“I love you,” he said, and his lips briefly met mine.
“I love you too, but I don’t want to stand in this hall forever, so...” I pressed the doorbell. A couple of moments later, the door cracked open and Alan flashed us both a wide smile.
“What a surprise! I didn’t expect the two of you to pop up here.” He opened the door wider so we could get inside. “I suppose you need something, eh?”
Alan’s apartment was huge and it reminded me of the perfectly designed homes I could usually see in magazines. Judging by the number of doors, there were at least three rooms. Why would Alan need something so big if he was living alone?
“Actually, yeah, we do,” Adrian said. “Did you happen to save any of my stuff that I left at the University of Magic?”
“You mean the things that didn’t get soaked after you froze the entire room?” Alan’s voice was filled with amusement.
Adrian bit down on his lip. “Yeah.”
“Perhaps,” Alan said. “What are you looking for?”
“My father’s journal.” Adrian traced his finger across the wooden surface of the desk that was in the hall.
“The one you stole from the Council and conveniently forgot at the University as if it meant nothing?”
I didn’t like Alan’s biting tone. It wasn’t Adrian’s fault he’d had to leave the journal. “Really, Alan? You are the one who planned to blame Adrian for a murder and send him to a lab. If you have such a good memory, I’m sure you remember it.”
“Always charming, aren’t you?” Alan gave me a sour smile. “I do have the journal.”
“Great,” I said. “What do you want in exchange for it?”
“Why don’t you wait for me in the living room? I’ll go find the journal,” Alan said, not bothering to tell me where the living room was. I was wondering if Adrian had a map of this apartment because I would surely get lost in it on my own.
Adrian placed his hand on my back and propelled me toward the door to our right. The living room was not what I expected. A big cream couch occupied most of the space. A plasma TV hung on the wall in front of it. The only other furniture was a small glass desk in the middle of the room. A window almost as big as the wall offered a magnificent view of the city, but that wasn’t what surprised me the most. The thing that shocked me were the plants covering the two other walls.
“Umm, did we accidentally walk into a jungle or a garden?” I eyed the big leaves with distrust. I wouldn’t put it past Alan to own flesh-eating plants.
“He likes plants.” Adrian shrugged and sat on the couch. “He likes to use his element on them.”
“Whatever.” I settled myself next to Adrian. The couch was comfortable, but I didn’t like how a red flower was eyeing me from across the room. Seriously, it looked alive. “Are you sure none of these plants are dangerous?”
“Oh, come on, Ria. Don’t tell me you’re afraid of plants.” He was barely containing himself from bursting into laughter.
“I’m not afraid of plants. I just don’t like to be helpless around them. They don’t look friendly.” I squeezed myself closer to Adrian, desperate to feel some of his warmth.
“Don’t worry. I’ll protect you if one of the plants jumps out at you.” He grinned, placing his hand on my knee.
Alan came into the room, carrying a big box in his arms. He set the box on the desk. “The journal should be here.”
Adrian leaned forward and opened the box. It took him a couple of moments to dig up the journal. The corners of the journal were frayed a little, but as Adrian flipped through the pages, I could see the content was still legible.
“You can take the journal,” Alan said. “But I want one thing in return.”
“Here we go.” I rolled my eyes. “What do you want?”
“I want you to tell me what for you need the journal.” The smile on Alan’s face was pleasant, his brown eyes sparkling with curiosity.
Adrian glanced at me and I nodded. “We need it to find an assassin who is after Ria.”
Alan’s dark eyebrows shot upward. “Why would anyone try to kill you now, Ria? You’re no longer the president and you’re not standing in anyone’s way. I doubt you know any secrets that haven’t already been revealed.”
“Oh, this one is personal. Family stuff.” I drummed my fingers against the armrest. “Wait, does this mean people know about the element collectors?”
“Not everyone, but most people in the important positions know by now and are trying to come up with a good way to tell the world the truth.” Alan ran a hand through his graying brown hair. “So why is an assassin after your family?”
