I laugh shakily. ‘You’re a little scary, Four.’ ‘Do me a favor,’ he says, ‘and don’t call me that.’ ‘What should I call you, then?’ ‘Nothing.’ He takes his hand from my face. ‘Yet.

Not like Tobias, who is almost shy when he smiles, like he is surprised you bothered to look at him in the first place.

The official strategy is defensive pessimism, always.

I can't force you. I can't make you want to survive this." He pulls me against him and runs his hand over my hair, tucking it behind my ear. His fingers trail down my neck and over my shoulder, and he says, "But you will do it. It doesn't matter if you believe you can or not. You will, because that's who you are.

Being selfless is not that different from being brave. It is when you are selfless that you are the bravest.

Soon I will honor my parents by dying as they died. and if all they believed about death was true, soon I will join them in whatever comes next.

But I will find new habits, new thoughts, new rules. I will become something else.