TEN.

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The whole room went into silent shock. Link, the boy who barely spoke more than a few words at a time, whom we knew almost nothing about, had a spy? It was strange to hear such words coming out of his mouth.

"Well, who is it?" Gally demanded impatiently, voicing all of our thoughts. All of the Keepers, including me, were leaning slightly forward in their chairs in anticipation.

Link's owl-like eyes, filled with nervousness, glanced from face to face. He swallowed and tapped his foot. A red color was slowly flushing up his neck and face. "It's uh - it's Luke."

My stomach dropped; I felt like falling out of my chair with how surprised I was. No wonder he had seemed so out of place in Alex's group- he had been put there on purpose.

"Yeah, I don't associate with cripples like you."

His words were fresh in my mind and stabbed at my heart as if he had just said them to me. He had spat it with so much venom, so much contempt, that I was almost convinced he had meant it. Either he was a very convincing actor or had used his position as a way to say what had always been on his mind without punishment.

My head was spinning. I couldn't help but feel like my body was reacting a bit too overdramatically, but the sickness wouldn't stop rising in my throat. I tried to force it down and stay in my seat.

"Nadia?" Minho whispered, placing a hand on my knee gently. His voice was quiet compared to the chaos in the room. Everything else was fuzzy except for his face, forehead wrinkled in concern as his brown eyes looked into mine. "Are you okay?"

"No," I answered honestly. There was no point in lying; it was obvious I wasn't fine and he'd be able to see through me anyways. My hands rubbed my eyes tiredly. "It's just- Luke said something offensive to me and I called him out for it. I just didn't think..."

"Do you feel guilty?" he asked me in that quiet tone that I never thought he would use. He was always joking with me, one way or another, but this time he had nothing but sincerity in his eyes.

I paused, considering this. Was it guilt that was chewing me up and eating me whole? No. No, it wasn't that. It was something much worse than guilt. It was the realization that Minho was right about people not hesitating to be mean to me. Poor, naïve Nadia had never noticed it before and probably wouldn't have done anything about the Luke incident. I still had a lot to learn.

"No." I shook my head. "Not at all."

Minho patted my knee with a soft grin. "Good."

I zoned back into the conversation that was going on among the rest of the Keepers. Gally was yelling, of course, Alby was arguing with him, Clark was hitting himself repeatedly in the head with his palm, and Link was curled into a ball on his chair, arms around his head as he buried it in his knees. Nick stood up. He towered above us in his full height, taller than most of the boys in the Glade. His bare chest was gleaming with sweat and his blond hair stuck to his forehead as well. His hard jaw was set as his blue eyes flickered around the chaotic room.

"Enough!" he shouted in an authoritative voice that boomed over everyone else's. The room became quiet instantly. Gally froze in place, half bent over his chair in an awkward squat. Clark ceased to torment his face, Alby zipped his lips, and Link looked above his arms, frightened eyes widened even more than they usually were.

"This shank here may as well have just given us everything we need to know about this situation," Nick continued, pointing to Link. "If Luke succeeded and got some information, then we actually have some evidence instead of a random, unreliable eyewitness testimony." He sent a pointed look to Gally, who rolled his eyes. "Someone get this kid in here."

"I've got it," Alby sighed, getting up and walking out of the room. The door opened and let in a flood of loud laughter before it slammed shut again.

The room was filled with obvious tension, so thick that it felt like the air had been replaced with syrup. My chest felt compressed and it almost hurt to breathe. Nobody spoke; the room was so deadly silent that it began to have a sound.

Alby returned a few minutes later with Luke in tow. The shorter boy - he was only about fifteen - was shrimplike compared to Alby's broad shoulders and large frame. Nick's second-in-command collapsed in his chair and pointed to the one that faced the crescent of Keepers. Luke hesitantly sat down.

Nick drew in a breath. "So," he began with little emotion. "You're a spy."

"Yes," Luke confirmed just as bluntly. He was obviously choosing his words carefully from how he seemed to take a half-second pause before speaking. His dark skin was dotted with sweat from the heat of the crowded building and his curly black hair was starting to frizz even more. His deep brown eyes were unreadable, and they made me uneasy.

I stared at him with my jaw clenched, seeming to egg him on with the sharpness of my glare. Come on, look at me. Look at me! It seemed to me that he was blatantly ignoring my existence. My stomach churned with enough anger to challenge the light of a thousand suns, and I was sure I would start shaking from rage until I felt Minho's hand on my own. His palm was rough and calloused from constant work. But his touch was familiar, and I felt the burning madness start to cool down slightly.

"Link, explain yourself," Nick ordered as he leaned back in his chair. His muscled stomach flexed as he moved and crossed his arms over his chest. For a second I thought I saw Luke glance at his muscles before quickly diverting his gaze.

Link nervously fidgeted with his hands as he spoke. "I knew something was off about Alex the second Gally said he whacked a nail with a wrench and almost dug it into his hand. It seemed kind of off that on every job, he almost hurt someone. There was First Day with him almost impaling poor Johnny, Gally, setting all the animals loose so there was a stampede and Garret almost got trampled, then the fire. I also don't think this whole thing with Theo and his hip is any coincidence."

Luke nodded in agreement and looked to Nick for permission to speak. The blond waved his hand as a signal for him to go ahead.