“My great-grandpa made a deal with some assassins.” My lips spread into a smile. “The assassins were supposed to kill anyone in my family who married a person who didn’t have a fire element.”
“Married?” Alan’s eyes narrowed at me.
“Yeah, marriage was important back in my great-grandpa’s time. After all, he only wanted to keep up the appearances.”
“I don’t remember getting an invitation for the wedding,” Alan said.
“That’s because there was no wedding.” I groaned. “And no, I probably wouldn’t have invited you anyway. God! Why does everyone think I got married?”
“Because you two look so married.” Alan laughed, and nodded his head at Adrian and me. I was about to argue, but then I saw how comfortably close I was to Adrian and how his hand was resting on my leg as if it belonged there. I had no idea what being married looked like, but I could see what Alan was getting at.
“I don’t care what it looks like. I’m not married and the assassins weren’t after me when everyone thought I secretly married Michael.” I could feel Adrian’s body tense when I mentioned my ex boyfriend. “Something’s changed about the deal and I need to find out what.”
“Maybe they figured it out that you have magic disease,” Alan said casually.
I blanched. “What are you talking about?” Adrian and I had done everything to hide that little bit of info from Alan because he could have ruined me with it. If Adrian hadn’t told Alan about my disease, there was no way he could know.
“Oh, come on you two. I’m not stupid.” Alan gave me a pointed look. “It took me a while to figure out why you were suddenly so interested in my boy and wouldn’t let go. It only made sense that you somehow got the disease. He came to me with that story about your friend, Paula, being the one with the disease, but I think that was a lie. He was looking for a way to be with you, not to help your friend control herself better.”
I licked my dry lips. It had been only a matter of time until Alan put things together. He’d gone with us to the university simply to figure out my secret, but now it was too late. “Okay, so maybe he was talking about me and not about Paula. What does it matter?”
“I didn’t think he could lie to me that good. That’s all.” Alan cut a disapproving look at Adrian, and my blood boiled. Alan had no right to be mad at Adrian for anything.
“You would have used that information against him and me!” I yelled, and Adrian placed his hand on my shoulder. Taking a deep breath, I leaned back. “I’ll never understand your messed up relationship, but don’t give Adrian disapproving looks in front of me for no good reason!”
“Ria, it’s okay,” Adrian said.
“As you wish.” Alan didn’t seem too concerned, the corners of his lips slightly quirking up. “You know, all this time I thought you didn’t really love him, but I’m glad I was wrong.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I kept my mouth shut. At least we had the journal, so we could try to find the person who was after me. Adrian and I couldn’t be together if death came between us. I wasn’t about to let that happen.
Chapter 12
I fell on the bed, my eyes burning from all the reading. “Did you find anything?”
“Nope, not yet,” Adrian said, leaning his head on the window. The hotel room we rented had a big window and a nice windowsill for Adri
an to sit on. The bed wasn’t bad either, but I would fall asleep if I tried to read the journal and underline the right words while I was lying on the soft sheets.
“I know I’ve already said it, but we’re wasting our time.” I rolled over and pushed myself up on my elbows. “Your father might have been too young to come across Rosalia or my great-grandpa. I know rich people went to fancy gatherings and took their whole families with them, but that doesn’t mean your father was there.”
“There could still be someone from Rosalia’s family on the list and they could share her last name.” Adrian kept underling the letters even as he spoke to me.
“I wish we could just contact the police, but they’d probably worry more about me or my father’s whereabouts.” I was surprised the cops hadn’t invited me for a chat about my fugitive dad, but maybe Lily had sent them off or they assumed I knew nothing, which was entirely true. I picked up my copy of the journal off the floor where I’d dropped it. The copy we’d made turned out to be more legible than the original, but I’d gotten tired of reading through endless rambling.
“Go to sleep.” Adrian looked up from the journal long enough to give me a smile. “I’ll take care of this.”
