I stepped around a giant urn packed with snake plants. “Well, she can’t be coming down with something. We don’t get sick.”
“I know.” Dee stopped at a bedroom at the end of the hall. “I just think the traveling has her stressed out. She wanted to help, don’t get me wrong, but she’s scared.”
“She has a right to be.” I brushed a few strands of hair out of my face and focused on the room. The bed was big enough for five people and had a mountain of pillows stacked against the headboard. “So this is our bedroom?”
“Huh?” Dee was staring at me, and then she shook her head. “Sorry. Yes. For you and my brother.” A giggle escaped. “Wow. A year ago, Katy…”
A smile tugged at my lips. “I would’ve rather stabbed myself repeatedly in the eye with a spork than sleep in the same house as Daemon.”
“A spork?” Dee laughed as she went over to the closet. “That’s serious.”
“It is.” I sat on the bed and immediately fell in love with the firmness. “Sporks are only used in the most dire situations.”
Tugging her hair up into a ponytail, she stepped inside. I could see a few of my outfits in there. “I grabbed a couple of everything—jeans, shirts, dresses, underoos.”
“Thank you. I mean it. This,” I said, gesturing at myself, “is all I have. It will be nice to change into something that’s mine after…” I trailed off, not seeing the point in going there. Scanning the room for a distraction, I spotted another door. “Do we have our own bathroom?”
“Yep. Every room does. This house is sick.” She blinked out in front of the closet and reappeared on the bed beside me. “It makes it kind of hard to leave this place.”
I’d only been here a few hours, and I wanted to adopt the house. “So, where are you going after this? With us?”
She shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. I’m not thinking about it yet, because I don’t know how possible it’s going to be for all of us to stay together. Going home is out of the question for a ton of reasons.” She paused, looking at me. “Everyone at school was so…different after you and Daemon disappeared. With all the police and the journalists back again, people really started to get paranoid. Lesa was beside herself, especially after what happened to Carissa. It’s good she has her boyfriend. She thinks Dawson and I left town to visit family. Kind of true.”
Worrying the hem of my shirt, I steeled myself. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure. Anything.”
“My mom—how is she?”
Dee took a moment to respond. “You want the truth, or do you want me to make you feel better?”
“It’s bad, isn’t it?” Tears welled up in my eyes so fast I had to look away.
“You know the answer to that.” She found my hand and squeezed. “Your mom is upset. She took a lot of time off work—her jobs were okay with that. Very understanding from what I heard. She doesn’t believe you and Daemon ran away. That’s what the police finally decided when they could find no evidence of why you, Daemon, and Blake disappeared, but I also think some of the officers were in on it. They jumped to the runaway conclusion way too fast.”
I shook my head. “Why doesn’t that surprise me? Daedalus has people everywhere.”
“Your mom found the laptop Daemon bought you. I had to tell her that he got it for you. Anyway, she knew you’d never run away without a laptop.”
I gave a short laugh. “That sounds about right.”
She squeezed my hand again. “Your mom is doing okay, though, all things considered. She’s really strong, Katy.”
“I know.” I looked at her then. “But she doesn’t deserve this. I can’t stand the idea of her not knowing what happened to me.”
She nodded. “I’ve spent a lot of time with her, just hanging out and helping with the house until we left. I even kept your garden weeded. I thought that could somehow make up for everything we dragged you into.”
“Thank you.” I moved so I was facing her. “I mean that. Thank you for spending time with her and helping her out, but you guys didn’t drag me into anything. Okay? None of this is your fault or Daemon’s.”
Her eyes glistened, and she said in a small voice, “You really mean that?”
“Of course!” Shock rippled through me. “Dee, you guys didn’t do anything wrong. This is all on Daedalus. That’s who I blame. They are responsible. No one else.”
“I’ve just been so upset. I’m happy to know that you don’t feel that way. Ash said you probably hated me—hated us.”
“Ash is a douche.”
Dee laughed outright. “She can be sometimes.”
I sighed. “I just wish there was something we could do other than just run.”
“Yeah, me, too.” Her knee bounced as she let go of my hand and tugged her ponytail down. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
She bit down on her lower lip. “How bad was it?”
I tensed. The one question I didn’t want to be asked, but Dee waited, her expression so earnest that I had to say something. “Some days were better than others.”
“I can imagine,” she said softly. “Beth talked about it once. She said they would hurt her.”
Thinking about my back, I pressed my lips together. “They do that. They did and said a lot of things.”