Ethan's fire joined mine in the air, but our fireballs didn't touch. Sweat started to trickle down my back. I wasn't sure for how long I could keep the fireballs up and stay in control of my disease. My energy was draining very fast. Faster than I expected. Ethan kept smiling at me, which was a clear sign he could do this forever.
"Excellent!" Adam cried. "Now turn those fireballs into any shape you want."
I pulled my fire together, avoiding Ethan's. What could I turn my fire into without too much effort? Closing my eyes, I pictured a huge number one in my mind, rearranging my fire to fit the shape. When I opened my eyes again, I nearly whooped in delight because the shape my fire had made in the air closely resembled the fiery number one. My happiness was short-lived because Ethan had made a perfect heart.
"Amazing!" Adam laughed. "You're his heart and he's your number one!"
Ethan's dark eyes sparkled with emotion I couldn't identify.
"Now bring your fire together and extinguish it!" Adam took a couple of steps back to make space for us. I tried to mask the look of utter horror that must have crossed my face. There was no way I could let my fire make contact with Ethan's. Even if I had fire, I still craved it. Unaware of the danger, Ethan closed the space between us, his fire following closely above his dark head. Coldness seeped into my fingers and started spreading all over my body. I needed fire to warm myself up or I'd die.
The world faded around me and I wanted Ethan’s fire so much that I tried to reach for it, but I hit something solid. Someone clasped his hands around mine, trapping them between me and the fire. A groan escaped my lips because I couldn't force my way to the warmth. Maybe if I opened my mouth, the element would seep into me. I wanted that fire so badly that I was shaking all over. Something soft pressed itself against my lips, but the fire remained out of my reach. Why couldn't I free myself? I was so close to the element...
The roar and applause of the audience snapped me back to the reality. I found myself only a couple of inches from Ethan, his knuckles white as he tried to keep me in place, his hands covering mine. Our fires were gone, his element locked deep inside of him.
"Now that is true love!" Adam said, facing the audience. What the hell had I done? I stared at Ethan's dark eyes. A small smile hovered on his lips, but suspicion and wariness filled the dark brown depths. Adam seemed oblivious to what had happened to me, but I wasn't even sure myself what I'd done. I could only hope the audience hadn't noticed anything strange.
"Thank you for your demonstration, Ria, Ethan." Adam extended his hand in our direction, an unwavering smile on his face. "Did you like that? If you want more, stay with us after the commercials!"
I breathed out a sigh of relief when the commercials started. Hurrying across the stage, I found my way out of the studio. My bodyguards were at my side almost immediately, but I waved them off. If they touched me now, God knew what would happen. I was glad that I'd managed to break out of the disease-induced fantasy in time all by myself, but I didn't like not knowing what had happened between Ethan and me.
"Are you alright?" one of my bodyguards asked.
"Yeah." Elements were buzzing in my head like bees, but I didn't want to cling to my bodyguards like a broken doll. I couldn't show any weaknesses until I was far from everyone's sight. "Please someone tell me what the fuck I did with Ethan."
"You don't remember?" The guard frowned at me in surprise. "Your fire melted with his and it disappeared when you kissed him."
"I what?" I gaped at him. "Are you completely sure?"
"Yeah." He nodded, his lips twitching. "It was all very romantic. You reached for him and he held your hands in his in between you. Then you stood up on your toes and kissed him."
"Fuck!" This couldn't be happening! I'd been trying to kill Ethan and take his element, not kiss him. How was I supposed to explain the whole thing to Adrian? Oh, God.
"Ria! Wait," Ethan yelled behind my back, and I froze. Did he think I'd gotten carried away because I liked him or did he know I'd wanted to suck his element into me? No matter how much I wanted to escape from Ethan and never see him again, I couldn't exactly run away without finding out what he thought. I turned around to face him, raising an eyebrow.
"That was amazing." He grinned.
"Uh huh." I couldn't really agree with him.
"You were amazing." He took a step forward, reaching out for me. I backed away and he let his hand drop, a perplexed look on his face.
