Restless (Element Preservers, #4) by Alycia Linwood Page B

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