The Traitor (Divergent, #0.4)

by Veronica Roth

“What’s your real name?” “See if you can figure that out, too.”

I want to tell her it’s not a game; my fears aren’t thrilling rides she gets to go on. But she probably doesn’t mean it that way.

“Feel how steady it is?” I smile into her shoulder. “It’s fast.” “Yes, well, that has nothing to do with the box.” Of course it doesn’t. “Every time you feel me breathe, you breathe. Focus on that.” We breathe together, once, twice.

“I’m not afraid of you.” “Of course you’re not. That’s not what I meant.” I meant not Are you afraid of me? but Am I important enough to you to feature in the landscape anyway?

But she saw Marcus and she looked at him, with anger and without fear. She made me feel, not weak, but powerful. Strong enough to fight back.

openness is a habit you form over time, and not a switch you flip whenever you want to, I’m finding.

“Yeah, well. I left Abnegation because I wasn’t selfless enough, no matter how hard I tried to be.”

“That girl who let someone throw knives at her to spare a friend, who hit my dad with a belt to protect me—that selfless girl, that’s not you?”

“Yes, that whopping two-year gap really is insurmountable, isn’t it?”

but I don’t have to fail myself.

“You’re no longer welcome in this house,” he says. “I . . .” I stand up straighter, and not because he hates bad posture. “I don’t care,”