"Who gave you the right to introduce yourself as my boyfriend?" I said, putting all of my anger and frustration into that one sentence. "What were you thinking?"
"I'm sorry." He lowered his eyes, licking his lips. "The president himself called me and said he knew about our relationship. I told him we had just been on one date, but he insisted. He told me you knew about this and that you wanted me to appear on the show as your boyfriend. Did he lie to me?"
I frowned, observing Ethan's dark brown eyes. If he was lying, he was good at hiding it. Or maybe I was bad at spotting a liar. Had the government played us both? There was no way for me to tell whether Ethan was in the league with the president or only an innocent victim. "I... There must have been a misunderstanding because I never agreed to such a thing."
"Oh God, Ria. I'm so sorry. I didn't know you'd be upset. I thought..." Ethan went pale, his eyes wide. "But you kissed me..."
"It's ok." I twirled a strand of my dark brown hair around my finger, trying hard not to take a step forward and squeeze my hands around Ethan's throat. One of my bodyguards stepped forward, brushing his shoulder against mine. The world of elements disappeared for a moment and I relaxed.
"What do we do now? Everyone thinks you're my girlfriend." The color started to return to Ethan's cheeks now that he saw I wasn't mad at him. "We did go on a date, and I really like you, so... Would you like to go on another date? A real one this time?"
"I... " The last thing I wanted was to go on another date with him, but the press and other students at the university would be suspicious if I didn't hang out with my boyfriend. The government had forced me to make such big news out of it that I couldn't go back like nothing had happened without stirring even more rumors. "We'll talk at the university." I gave him a brief nod and strode toward the exit.
Chapter 09
I was sitting alone in my office, trying to regain as much strength and energy as I could before going back to the university. It was strange to be at work this late at night, especially because everything was so quiet and dark. My regular guards were still in front of the door, so I didn't have to worry about any uninvited guests. I squeezed my phone in my hand when yet another call to Adrian went to voicemail. What were the chances that he hadn't had time to watch the damn show?
Someone knocked on the door and I nearly dropped my phone, hitting my elbow on the desk. The door slid open and Lily poked her head in, her face brightening up when she saw me.
"Oh thank God you're here." She came in and closed the door.
"Where would I be? My guards are right in front of the door if you haven't noticed. They are, aren't they?" For someone who had tricked them and run away from them, I surely trusted my guards a lot. At this point I wouldn't even blame them for leaving me unguarded.
"Don't worry. They're still outside, but you have a tendency to slip away unnoticed." She took a seat in one of the chairs, removing a pin from her hair and letting long black strands to fall freely around her shoulders. "I thought you might be with your boyfriend."
Heat rose in my cheeks. Did Lily and the others somehow know where Adrian and I had been when we had sex? "Which one? The fake one or the real one?" I said bitterly.
"The real one." Lily sighed. "I thought you might know where he is."
"What are you talking about?" I gripped the armrest of my chair, the panic rising inside of me.
"At the university... " Lily looked down at her hands. "They decided to put up a big screen in the main hall so everyone could watch you on the show. Not only because you're the
president, but because you're one of the students. Everyone gathered there so they could watch and Adrian was with them. I don't know the exact details because I wasn't there. Paula told me she was worried because Adrian had stormed off after he saw Ethan and you.... Well, you know what he saw and how it looked."
I closed my eyes, my breath getting stuck in my chest. Yeah, I knew damn well what everyone thought Ethan and I had been doing. "I'm almost sorry I didn't kill Ethan right there in front of the whole nation."
"Ah, so it was like I thought, but no one believed me." Lily seemed relieved. "The angle of the camera doesn't go in your favor, though."
"Fuck." I ran my hand through my hair, getting up. "I need to go talk to him! I need to find him!"
"Relax. He just needs to cool off. You'll explain everything to him." Lily's dark brown eyes were calm.
