Free The Rising by Kelley Armstrong Page A

surprisingly, he didn’t keep his objections to himself.
    â€œThis is the stupidest idea ever,” he grumbled as we lay on adjacent tree limbs a hundred meters from the memorial site.
    â€œIs it any more stupid than it was the last fifty times you said that?” I asked.
    â€œMaybe.”
    I sighed, shook my head, and looked around. Our ceremony was being held in a park. Outdoors, at the request of the parents. I knew whose parents had initiated that. Mine. An outdoor ceremony for the daughter who loved the wilderness. If I had any doubt who’d selected the location, it vanished when we’d arrived and I realized we’d been there before, my parents and me, for “breaks” when we’d come to Vancouver and the city got to be too much for me.
    â€œI still don’t get what you hope to accomplish here,” Ash said.
    I twisted to look at him. “We’re going to try to make contact with one of our parents. Hopefully mine.”
    â€œYeah, I get that part. What I don’t get is how in hell they’re supposed to help you.” He put up a hand against my protest. “Your dad’s a forest ranger. Your mom’s an architect. You’re sure they don’t know about Project Phoenix, but hell, we’d be better off if they did , so at least they’d have some idea what’s going on.”
    â€œWhich is why they’ll talk to Corey’s mom. She’s the police chief. Corey doesn’t think she knows about the project, but she might. If she doesn’t, they’ll talk to Daniel’s dad, who does know.”
    â€œSo why not target him?”
    I couldn’t tell Ash about Daniel’s father. Not without breaking a trust. So all I said was, “He isn’t a good choice.”
    â€œGreat. So we have a guy you don’t trust, a small-town cop, and your parents, who know zip about the experiment, zip about fighting bad guys, and probably zip about supernaturals in general. Can I ask again what exactly it is you hope they can do?”
    He already knew the answer. We’d told him the first time he asked. He was just making a point now. We really didn’t know what our parents could do. We held on to the hope that someone would know about the experiment and the Cabals, and if they didn’t, then they’d know someone who did, someone from Salmon Creek who could help us.
    Help us do what? Free the others. But we couldn’t take Annie on the run if the Cabals knew how to fix her. We couldn’t take Corey on the run either if they could fix his headaches. And what if I started regressing?
    The trouble was that the source of care was also the source of the threat. How were we supposed to reconcile that? I had no idea. All we could do was focus on making contact. On getting help and answers, and as nebulous as that plan was, it was all we had. Even Ash himself had admitted he didn’t have another.
    Ash wasn’t the only one who didn’t think I should be here. Daniel and I had a bit of a dustup about it this morning, when I’d declared my intention to watch the proceedings.
    â€œI don’t think you should do that, Maya,” he’d said.
    â€œUm, that’s the plan, isn’t it?”
    He’d gone quiet then, shoving his hands in his pockets before saying, “The plan is for us to go and try to talk to someone. Not for you to watch the service. I think it’s going to be too much for you.”
    I’d stared at him, unable to believe what he’d just said. Daniel might have a mile-wide protective streak, but he’s never treated me like “a girl.” If he had, our friendship would have ended years ago.
    â€œWhat? I’m going to start sobbing and run to Mommy and Daddy? Seriously? You think—”
    â€œI worded that wrong. I think it’ll be too much for you and Corey. Watching your families grieving . . . It’s going to be tough.”
    â€œI