The Defector

By R.C. Merrow

Julian Cross is Ashmoor Academy's star student. He's the proof the school points to: bound to his Passenger at nine years old, polished, trusted, groomed to lead. So when someone breaks into the East Wing during Assessment week, the academy hands its best student the investigation.

Julian already knows who did it. Her name is Mara Vance.

He should turn her in. That's the job, and Julian is *very* good at the job. But Julian has spent five years learning what the academy does with the kids it catches. He knows what his own binding cost the creature in his head. And the deeper he digs, the more the investigation turns up things he was never supposed to count: tanks that don't match the records, transfers to a place that doesn't exist, a shipment leaving in nine days.

Now Ashmoor's favorite son has to run a perfect investigation to the wrong answer, without anyone noticing, including the school that taught him how.

He was raised to be their proof. He's about to become their problem.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0H9JTN9TM
• ISBN13: 9798188060008
• Release Date: July 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 94 Pages
• Weight: 0.21 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.3" x 8.0"