REFRACT - Book One

Nora Elizabeth Roberts-codename: Lizzie-is the deadliest secret A.S.C.E.N.D. ever made.
A mind reader. A trained killer. A girl stripped of innocence and rebuilt to obey.

She doesn't dream. She doesn't break.
She executes.

For eleven years, Lizzie has hunted threats to the regime. With a glance, she can crack open minds. With a thought, she can end lives. But when her next mission arrives, everything shifts:

"Bring in rebel leader Dylan Huertes. Do not kill. Do not fail."

No one tells her why he matters. Only that he's dangerous.
But when she finds him... he isn't afraid of her.

He fights her. Challenges her. Sees her. And when he looks at her, it's not as a weapon-it's as something wild and unfinished... something worth saving.

She hates him for it.
She wants to understand him.
And against everything she's been taught, she begins to want him.

But Dylan isn't just a rebel. He's temptation wrapped in rebellion, a heart wrapped in secrets. He pushes her closer to questions she was never meant to ask. Who is she without A.S.C.E.N.D.? What would freedom feel like? And why does the voice inside her-dark and hungry-sound like her own?

It wants her to burn it all down.
To kill Lucien Thorne, the man who forged her.
To turn on everyone who ever held the leash.

Because Lizzie isn't just powerful.
She's a ticking bomb.
And Dylan? He might be the spark.

But love built between enemies is fragile, and betrayal cuts deepest when hearts are exposed. In a world of lies, power, and blood, Lizzie must decide:

Will she destroy the system-or become it?

One will die.
One will rule.
And one will fall in love with the enemy who could break them both.