Intermix Nation

Lumi’s eyes narrow. “He’s not a monster,Nazirah. People make mistakes.”

“I’d like to know how his family is handlingthis,” Taj says.

“The Chancellor has placed a huge bounty onhis head,” Cato says. “So I’d say ‘not well.’”

“But to leave his mother like that,” Tajsays, uncharacteristically bitter, “in her condition. If I stillhad a mother, I would never do that.” He shakes his head.

Victoria Morgen’s battle with disease is nosmall matter of gossip throughout Renatus. Rumors have circulatedfor years that Victoria struggles with an obscure lifelong illness.She has apparently taken a turn for the worse in the past fewmonths. It’s said the Chancellor is desperately seeking a cure.

Nazirah often questions if it’s all a ployto get Adamek back into Mediah. Nazirah wonders if that’s whyAdamek is teaching Bairs’s class – because he relates to hercircumstances.

Nazirah remains quiet for the rest of thebonfire. She mulls over the future, wonders if she has one. Shethinks about the final assignments they will receive in a fewweeks’ time. What territory will she be assigned to? What will theyask her to do there?

Nazirah thinks about Adamek. He said he hassecrets and she wonders for the millionth time what they are. Whydoes Niko trust him? Why did Adamek request amnesty to begin with?What if he’s a spy for Mediah, sent here to bring down therebellion from within? The recruits are even training with Meditechnology now … who knows how else they’ll be brainwashed? Whoknows where it will all lead, how it will all end?

Nazirah sure doesn’t.

#

Nazirah enters the small abandonedclassroom, prepared to use the Iluxor for a second time. Therecruits haven’t trained with Adamek in over a week, since he hasbeen away on recon with Aldrik and Lord Grigori. Nazirah doesn’thave the faintest idea what the rebels hope to accomplish on thesemissions, and she knows it’s pointless to ask. That’s Niko’s style,trying to protect Nazirah by not telling her anything. Until, ofcourse, he has to tell her everything all at once.

Adamek is there already, amnesty pendantglinting in the sunlight, snarky expression in place. He hasinjured his shoulder again. There’s a thick bandage under hisshirt. Nazirah’s eyes linger on the injury as she shoulders off herbag and drops into her normal seat by the window.

“It’s rude to stare, Nation.”

Please! He’s always staring at her, tryingto make her uncomfortable, trying to get a rise out of her. “Ifit’s rude to stare,” she argues, “then you wrote the book,Morgen.”

Adamek smirks and sits down across from her.“Exactly,” he says. “So I know it when I see it.”

Nazirah crosses her arms, watching him fillthe two syringes. Adamek places the syringes on the desk besidethem. “What happened to your shoulder?” she asks.

“Oh honey,” he says, “I didn’t realize youcared.”

Nazirah uncrosses her arms. “I don’t,” sheanswers honestly, resting her hands on her exposed knees. It’s hotout today. She’s wearing a white oxford shirt and a plaid skirt.Cato teased her at breakfast, telling her she looked like a Medianschoolgirl. All she needed to complete the look were some pigtails.Nazirah spilled coffee on him.

“That’s what I thought,” Adamek says.

“Let’s get this over with,” she sighs.

Adamek ties the elastic around her arm. Itu

He gently tugs up the cuff of her sleeve,fingers slightly calloused. Nazirah feels tingles shoot through herat his touch. She tells herself to get a grip. But in her mind, shewonders if this is what Lumi felt when she first gave in to him. Isthis how every girl feels?

She stares at his hands, focusing on hisscratch marks, on his kills. She’s seen them countless timesbefore. But today it hits her again exactly who he is and what he’sdone. There are so many scratches on each hand, hundreds. Theycrisscross and tally in completely irregular patterns. Some arebigger and some are smaller. Nazirah ca

Nazirah is disgusted with it all, with him,but mostly with herself. Because she has inexcusably forgotten fora while.

Lumi is wrong.

He is a monster.

He hasn’t injected her yet. Nazirah looks upto find rage in his face. He knows exactly what she was looking at,exactly what she thinks of him. Adamek unstraps the elastic fromher arm, dropping it next to the syringes. “Get out,” he says.

“Excuse me?” Nazirah asks, bewildered.

“You’re excused,” Adamek says coldly. “Nowleave.”

“No way, Morgen!” she snaps, cheeks heatingin anger. She reaches for a syringe, intent on injecting herself.“I need this!”

Adamek smacks the needles away. They flyagainst the wall, shattering. “Let’s get something straight,” hegrowls. He leans in close. “I don’t give a fuck about what youthink you need. Or, for that matter, what you think at all,especially about me. I don’t give a fuck about you.”

Nazirah leans as far backin the chair as possible. Adamek Morgen is a loose ca

He snatches her wrists, pulling her towardshim. “My problem is very much you, a nosy, judgmental bitch whonever knows when to quit. And I’m fucking sick of it.”

“Well, too bad! I’m not sorry I question youor your motives! And I’m not going to stop, either! I have no ideahow you managed to brainwash my brother, Renatus. But I’m notfucking buying it.”

“I never asked for that name! I don’t wantit!”

“You sure do embrace the role, though,”Nazirah fires back.

“This is life,” Adamek says. “We all haveour parts to play … even you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means,” he says, his voice a deadlywhisper, “that when it comes to fakers, princess, you’re thebiggest one here. And I’m not fucking buying it.”

Nazirah kicks him in the shin. Adamek hissesin pain, wrapping his foot around the base of her chair, rapidlydragging it forward. Nazirah opens her knees, spreading her legsout a second before their chairs collide. His grip on her wriststightens and he takes in the full view up her skirt. “Aren’t wewelcoming today,” he says.

Nazirah is burning this skirt later.

“Fuck you!” she snarls between grittedteeth. They are so close, their noses are practically touching. Shecan feel his hot breath in her face.

“You would like that, wouldn’t you,princess?”

Nazirah stops struggling, her entire bodytensing. His grip on her wrists relaxes until it is light as afeather. He traces slow circles with his thumbs on her skin.“N-No,” she says. Even to Nazirah, her voice sounds shaky andunsure.

“It’s simple, Nation,” he begs softly. “Justlet me.”

Nazirah wants to give in, but somethingsmacks her back into reality. What is happening? Is she actuallyconsidering his proposition? Is this how he seduced Lumi and whoknows how many others? Well not her.

Never her.

“Never,” she says. Her voice is louder thistime, reassured. She rips her wrists away. He looks at herwordlessly. “I would never!” Nazirah repeats herself, morevehemently, standing up so quickly she almost knocks the chairover. Adamek watches her go. “You’re pathetic!” she says, grabbingher bag and walking backwards through the door. “You disgust me,”she whispers … long gone.

Chapter Eleven

Life goes on at headquarters until itdoesn’t.

Soft knocking in the middle of the nightawakens Nazirah from a restless sleep. She kicks off her clammysheets and jumps out of bed, groggy and disoriented. Nazirahstumbles forward, pulling the door open to reveal Cato. He has darkblue circles under his eyes and his face is puffy. He has clearlybeen crying. Nazirah looks around the hallway, finding it otherwiseempty.