people listen. Rae didn’t cave immediately, but when he asked her for more details, she gave them. He teased out everything these people had said about us, and then he poked holes, gently but convincingly, through the fabric of their story, until there was nothing left but shreds.

“So, you’re telling me I’ve done it again,” Rae said quietly. “First the Edison Group tricks me into thinking Chloe is better off with them. Then, this group tricks me into thinking she’s better off escaping to them.”

“You tried to do the right thing,” Daniel said. “Both times. We all get that.”

Her gaze slid to Derek, who said, “After you were fooled once, I’d really think you’d do a little more digging before you let it happen again.”

Maya shot him a you’re not helping look.

“I’ll accept that you screwed up,” Derek said. “Twice. But it doesn’t mean I understand how it can happen. Twice.”

Maya looked at him. “From the guy who spent months in a group home run by the Edison Group and thought it was just a group home.”

“Hey, I figured it out. And I never did it again.”

“And you guarantee you never could do it again? Get tricked like that?”