I hear footsteps and Four's hands wrap around my wrists. I let him pry my hands from my eyes. He encloses one of my hands perfectly between two of his. The warmth of his skin overwhelms the ache in my fingers from holding the bars. "You all right?" he asks, pressing our hands together. "Yeah." He starts to laugh.
Veronica RothOur eyes meet. I hear a train horn, so faint it could be wind whistling through an alleyway. But I know it when I hear it. It sounds like the Dauntless, calling me to to them.
Veronica RothBut I think that no matter how smart, people usually see what they're already looking for, that's all.
Veronica RothHe turns toward me. I want to touch him, but Iโm afraid of his bareness; afraid that he will make me bare too. โIs this scaring you, Tris?โ โNo,โ I croak. I clear my throat. โNot really. Iโm onlyโฆafraid of what I want.โ โWhat do you want?โ Then his face tightens. โMe?โ Slowly I nod.
Veronica RothBut that wasnยดt the first time I ever saw her. I saw her in the hallways at school, and at my motherโs false funeral, and walking the sidewalks in the Abnegation sector. I saw her, but I didnโt see her; no one saw her the way she truly was until she jumped. I suppose a fire that burns that bright is not meant to last.
Veronica RothI knew by the way he looked at her that he held her in a higher regard than he held even himself. No selfishness or insecurity kept him from seeing the full extent of her goodeness, as it so often does with the rest of us. That kind of love may only be possible in Abnegation. I do not know. My father: Erudite-born, Abnegation-grown. He often found it difficult to live up to the demands of his chosen faction, just as I did. But he tried, and he knew true selflessness when he saw it.
Veronica Roth