"You are my guards! I don't care what Lily told you. I'm going out."
The guards didn't budge. I glared at them, aware that it wasn't their fault and that they were simply following their orders, but I was pissed off. I could only feel the guards' elements in the hall and I glanced behind me just to be sure. Before they could realize what I was planning to do, I focused on air, isolating it from my other elements. Two quick bursts of air came out of me, throwing the guards down the hall. They landed on their backs with a crash a couple of feet away from me, their breaths knocked out of their chests.
"Sorry," I said and ran for the main door. It would take them some time to recover and chase after me. Hopefully, I'd find Adrian before they found me.
It didn't take me long to find my way to the club. A bodyguard stood next to the door, but the entrance was free and anyone could go inside, so he barely acknowledged me when I passed him by. The smell of dampness and spilled beer hit me as soon as I put my foot inside of the club. It was so dark that I could hardly see where I was going. The tension left my shoulders when I realized no one would be able to recognize me, but the drunk crowd swarmed me in an instant, bumping their sweaty bodies against me as they danced to the rhythm with the deafening music.
I elbowed my way through the crowd, pushing away hands that tried to grab me. Adrian was nowhere in sight, and I started to feel light-headed, cold, thirsty and out of breath at the same time. Warming the already hot air around me to stop myself from jumping at someone's throat, I pushed my way to the bar. The scene in front of me stopped me dead in my tracks.
Adrian was sitting on one of the barstools and a girl was leaning on the bar next to him, trying to get his attention. I was rooted to the spot, feeling as if someone had cut my legs off. Even my fire died out inside of me, which was good considering that I wanted to put the girl's long blond hair on fire. Adrian smiled at her, but then he looked away and reached for the small glass on the bar, his movements slow and clumsy.
I took a deep breath, focusing on the control I had over my elements and the disease. Adrian was clearly drunk and he didn't seem interested in the blonde, but I still wanted to tell the girl to stop batting her fucking eyelashes at my man. Maybe if I kept telling myself that she was harmless, I'd convince myself that there was no need to be upset. Yeah, right.
I strode toward the bar just as the blonde bent forward, giving Adrian a full view of her breasts that were protruding from her tight red top. Leaning on the bar behind the girl's back, I fixed my gaze on Adrian and waited for him to notice me... if he ever decided to look over the girl's shoulder. He must have felt someone was watching him because he lifted his head, his eyes widening as he saw me. Then his lips broke into a smile and he laughed.
I raised an eyebrow at him and glanced at the girl who must have thought he was smiling at her. He waved his finger at the girl and she came closer. He said something into her ear and she pulled back like he had slapped her. As she strode away from the bar, nearly bumping into me, I saw that her blue eyes were glassy.
"Guess I didn't lose my charm." Adrian licked his lips.
I rolled my eyes at him. "She's drunk. She'd fall for anything. And she doesn't even look like me." I wasn't sure whether I should be happy or not about the last part. I'd hate to think that Adrian could find a substitute for me so easily. "Come on. We have to go. You're too drunk to talk right now."
"No, I'm not drunk." He waved over the bartender, pointing at his glass and slapping some dollar bills on the bar. The bartender poured him a glass of something that looked like whiskey and left the bottle within Adrian's reach. Adrian downed his drink in a second.
"Why are you still here?" He glanced at me, pouring himself another glass of whiskey. "You should go before someone recognizes you and realizes you're talking to me."
I snatched his glass before he could take it and let the cold liquid burn its way down my throat, my eyes getting teary. "I think I need a drink more than you. I almost killed a guy on the national TV."
Shock flashed across Adrian's face and he turned his head to look at me. His hand reached for me, but then he caught himself and pulled back, clenching his fist in frustration. If he touched me now, there was no way of telling what could happen to me. Sobering up, he got up and we started for the door. Different elements tried to get inside of my head, calling me for a taste, telling me how awesome it would be if they were mine. I dug my fingernails into my palms, hoping the pain would distract me.
Just before we reached the exit, we ran into the blonde that had tried to flirt with Adrian. I smiled at her, giving her a look under my eyelashes. She was confused for a second, but then she smiled back, not even noticing Adrian behind me. Her element, water, was very weak, and I had a feeling she was one of those who had decided to abandon their element.
My relief was immense when we were finally outside. Adrian stumbled but managed to catch himself. Maybe he wasn't completely drunk, but his motor skills were affected a bit. "How did it feel to see her trying to seduce me?" he asked.
"Oh, please. She would have tried to seduce anyone to buy her another drink." I rubbed my arms, shivering from the cold, but I didn't dare to use my element. If I'd used the wrong element in the club, no one would be able to tell to whom it belonged, but on the street it was a completely another thing. I couldn't see any reporters nearby, but that didn't mean one of them wouldn't pop out of the bush if I made a wrong move. "So, how did you feel when she flirted with you?" I couldn't hide the bitterness in my voice.
He looked pensive for a moment, an emotion I couldn't recognize flashing through his gray-blue eyes. "I felt nothing. I was mad at you and..." He stopped in the middle of the street and turned to me, raising his voice. "Why the fuck didn't you tell them that asshole isn't your boyfriend? Why did you kiss him?"
