Free Blind the Stars (Rose of the Dawn Series Book 3) by Ily Maguire Page B

another door. I cross the room and open it. I step inside. It
brightens immediately.
    “Dory,
you in here?” Evie’s room. It’s decorated with a lot of pink. Pink walls, pink
furniture including a pink beanbag chair, pink bedspread and ruffle. Pink
curtains hide outside-viewing screens. There are all of Evie’s favorite stuffed
toys in a pink hammock on the wall beside the bed. Mesh mosquito netting is
around it, but pulled back and tied to grommets on the wall. I don’t understand
why they all didn’t just hide down here, or what Dory was doing upstairs.
    There
is a note on the bed addressed to me. I unfold it.
    rose,
    I
think i know where Evie is. Must find her. Not too late. I’m better to do it on
my own. Finding evie. i love you, Rose. please tell Ezekiel i’m sorry. i love
him, too. love, dory
     
    I
take one last look around the room. Dory isn’t here and there is no way out.
    I
leave.
    Ezekiel
is on his feet, rubbing his temples. Pike is sitting with his head in his hands.
    “She’s
gone!” I say. “But she couldn’t have gone far. She must’ve just left. Didn’t
she?” I look at Ezekiel. “Did you see her go? I fell asleep for a few minutes,
and she was gone.”
    Ezekiel
looks at his arm and taps it once, twice, then a third time. “I don’t think she
left a few minutes ago.”
    “I
was just talking to her,” I counter.
    “My
head is killing me,” Pike states and I look at him rubbing it. Has he heard
what Ezekiel said? Come to think of it, my head is a bit fuzzy, too.
    “It’s
been at least two days,” Ezekiel says.
    “Two
days since what?” I question. My skin crawls and my artificial arm is tight.
    “I
think we may have been drugged.” Ezekiel holds up an empty container that was
placed on the side table by his head. “It had enough sleeping solution to put
us out for at least twenty-four hours, maybe more.”
    “I
couldn’t be drugged,” I say. “I haven’t eaten anything.”
    “Essential
oils from the capsule could put anyone into a nice, deep sleep. All you would
need would be to ingest it or come in contact with its oil.” Ezekiel puts the
container back down.
    “Wait.
I’m telling you, I just saw her. A few minutes ago.” I point my arm in the
direction of the bedrooms.
    “It
gives Dory a nice headstart,” Pike states ignoring me. Ezekiel shakes his head. Am I invisible?
    “I
was just talking to her.” I stomp my foot on the ground. The impact sends a
tingle up my leg, back and to my neck. I shake my head. It throbs. “If she did
drug us, then I am once again in a prison.”
    Pike
looks at me. His eyebrows furrow. Being brought to Aegis and locked up in The
Hollow, it surprises me that he wouldn’t understand. I elaborate. “It’s all
going full-circle. I started here, in this house and now I’m back. Being
drugged to leave and now to stay.”
    “That
isn’t all there is to life,” Pike tells me, reading my thoughts. “There will be
a place that you’ll feel safe again. Where you’ll want to stay.”
    I
scowl at him because I know that the only place I want to be or will ever want
to be is with him. He’s not thinking about that place with me. I don’t want him
to say anymore. My shoulders tense and I turn to Ezekiel. “If Dory’s out there
alone, she’s not going to make it on her own.”
    “She’s
probably better than we give her credit for,” Ezekiel answers. With him she would’ve
been better off. He could’ve gone with her. He should’ve.
    “We
should check in on everyone at the safe house,” Pike says. His brow furrows.
He’s thinking. I can’t look at Pike so I turn away. My anger at his only
wanting to be friends is fueling the energy, the strength within to want to
find my sister. “We’ll be able to figure it out there. It isn’t far. A few days
hike on foot, but only a few hours by car.”
    “She’s
going to look for Evie. She knows where Evie is.” I open the note I folded into
my palm with my real fingers. I don’t