"Yeah, but where did he go? Didn't anyone see him? Does Alan know anything?" I understood that Adrian wanted to be alone, but that meant he didn't have much protection against anyone who tried to kidnap or kill him.
"No, and Alan is clueless." Lily got up too, putting her hand on my shoulder. "We'll find Adrian. I sent some of my men to look for him."
"I can't just sit here and wait for the news!" I chewed on my fingernails; something I hadn't done in ages. "I'm going back to the university."
"Are you sure you're ready? You've lost control today and the next time we might not be lucky enough that no one notices it." A frown line popped out on her forehead. "Did Ethan realize something was wrong with you?"
"I don't care! I need to find Adrian. His life might be in danger!" I took a deep breath, knowing that it wouldn't help me if I panicked. "And no, I don't think Ethan knows anything, but he might be more persistent now that everyone believes he's my boyfriend."
"I knew that being a guest on that show was a bad idea. Why didn't you deny your relationship with Ethan? You could have said you two were only dating, not that you're in a serious relationship." Lily was clearly trying to stall me, but I was still planning to leave the office as soon as I felt I was back in control of myself.
"Well, it's hard to deny something when the president of the country orders you to be a good little girl." I rolled my eyes. "I didn't even get a chance to complain."
"I didn't know the president would worry about your relationships." She shot me a suspicious look. "Did he say anything else?"
"Yeah, he said that they were using me as a distraction. Apparently, they're trying to pass a law that wouldn't please our dear citizens, so they hope all the headlines will be about me, and their law will be a tiny passage at the back of the newspaper," I said with a huff.
"Ria, this is serious! Why didn't you tell me earlier?" Lily pulled her phone out of her black jacket and started typing something. "We need to find out what that law is about. What if it's something about the disease and carriers?"
"The president didn't want to clarify that." Annoyed, I settled back in my chair, turning to my computer. Just as I’d expected, the Internet was full of videos, pictures and comments about Ethan and me. I cringed when I accidentally zoomed in a photo in which it looked like I was trying to push my tongue down Ethan's throat. Good God. I even found photo manipulations that were making fun of me.
A photograph of two policemen carrying a body bag caught my eye and I scrolled down to see the article. My quick intake of breath alerted Lily that something was wrong and she raised one dark eyebrow at me.
"A man was murdered near the university. His element is gone." The murderer couldn't have picked a worse time and place to kill a guy. "We need to find Adrian before the morons assume he had something to do with it!"
"That's odd." Lily came to stand behind me, narrowing her eyes at the screen. "Too odd to be a coincidence."
"But no one could have known Adrian would be watching the show or that he would go out." It was highly unlikely that the bastards were so cunning that they could predict Adrian's moves. "Where is my brother?"
"Oli's at our hiding place. Why?" Lily gave me a chilling look.
"I'm not saying that he had anything to do with this, but..."
"No. Oliver wouldn't kill anyone. He doesn't need another element," she said confidently.
"True, but he doesn't want me to be the president. He might think the war between normal people and carriers would start if the number of murders increased." We had so many enemies that it was hard to tell which one of them could be involved. The main problem was that almost all of them were close to us; Oliver, Alan, even the president of the country.
"It's not Oliver."
"You're probably right. It wouldn't make sense if Oliver did this now." The lack of faith I had in my brother wasn't surprising, but maybe Lily was right this time and Oliver wasn't involved in the murder.
"What about Alan? He could have hired an assassin so Adrian would get blamed."
"Alan wouldn't do it because there are no benefits for him if Adrian gets killed. Besides, Alan and Adrian have a sort of an agreement now, so I don't think he'd do anything to hurt Adrian." According to the article, the dead man wasn't identified, so there was still a chance the murder wasn't connected to me or Adrian. "It could be some hit job that accidentally happened near the university."
Lily chewed on her lip. "Yes, but we can't know that until we find out who the guy is. If he's a random victim, we might have a rogue carrier."
"Do you think someone from your group leaked the info that you and I were working together? Someone might be trying to reach out to us or expose us."