I anxiously glanced down the street and only saw my guards a couple of feet away. They must have found me at some point. Still, I couldn't let Adrian make a scene where everyone could see us. "The government set me up, but we can't talk about that right now. I'll explain everything when you're sober. And I didn't kiss him. I tried to suck his element out of him, but we can't let anyone know that, can we?"
We walked in silence, avoiding to look at each other. As we neared the university, Adrian stopped again. "Are you his girlfriend now?"
"Only for the press." I sighed. "I'm not sure how we'll deal with this, but we'll find a way. I'll probably be allowed to..." I made quotation marks in the air. "...break up with Ethan once the government passes their stupid law and doesn't need me for distraction anymore. But either way, I'm not really Ethan's girlfriend, only by title."
Adrian stared at the ground, his hands in the pockets of his jeans. "Ok."
"Adrian?" I waited for him to look up at me. "Do you trust me? Because if you don't..." ...I wasn't sure what that meant for us, so I held my breath for his answer.
He looked off into the darkness, then turned his head to me. "Yes, I do."
Chapter 11
Paula frowned at me when I finished telling her how I found Adrian last night. "I can't believe you're not mad at him. He was flirting with the first girl he could find! What do you think would have happened if you hadn't come for him? Do you think he'd sleep with her?"
"Hey, he wasn't flirting with her at all! She was the one trying to seduce him, but he ignored her." I grabbed the book I needed for my class off the nightstand and put it into my black bag.
"Yeah, but you were forced to pretend Ethan was your boyfriend and you tried to kill him, not kiss him. Adrian went to that club for a reason, and maybe it wasn't just to get drunk." Paula’s blue-green eyes were unforgiving.
"I'll go talk to him when he wakes up." I closed my bag and threw it on the bed so I could easily take it with me later. "If he flirted with the girl or tried to kiss her, I wouldn't be so forgiving. We can't be together in public, but we aren't in an open relationship either." God, secret relationships were harder than I’d expected. I didn't even want
to imagine seeing Adrian with another girl in his arms.
"Maybe you should just..." Paula started to say, but I raised my finger to shush her.
"I'm not breaking up with him." I sat down on the wooden chair, biting my lip. "I'm not sure how I'm supposed to pretend Ethan is my boyfriend. Hell, I'm not even sure how Adrian can pretend he's still single. He had a reputation of a heartbreaker at the University of Magic, so someone might get suspicious since they don't know the story about Alan."
"Are you going to let him date other girls then?" Paula said incredulously. I got up, supporting myself on the desk. Would I be able to watch Adrian every day in the company of some girl? Rage spread through me in a second, and I smashed everything on the desk with one swipe of my hand. No, never, Adrian was mine. Only mine. "Fucking government."
A knocked sounded on the door and Lily came in, her face serious. I was surprised to see her at the university, especially this early in the morning. Something must have happened. I sighed, ready to add another problem to my huge list of fucked up things. Lily strode over to me and handed me a pile of newspapers and magazines. A picture of Ethan and me was on every damn cover. I sat down and quickly skimmed through the newspapers. Each one of them had at least five pages about Ethan and me and our supposed romance.
"Who the fuck are these people and why are they commenting on my relationship?" I couldn't believe they found people who were willing to answer personal questions about me. Some of them even claimed they knew me. Apparently, everyone and their mother had something to say, even though half of them had no clue what they were talking about. "Why do the reporters believe all these opinions matter?"
"They don't," Lily said. "They need you for distraction. Look at the page 34 in The Element Daily."
Flipping through the pages, I tried to find what Lily wanted me to see. I hoped it wasn't a comment from another woman who thought Ethan and I were meant to be, or from the old lady who said I was only fooling around with him. The tiny headline about the new law caught my eye and I quickly read the article, my disbelief increasing by each sentence. "I can't believe it! Why isn't this the breaking news?"
"What's wrong?" Paula asked curiously.
"The government passed their awesome law yesterday during the show." I folded the newspaper and placed it on the desk. "Apparently, all those with weak and impure elements, along with carriers and those who gave up on their element, will have to pay bigger taxes."
"What?" Paula's eyebrows shot upward. "That can't be right. What is their justification for such a thing? It's outright discrimination!"
"It appears we're not the only ones who think revealing international secrets is awesome. They must have been afraid I'd reveal the secret about the element collectors, so they decided to be one step ahead." I groaned, vaguely recalling I'd said something to the president's secretary about revealing the secret before someone else did. "Their justification for the law is that our energy supplies are getting low, so they'll start collecting elemental energy from those who have pure elements, so that energy will be the payment instead of money. Of course, they say we're doing this for the future and that there's no reason to get alarmed. And no one mentions the element collectors at all. They packed it up nicely so it all looks innocent, like they're building more windmills or something."
"But people should be freaking out about this. Surely this is more important than a relationship," Paula said.
"Did you know about this before I showed you the article?" Lily asked.
"No." Paula and I shook our heads.
Lily gave us a pointed look. "There you go. Some will be outraged, but the government will still have the support of the media and the rich. It will take time until someone gathers a group of people who don't agree with the law. Some of those who will have to pay higher taxes might even think that the law is justified since they can't contribute to the society because of their decision to abandon their element."