“Why don’t you come to bed with me?” I traced my finger over my lower lip.
“Tempting,” he said. “But I have to do this.”
“Fine.” I grabbed the pillow and plopped onto it. My eyelids were so heavy that I couldn’t keep them open for longer than a second.
My arm collided with something solid and I opened my eyes. Adrian was grinning at me, the journal cradled in his lap.
“You found something,” I said, slowly pulling myself into a sitting position.
“I found your great-grandfather’s name in here.” He waved with the journal. “And I found the name of one of his friends...”
“You have my attention,” I said when he didn’t continue.
“Carly Hansel.” He set the journal in front of me so I could see the letters he’d underlined with a red pen. “Her name is on the back of that photograph too.”
“Do you think it’s Rosalia?”
“Maybe. Maybe not.” He shrugged. “But if she was a carrier and knew your great-grandpa, she might have met Rosalia.”
“Which won’t help us because she’s probably dead,” I said disappointedly.
“Yeah.” He pressed his lips together into a tight line.
“Let’s hope Carly is Rosalia. It can’t be a coincidence that a carrier from my great-grandpa’s university went to the same parties as he did.” I got to my feet and turned on the laptop I’d bought after our visit to Alan. “I’ll see what I can find about Carly. Can you call Lily and ask her if she can help us?”
Adrian shot me a dark look. “Call Lily yourself. I’m not calling her after what we did. She might ask us to return the car.”
“Okay, we’re not calling Lily, but what if she calls us?” I clicked on the web browser and waited for it to load.
“Nothing. Don’t answer,” he said jokingly.
I typed Carly’s name in the search field, hoping I’d at least be able to find an address or something useful. “Lily’s done a lot of things for us. It would be rude not to answer.”
“Then don’t ask me what to do if she calls.” Adrian rubbed his neck, annoyed.
“Did you get any sleep?” I glanced at him.
“A little.”
“Then take a nap.” I reached for my purse and rummaged through it to find a notepad and a pen. “I should have totally bought those sticky notes you were waving in my face at the shop yesterday.”
“Umm hmm,” Adrian murmured as he settled himself on the bed, his eyes closed. Focusing on the screen in front of me, I scribbled down any clues that could lead us closer to my great-grandpa’s mysterious lover.
I crossed out another name that I’d thought was related to Carly. I’d been calling the numbers that popped in the search results, but it turned out they were either fake or misleading. Adrian was still asleep, his left arm draped over one of the pillows.
Something like a soft scratch brought my attention to the door. I put my notepad on the desk and padded over to my bag. Careful not to make too much noise, I dug up a gun from under a pile of new clothes. As I got closer to the door, I strained my ears to try to hear whether someone was in front of the door. It was probably nothing, considering the hotel was large and had many guests, but I wasn’t about to let my guard down while an assassin was after me.
Silence greeted me as I held my breath, too afraid to move. Beads of sweat appeared on my forehead. I was probably being overly paranoid. Adrian and I hadn’t even checked in under our real names. There was no way someone could track us all the way here. The city was too big for that. I lowered the gun and heard something scrape against the door. Shit! Someone was really in front of the door and I didn’t know who.
My blood racing, I picked up an ornamental box from the shelf nearest to me and threw it at Adrian. The box hit him in the arm and he stretched, yawning.
“Adrian!” I hissed, hoping that whoever it was at the door couldn’t hear me. Adrian sat up, his eyes wide and alert. He looked in the direction of the door and shook his head, which meant he couldn’t feel an element. If someone really was outside, he or she was a carrier or had an element-blocking bracelet. Since element-blocking bracelets weren’t that common in public, it was very likely the person outside meant us harm.
Adrian jumped to his feet and motioned for me to step away from the door. I slowly backed off, my gun aimed at the door. He started collecting our things and stuffing them into the bags. I didn’t even know how we were supposed to get out of the room. We were on the fourth floor and the only way out was through the door. I definitely couldn’t fly and wasn’t about to risk my life by trying to jump from one balcony to another.
