Atoning Read Free

to be—but it’s one more reason we’ve become friends.
    I could see them now, holding hands, still chattering away. Maya’s German shepherd Kenjii walked on her other side. Maya will turn seventeen in a week. She’s Native American—mostly, at least—a few inches taller than me with long black hair and dark eyes. Daniel is about five-ten, with a boxer’s build, blond hair and blue eyes. When we first arrived, Tori had checked him out, but she’d declared that, as cute as he was, he wasn’t to her tastes. In other words, she’d seen how he looked at Maya and had known she didn’t stand a chance.
    “Hey,” Maya said, turning as she heard my footsteps. “I thought if we talked loud enough, Derek would hear and come barreling over to give us crap for disturbing you two. But I’m guessing he’s not dressed yet.”
    “He just finished Changing back,” I said as I gave Kenjii a pat.
    “Uh-huh. In the last hour or so, right?”
    A year ago, I’d have turned crimson and started stammering. Now I just laughed. Maybe I was growing up. Maybe it’s Maya, rubbing off on me. Or maybe it’s just learning that being able to talk openly about sex—with both my boyfriend and with a girl friend—makes it easier to navigate what can be really tricky ground. And yes, maybe that’s part of the “growing up” thing, too.
    “Apologies for the interruption,” Daniel said. “We wouldn’t do it if we didn’t have to.”
    “Yeah, I know,” Derek said, appearing beside me. “So, what’s up?”
    “If we’re going to North Bay, we need to leave”—Daniel checked his watch—“right about now.”
    “What?” I said.
    “Moreno just got word that Sean had to move his visit up to Monday. While we don’t necessarily have to be here for that…”
    “We have a list of things we want to discuss with him,” I said.
    “Right. And Maya wants a rec center.”
    “To hone our skills,” she said.
    “Through table tennis, pinball, and pool,” Daniel said. “Don’t ask.”
    “I wouldn’t mind a pinball game,” Derek said.
    “Then you can ask Sean for that,” Maya said. “Tell him it’ll help you work off any extra aggression. We’ll divvy up the list. So we agree that we want to be back for Sean’s visit and that we still want to go to North Bay for the weekend?”
    We did. Which meant we had to pack fast.
     

     
    The town looked deserted. It was, almost. We get monthly trips to Toronto, by helicopter, but after about a year, a few of us started skipping alternate months. Some of the kids chafed at small-town life. Others embraced it. While “embrace” might not be the word to use for Derek, he was certainly happier here, in the middle of our wilderness. Maya was the same—she’s a skin-walker, and her dad is a forest ranger, so even small-town living could be a bit too much for her. Like Maya, Daniel is accustomed to living in a village of under two hundred people. Me? I just want to be where my family and friends are, which is here.
    They’d brought my dad in a few months ago. We were still getting used to that, after a year apart. To be honest, we’d never been very close—my mom died when I was five, and he’d buried himself in his work, including endless business trips. To come here, he had to take a back seat in his own company, which is tough, but it’s what he wants. I’ll be off to college soon, and it’s important to him to make up for lost time.
    Dad does the monthly trips to Toronto for business. Aunt Lauren was gone too, along with Kit, and Maya’s parents and pretty much everyone else in town. The only adults left behind were members of the security team, including Moreno and Antone, who is Maya’s biological father. Both would be joining us on our North Bay trip.
    One more person was coming with us: the only other kid who didn’t join the Toronto excursion. Maya and I went to talk to him after we had dropped off Derek and Daniel at their respective houses. I’d been staying with