"But what about those who can't afford to pay those taxes?" Paula said.
"Same as always." Lily shrugged.
"I have to do something. They did this without my knowledge and I'm supposed to make decisions about everything concerning the elements!" This was also a proof that the government didn't trust me and didn't want to listen to anything I had to say. It shouldn't surprise me, but I'd thought they'd at least pretend they cared.
"There's not much you can do," Lily said. "You could tell the world about the element collectors since the government is trying to convince people they will only take elemental energy every three months with a special device and with people's permission. But if you do that, they could place the blame on your father since he was the one who strongly supported the idea of the element collectors. Your whole family would take the fall."
"Great," I mumbled. Oliver's idea to openly go to a war with the government suddenly looked appealing.
"I'll try to reach out to people with weak elements and the carriers who pretend they're normal people with pure elements," Lily said.
"Wait a second." Paula's face paled. "This will allow the government to test who has a pure element and who doesn't. What if that device can expose carriers? What if they finally found a way how to do that?"
"That's impossible." Lily shook her head, but her dark brown eyes were wary. "The government is playing a dangerous game. There could be an uprising soon. If the government sides with those who have a pure element, carriers and all the others will come together too. Besides, only one third of the population has a pure element."
"Yeah, but we don't know how many people in our country truly have a pure element. We don't even know if there are people without a pure element in the government," I said.
"Don't worry about them." Lily scoffed. "The government takes care of their own. They probably made a special deal for them."
"I could still investigate and pay attention to the people's elements in the meetings. Maybe I can find those with weak elements and try to convince them to speak up against the law." I had more chances to convince a rock to join my cause than one of the government's people, but I could always try.
"You can do that," Lily said. "But you have to be careful and keep your eyes open. We don't want any more surprises."
"Right," I said, annoyed. We were careful, but we were still powerless to do something.
Lily was about to leave, but then she stopped with one hand on the door handle. "I almost forgot to tell you that we didn't find anything about Ethan's father being ill. You should investigate that since you're the one closest to Ethan."
"Yeah, about that... I'm not really sure I want to go anywhere near that guy." I didn't trust Ethan and I definitely didn't trust myself around him. What if I babbled something wrong during our conversations? If he was a spy, the government could use against me anything I say to him.
"Look, Ria." Lily sighed. "I get it that you don't like to pretend to be in a relationship with someone you don't even know, but if you don't hang out with Ethan, someone might investigate and find a proof that you and Adrian are together. That would destroy everything we have planned and worked on. Besides, you can't touch Adrian, so it's better for you two to stay apart. I suppose Ethan is a decent distraction."
I gritted my teeth together. "Thanks for the tip, but you make me regret not killing Ethan when I had the chance."
"His death would be even a bigger problem, so be careful." A smile quirked Lily's lips and she walked out. I was glad that someone found my romantic life amusing, but I was getting tired of everyone using me for their projects and agendas. I wished no one would care who I dated.
"I think I'll have to contact some scientists who work for the government and try to find out if they discovered something," Paula said, her phone in her hand. I raised my finger to shush her because I could sense a fire element approaching. We didn't want to be overheard, no matter how irrelevant our conversation might be. Paula gave me a wide-eyed look, slipping her phone back into her bag. We stood in silence, not moving
a muscle. The element was familiar, but there were too many elements in the building, so I was afraid to let myself feel the fire completely. Whoever it was, he or she probably came to see me since my room was the only occupied one in the hall. Many students lived at home rather than at the university, so the dean allowed me to have a whole hall for myself.
A firm knock sounded on the door and I opened it, finding myself face to face with Ethan. I almost slammed the door shut, but that would be rude.
"Can I come in?" he asked, a few strands of his dark brown hair falling into his eyes. "I need to talk to you. In private."
I opened the door wider so he could see Paula behind my back.
"I can come later if you wish," he quickly added.
"Actually, I need to go." Paula squeezed past me, giving me a wink, and rushed out of the door. Ugh. If I talked to Ethan, I wouldn't have time to go see Adrian before class.
"Sorry, now's not the time," I said, blocking the door so Ethan wouldn't get an idea to get inside.
"Fine, maybe another time." Annoyance flashed across his face, but he quickly masked it, his element spiking a bit. I guessed I pissed him off. Great. I waited until I could no longer feel his element in the hall and slipped outside. My guards stood at each side of the door, ready to follow me.
"You stay here. Don't let anyone into my room. If someone comes, tell them I'm busy. No one can know I'm not in my room, understood?"
The guards nodded in unison, and I hurried down the hall, relying on my disease to tell me where everyone was. I hoped Adrian was awake.
Chapter 12
I was lucky enough to find Adrian's hall empty. All the elements I could feel were at least a couple of feet away from the door, probably belonging to students who were still asleep. The only problem was that I didn't have the tiniest idea if Adrian was in his room. Making sure no one was around to see me, I tried the knob and realized Adrian's door was unlocked. I quickly stepped inside, closing the door behind me and turning the key.
Restless (Element Preservers, #4) Page 6
