Carve the Mark (Carve the Mark, #1)

by Veronica Roth

the way he looked at me was the same way he looked at an impressive weapon. I was just a blade to him.

Pity, I knew, was just disrespect wrapped in kindness.

It was like he knew me, knew the one thing he could say that would tempt me the most. It wasn’t relief from pain that I wanted above all, but self-reliance. And he was offering it to me in a glass vial, in a hushflower potion.

“Honor has no place in survival.”

“Because knowing your enemies is the beginning of strategy,”

“You were taught this ritual?” I asked him. He nodded. “Carve the mark,” I said, my throat tight.

I am a Shotet. I am sharp as broken glass, and just as fragile. I tell lies better than I tell truths. I see all of the galaxy and never catch a glimpse of it.

“A fate is something that happens no matter what version of the future I see,”