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EIGHTEEN<br />
THE HIGH HEELS WERE STARTING to hurt me, so I took them off when I went back<br />
inside, walking barefoot through the lodge. I hadn't been to Mason's room, but I remembered<br />
him mentioning the number once and found it without difficulty.<br />
Shane, Mason's roommate, opened the door a few moments after I knocked. "Hey, Rose."<br />
He stepped aside for me, and I walked in, peering around. Some infomercial was playing on the<br />
TV—one downside of a nocturnal life was a shortage of good programming—and empty soda<br />
cans covered nearly every flat surface. There was no sign of Mason anywhere.<br />
"Where is he?" I asked.<br />
Shane stifled a yawn. "I thought he was with you."<br />
"I haven't seen him all day."<br />
He yawned again, then frowned in thought. "He was throwing some stuff in a bag earlier. I<br />
figured you guys were running off for some crazy romantic getaway. Picnic or something. Hey,<br />
nice dress."<br />
"Thanks," I murmured, feeling a frown of my own coming on.<br />
Packing a bag? That didn't make any sense. There was nowhere to go. There was no way to go,<br />
either. This resort was as tightly guarded as the Academy. Lissa and I had only managed to<br />
break out of that place with compulsion, and it had still been a pain in the ass. Yet, why on<br />
earth would Mason pack a bag if he wasn't leaving?<br />
I asked Shane a few more questions and decided to follow up on the possibility, crazy as it<br />
seemed. I found the guardian in charge of security and scheduling. He gave me the names of<br />
those guardians who'd been on duty around the resort's borders when Mason had last been seen.<br />
Most of the names I knew, and most were off duty now, making them easy to find.
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