“What are we going to do?” I whispered. If this was a false alarm, we were so going to laugh about it later.
“Watch that door. If someone comes through, shoot.” He closed my laptop and pushed it into the bag with the other things. My finger tightened on the trigger as another scratch sounded at the door. I didn’t remember ordering a cat, so unless the hotel was giving away kittens, a person was trying to break in. What other reason would someone have to scratch at a door in a hotel?
Adrian threw the bags behind the desk and crouched down. “Get here!”
I crouched next to him, shielded by the sturdy desk. Something beeped and the door exploded inward, wisps of smoke filling the room. I fought the urge to scream and huddled closer to Adrian, whose firm grip on my wrist indicated that he wanted us to stay where we were.
“Find them!” a woman yelled and two men ran into the room. At least I thought they were men because of their big boots.
“Take your bag,” Adrian whispered, his lips brushing against my ear. “Shoot them if you can.”
It was only a matter of seconds before they saw us, even with all the smoke. One of the men must have opened the balcony because a gust of fresh air burst inside. Adrian grabbed the other bag and stood up, a cloud of coldness forming around him.
“Go!” Adrian yelled to me as he attempted to trap both men into the ice. I scrambled to my feet, the bag weighing me down, but I succeeded in running past the men and getting to the door. I hesitated before going out because I knew the woman would be waiting for me in the hall. Adrian had managed to overpower one of the men and was holding him at gunpoint.
There wasn’t time to question the man and I didn’t think he’d tell us anything anyway. Adrian clearly wanted to use the man as a shield when we walked out and that was fine by me. Forcing the man to go first, we inched closer to the door.
The woman stood in the middle of the hall, holding a gun in each hand. Two things happened at once. The man turned toward Adrian like a lightning bolt and tried to punch him. A gust of air wrapped its fingers around my throat, making it impossible to breathe.
Dark spots danced in front of my ey
es as the woman calmly made her way toward me. I dropped the bag to the ground and squeezed the trigger, still fighting for breath. The woman merely stepped aside and kept coming toward me. The gun fell from my hand and clattered to the ground.
The world was spinning around me, my lungs constricting. My hands flew to my throat even though one part of my brain knew that wasn’t going to do me any good. The darkness threatened to swallow me whole, but a gust of air surged into my burning lungs. Gasping for breath, I saw Adrian standing in the woman’s way, a wall of ice separating me from the two of them. The man who’d fought Adrian was lying on the ground and I wasn’t sure whether he was still alive.
With a smile on her face, the woman threw both of her guns to the ground. Adrian must have used his ice on them. Only a second later, she sent him flying across the hall. When had she gotten an element? As I picked up my gun, I realized there was no way I could reach Adrian or the woman because the wall of ice didn’t seem to be melting. Now what?
The woman was successfully dodging Adrian’s ice shards and she was getting closer to him. I had to do something! Looking around, I saw a fire alarm and rushed over to it. I broke the glass with the back of my gun and pressed the button, but nothing happened. How was that possible? The fire alarm should have turned on when the door exploded, but even pressing the button didn’t work. The woman must have disabled the alarm system and the cameras too, because the hotel’s security was nowhere to be seen.
“Adrian!” I yelled, but he either couldn’t hear me or he chose to ignore me. The woman brushed Adrian’s ice off her coat as if it were dust and proceeded to send gusts of strong wind at him. I crouched next to my bag and found another, a bit bigger, gun. Taking a couple of steps back, I fired at the wall of ice in front of me until my gun was empty.
A hole formed in the ice, cracks spreading from it. I kicked at the ice where it was the thinnest and it gave way under my foot. Shards of ice burst around me and I put my arm over my face to shield my eyes. The woman’s attention turned to me and that was all it took for Adrian to pierce her shoulder with an ice shard. I pointed my other gun at her and fired. The bullet barely missed her and she started running down the hall, clutching her injured shoulder.
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