Carve the Mark (Carve the Mark, #1)

by Veronica Roth

“Okay.” I winced as the currentshadows spread. “Are you prepared to endure an interrogation?” “I assumed he wouldn’t need to interrogate me if I came of my own accord.” She raised her eyebrows. “He’s concerned about the exile colony. He’ll want to get whatever information he can out of you before he . . .” The word execute stuck in my throat. “Kills me,” Zosita said. “My, my, Miss Noavek. You can’t even say the words? Are you so soft?” Her eyes shifted to the armor that covered my marked arm. “No,” I snapped. “It’s not an insult,” Zosita said, a little more gently. “Soft hearts make the universe worth living in.” Unexpectedly, I thought of Akos, whispering an apology in Thuvhesit, instinctively, when he brushed past me in the kitchen. I had played his gentle words over and over in my mind that night, like it was music I couldn’t get out of my head. It came to me just as easily now. “I know what it’s like to lose a mother,” I said. “I don’t wish it on anyone, even renegades I hardly know.” Zosita let out a little laugh, shaking her head. “What?” I said, defensive. “I . . . celebrated your mother’s passing,” she said. I went cold. “As I celebrated your father’s, and would have celebrated your brother’s. Even yours, perhaps.” She ran her fingers over the metal railing beside her. I imagined her daughter’s fingerprints, pressed there earlier minutes ago, now wiped clean by her touch. “It is a strange thing to realize that your worst enemies can be loved by their families.”