It was the Nast Cabal that had us now. Specifically Sean Nast, the CEO’s twenty-nine-year-old grandson. While even Derek will grudgingly admit that Sean is as nice a guy as you could imagine for a Cabal sorcerer, Sean isn’t a philanthropist. We were here because he hoped to train us and prove that life in a Cabal wouldn’t be nearly as terrible as we feared. In other words, he was courting future employees. But while he was interested in the four of us, the ones everyone really wanted were the kids from Salmon Creek, because they aren’t just genetically modified supernaturals—they’re reintroduced extinct supernatural types.

When I headed through the woods in search of Maya, I found her easily enough, as I usually can when she’s with Daniel. They seem to always be talking, with an enthusiasm and an energy that makes me smile. They’ve been best friends since they were five, yet they never run out of new things to discuss, and that’s reassuring. It’s what I have with Derek, and it’s what I always want to have.

“Table tennis,” Maya was saying to him as I approached down a side path.

“Uh-huh,” Daniel replied.

“I’m serious. I want a rec center with a table tennis table. We’ll tell them it’ll help our reflexes. Pinball machines, too. And a pool table. If Sean wants to build super secret agents, we need to develop fast reflexes and superior strategy skills. But we’re kids. Easily distracted. Easily bored. So we need table tennis, pinball, pool…”

“And a rec center to hold it all?”

“They can add it to the gym. There’s room. I checked.”

Daniel chuckled. “Of course you did. I suppose I could argue that pool would help me focus.”

“Perfect. Tell them that.”

When Maya sets her mind to a thing, she does it—by force of will, if necessary. Put her with Daniel, and there isn’t an adult in Badger Lake who won’t listen to them and not just in that we’re pretending to listen to humor you way. It’s an impressive talent to someone who grew up too shy to raise her hand in class. I’m not nearly as insecure as I used to be—and Maya isn’t nearly as confident as she seems to be—but it’s one more reason we’ve become friends.