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"It’s wrong," he says "It doesn’t matter if your parents are in a better place--they aren’t here with you, and that’s wrong, Tris It shouldn’t have happened It shouldn’t have happened to you And anyone who tells you it’s okay is a liar"

A sob racks htly I find it difficult to breathe, but it doesn’t liness,ani from my throat If this continues I will break apart, and maybe that would be better,

He doesn’t speak for a long tiain

"Sleep," he says "I’ll fight the bad dreaet you"

"With what?"

"My bare hands, obviously"

I wrap my arm around his waist and take a deep breath of his shoulder He smells like sweat and fresh air and mint, from the salve he sometimes uses to relax his sore muscles He smells safe, too, like sunlit walks in the orchard and silent breakfasts in the dining hall And in the et about our war-torn city and all the conflict that will come to find us soon, if we don’t find it first

In the moments before I drift off to sleep, I hear him whisper, "I love you, Tris"

And one

CHAPTER SIX

THAT MORNING I wake up to the buzz of an electric razor Tobias stands in front of the mirror, his head tilted so he can see the corner of his jaw

I hug my knees, covered by the sheet, and watch hi," he says "How did you sleep?"

"Okay" I get up, and as he tilts his head back to address his chin with the razor, I wrapmy forehead to his back where the Dauntless tattoo peeks out from beneath his shirt

He sets the razor down and folds his hands over mine Neither of us breaks the silence I listen to hiers idly, the task at hand forgotten

"I should go get ready," I say after a while I am reluctant to leave, but I am supposed to work in the laundry roo et you so to wear," he says

I walk barefoot down the hallway a fewthe shirt I slept in and a pair of shorts Tobias borrowed fro next to hten up and search the room for a blunt object

"Get out," I say as steadily as I can But it’s hard to keepI can’t help but remember the look in his eyes as he held ainst the wall in the Dauntless compound

He turns to look at me Lately when he looks at me it’s without his usual malice--instead he just see But I a in my roo stalking Marcus? I saw you after breakfast yesterday"

I match his stare with my own "That’s none of your business Get out"

"I’et to keep track of that hard drive," he says "It’s not like you’re particularly stable these days"

"I’ froether and says nothing

I narrow my eyes "Why are you so interested in the hard drive anyway?"

"I’m not stupid," he says "I know it contains more than the simulation data"

"No, you aren’t stupid, are you?" I say "You think if you deliver it to the Erudite, they’ll forgive your indiscretion and let you back in their good graces"

"I don’t want to be back in their good graces," he says, stepping forward again "If I had, I wouldn’t have helped you in the Dauntless coer, digging in ernail "You helped ain"

"Ifaction traitor" He seizes ets to control me, especially not the Erudite"

I yankso that he won’t be able to hold on My hands are sweaty

"I don’t expect you to understand" I wipe my hands on the hem of my shirt as I inch toward the dresser "I’ot attacked, you would have just let your faet shot between the eyes without protest But I’m not like that"

"Careful what you say about my family, Stiff" He moves with me, toward the dresser, but I carefully shift so that I stand between hi to reveal the hard drive’s location by getting it out while he’s in here, but I don’t want to leave the path to it clear, either

His eyes shift to the dresser behind me, to the left side, where the hard drive is hidden I frown at hiular bulge in one of his pockets

"Give it to me," I say "Now"

"No"

"Give it to me, or so help me, I will kill you in your sleep"

He smirks "If only you could see how ridiculous you look when you threaten people Like a little girl telling le me with her jump rope"

I start toward him, and he shifts back, into the hallway

"Don’t call irl’"

"I’ll call you whatever I want"

I jerk into action, ai my left fist where I knoill hurt the worst: at the bullet wound in his arain, I seize his arm as hard as I can and wrench it to the side Peter screas, and while he’s distracted by the pain, I kick hiround

People rush into the hallearing gray and black and yellow and red Peter surges toward me in a half crouch, and punches me in the stomach I hunch over, but the pain doesn’t stop roan and a scream, and launch myself at him, my left elbow pulled back near my mouth so that I can slarabs me by the arms and half lifts, half pulls me away from Peter The wound in h the pulse of adrenaline I strain toward hinore the stunned faces of the Aation--and Tobias--aroundwords in a soothing tone of voice I try to ignore his groans of pain and the guilt stabbing at my stomach I hate him I don’t care I hate him