"I made sure that not many people know about you, but even I can't keep an eye on everyone all the time." She sighed. "You should go back to the university and act like nothing happened."
"Yeah, if the people there actually let me live down that damn kiss." The tension finally left my shoulders. I had to be strong for Adrian. I had to find him before someone assumed he was a runaway murderer. "I'm going to the university," I announced, but Lily didn't say anything this time. Even she had to realize that I needed to find Adrian as soon as possible. I forcibly shut down my computer, grabbed my bag and headed for the door.
"Keep your eyes open," Lily said as I reached the door.
I glanced at her over my shoulder, a small smile on my lips. "I will."
Chapter 10
Curious eyes followed me as soon as I stepped into the university, and I swallowed, trying hard not to pay attention to people who were openly staring at me. Was this how Adrian had felt during his first year at the University of Magic? I knew it was bad, but I'd never assumed it was this unnerving. I barely stopped myself from yelling at people.
Luckily, no one followed me down the hall except of my guards, so I knocked on the door of Paula's room. As soon as she opened the door, I slipped inside, giving the guards a sign to stay outside. Closing the door firmly behind me, I leaned on the wall and met Paula's wary blue-green eyes. "Have you seen Adrian?"
Paula crossed her arms in front of her and shot me a cold glare. "I know I encouraged you to date Ethan, and not that Adrian didn't deserve it, but how could you have done that to him?"
"I didn't do anything!" I should never doubt the power of the media to twist things into something that wasn't true, and I certainly shouldn't doubt the power of my disease to help the media and the government with their lousy stories. "The president basically forced me to pretend Ethan was my boyfriend and I lost control of myself. It's a miracle my kiss wasn't a kiss of death."
Paula's expression softened, her eyes filling with worry. "Oh my God. You weren't kissing Ethan. You..."
"I tried to kill him. Believe me, kissing him was the last thing on my mind." Maybe I should thank God of Magic for saving me instead of whining about the situation I was in, because the next time I might not be so lucky. "So, do you know where I can find Adrian?"
"I don't know where he is, but I saw him leave the university. I'm not sure where he went." She bit her lip. "He must be furious with you. If you could have seen his face
when you and Ethan..." She shook her head and tossed her curls over her shoulder. "He'll be back when he calms down."
"Yeah, I know, but the problem is that there was a murder nearby and there's no one who can confirm Adrian didn't do it. The dead guy is missing his element. It would be a perfect excuse for the government to get rid of Adrian. His sub-element and his control of the disease are a threat to their plan to label all carriers as dangerous." I chewed on the insides of my mouth, pushing down a wave of panic that rose inside of me.
"A murder? Adrian wouldn't do that no matter how angry he is. It's just a coincidence, but I understand why you're worried. We need to find him before someone notices he's gone. I'm not sure many people saw him leave since they were all watching the TV."
"Everything is possible, but it's hard to believe in coincidences." My phone rang and I grabbed it with my shaky fingers, nearly dropping it. I answered without looking at the number. "Yeah?"
"Good news," Lily said. "My team saw Adrian in a club not far from the university."
I breathed out a sigh of relief. "Thanks. I'll go get him then."
"No, absolutely not! You have to stay at the university. It's not safe for you to go to a club full of people."
"And the university is empty I presume?" I squeezed my phone so tightly that it was a surprise I didn't crush it. "I'll be fine."
"No, Ria, you won't. Stay in your room and have Kayla and Sinclair nearby just in case. My men will get Adrian for you."
"No." I ended the call, going for the door. There was only one bigger club in this area, so I had a pretty good idea where Adrian was.
"Ria, wait," Paula said, her eyes pleading. "You shouldn't go out there like this."
"Don't worry about me. You stay here and call me if Adrian comes back before I find him, ok?"
Paula nodded and I closed the door. My guards stood at my side in a second, blocking my path.
"I'm sorry, but we can't let you go outside. Lily's orders," one of the guards said. "She told us to escort you to your room, so if you would cooperate..."
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