Pandemonium (Delirium, #2)

by Lauren Oliver

If you want something, if you take it for your own, you’ll always be taking it from someone else. That’s a rule too. And something must die so that others can live.” My breath stops. For a moment the world stops turning, and everything is silence and Raven’s eyes. “But you know all about that, don’t you, Lena?” She never raises her voice, but I feel the words physically—my head starts pounding, my chest is full of searing pain. All I can think is Don’t say it, don’t say it, don’t say it, and I’m falling into the long dark tunnels of her eyes, back to that terrible dawn at the border, when the sun seeped across the bay like a slow stain. She says, “Didn’t you try to cross with someone else? We heard the rumors. You were with somebody . . .” And then, as though she’s only just remembering, although now I see that she has known—of course she has known—all along, and hatred and fury are welling up so fast and thick I think I will drown. “His name was Alex, wasn’t it?” I am in midair, lunging at her, before I