"I greeted Alex and pretended to take him under my wing," he explained. "I had to push away my other friends and it hurt- a lot. Especially when they wouldn't talk to me afterward. Point is, I got as close to Alex as I could without it seeming too fishy. He didn't tell me much about his plans. Whatever he's doing, he's amazing at keeping it a secret." Luke glanced over at Link. "This shank is quiet, but he's observant. I'm not sure if there's anything he doesn't know."

Link turned a dark shade of red in response.

"You said your friends wouldn't talk to you afterward," Minho spoke up, slipping his hand away from mine and raising an eyebrow at the boy in the chair. "Care to explain why that is?"

My heart froze in my chest for half a second once I realized what he was doing. I shook my head with the tiniest of movements and tried to make him look at me by fiercely glaring at his head, but his mind was set. No. No. No.

"I was a jerk," Luke admitted. "A huge jerk. One might even go as far as call me an a-hole. I tried to convince myself that it was because of the act, that I was trying to make sure Alex never saw through my mask. But then, after a while, I began to realize that I was no longer wearing a mask..." He swallowed and continued. "It had become a part of me. I was saying things I'd never normally say, doing things I'd never do. People became afraid of me when I had my knife in my hands. It felt horrible, but at the same time, it was pleasing. The fear. I let the power control me. It was--" Luke cut himself off with a shiver. "It was awful."

Zart's eyes flickered from Minho to Luke, and I could tell that he was starting to catch on that there was something more serious going on there. There was a blazing fire in Minho's eyes, something protective and angry, that set me on pins and needles.

"So you're basically saying that you suck, you inflated your own ego, and now you suck even more?" Minho questioned sharply. "Because it seems to me that that's what you're telling us."

Luke shook his head quickly, eyes filling with fear at the sight of an angry Minho. "No. I - just, look, man. I wasn't myself. I was every insult in the world you could think of."

I couldn't take it anymore. I stood up so quickly that my chair slid back and I almost lost my balance. Tears were quickly filling my eyes, but I forced them down and let that same aura of confidence fill me as when I had told him off before. He wasn't going to get away with acting like some kind of saint.

"Listen here," I commanded lowly, voice harder than steel. He finally looked at me, brown eyes meeting brown. "I'm saying this in front of everyone because I know it'll have no effect if I don't. You can't go acting like you're some new person, like you've turned over a new leaf a while ago, when just yesterday you called me a charity case and a cripple. You utterly humiliated me in front of your group. There was no reason for you to say what you did - I was just minding my own shucking business and you could have left me alone - but no, you decided to insult me in the most hurtful way possible about something you know I'm insecure about."

I sucked in a deep breath, trying to calm my racing heartbeat and the increasing flush in my face. The room was so quiet that you could almost understand the conversations going on outside of the room. Everyone was either looking at Luke or me, and I couldn't bother to feel nervous at this point because of how angry I was. Who did Luke think he was? Saying what he did was inexcusable, no matter if he was trying to keep up his act or not. I would not allow him to step over me.

Slowly, I reached back for my chair and plopped down in it, still holding eye contact with a very ashamed Luke. I figured he had learned his lesson for now.

"Okay," Nick said, cutting the tension away as best as he could. "What you said was totally out of line, Luke. You've earned yourself half a day in the Slammer for that. But are you sure he didn't tell you anything?"

Luke thought back a moment. "Well...I guess he did say something about being a Runner. He really wanted to be one."

Gally's face lit up like a small child getting a present. "You think he would want to be one so badly that he would sabotage anyone who got in his way?"

Nick immediately shot Gally a warning look. "That's a pretty big accusation--"

"Well, yeah, I guess so," Luke admitted somewhat sheepishly. "He sounded pretty confident in his chances, too."

Nick's eyes went wide. He brought a hand to his chin as he sat deep in thought, eyebrows pushed together. "Gathering dismissed. Luke, go and don't tell a word of what happened in this room, or you'll be sorry. Keepers stay after, please."

An undertone of confused grumbling followed his order. Us Keepers stayed in our seats as Luke got up and left. Once the door was shut again, Nick stood and walked in front of the chair Luke had been sitting in. He faced us with his damp hair disheveled and his chest still gleaming with sweat.

"Alright, this is some serious business," he began. "I don't think you guys realize how important all of this is. We've never had something like this happen before, right? Everything's been pretty peaceful? Well, wake up, because it hasn't been. Obviously things are going to get crazy as klunk, but I need each of you to zip your lips and not say anything to anyone who is not a Keeper. Don't even act like anything is wrong. Don't let Alex know he's under suspicion. Maybe we can get more information that way."

"Nick," Clark spoke softly, wiping his freckled face with the back of his hand. "Why is everything so klunked up right now?"

Nick sighed. "I have no idea, buddy. Things have always been klunked up. I guess now a little more than usual. We've got Newt, we've got Nadia, we've got Theo. Nothing is ever going to be the same."

He turned away from us and ran his hands along his face, running them through his hair as well and letting his arms drop to his sides. Even from the back I could see how utterly exhausted he was. His shoulders were slouched, head turned toward the ground, and he seemed more thin than usual.

Nick turned toward us again and started heading for the door. "You guys can go. Link, get some rest before our expedition tomorrow. I'm going to go fill Clint in on what happened."

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finally, an update! the next few chapters will move this book along fairly quickly because i don't want this book to be super long :/

i hope you hold onto your pants because this is still only the beginning of everything that's going to happen...

-kristyn