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He sits, so I sit next to hiry, but I know I need to eat, so I chew and say I as to Christina, and take a can of peaches from Tobias
"Why is everyone camped out in Marcus’s house?" I ask him
"Evelyn kicked hiotten to use it for years, and it was her turn" Tobias grins "It caused a huge blowup on the front lawn, but eventually Evelyn won"
I glance at Tobias’sto Peter and eating s from another can My stomach churns Tobias talks about her almost reverently But I still remember what she said to me about my transience in Tobias’s life
"There’s bread somewhere" He picks up a basket from the coffee table and hands it to me "Take two pieces You need it"
As I chew on the bread crust, I look at Peter and Evelyn again
"I think she’s trying to recruit hi the factionless life sound extraordinarily appealing"
"Anything to get him out of Dauntless I don’t care if he saved my life, I still don’t like him"
"Hopefully on’t have to worry about faction distinctions anymore by the time this is over It’ll be nice, I think"
I don’t say anything I don’t feel like picking a fight with hi him that it won’t be so easy to persuade Dauntless and Candor to join the factionless in their crusade against the faction system It may take another war
The front door opens, and Edward enters Today he wears a patch with a blue eye painted on it, coe eye against his otherwise handso
"Eddie!" soood eye has already fallen on Peter He starts across the roo a can of food out of someone’s hand Peter presses into the shadow of the door fra to disappear into it
Edward stops inches from Peter’s feet, and then jerks toward him like he is about to throw a punch Peter jolts back so hard he slarins, and all around us, the factionless laugh
"Not so brave in broad daylight," Edward says And then, to Evelyn, "Make sure you don’t give hiht do with them"
As he speaks, he plucks the fork from Peter’s hand
"Give that back," says Peter
Edward slams his free hand into Peter’s throat, and presses the tines of the fork between his fingers, right against Peter’s Ada into his face
"Keep your mouth shut around ain, only next tius"
"That’s enough," Evelyn says Edward drops the fork and releases Peter Then he walks across the room and sits next to the person who called him "Eddie" a moment before
"I don’t know if you know this," Tobias says, "but Edward is a little unstable"
"I’uy, who helped Peter perform that butter-knife ot kicked out of Dauntless, he tried to join the saroup of factionless Edas a part of Notice that you haven’t seen Drehere"
"Did Edward kill him?" I say
"Nearly," Tobias says "Evidently that’s why that other transfer--Myra, I think her naentle to bear it"
I feel hollow at the thought of Drew, almost dead at the hands of Edward Drew attacked me, too
"I don’t want to talk about this," I say
"Okay," Tobias says He touches ation house again? I o somewhere else, if it is"
I finish ation houses are the sa roo back h the blinds every h forneedles every evening But I don’t feel like I’ It’s a start
"Yes," I say "But not as hard as you ht think"
He raises an eyebrow
"Really The simulations in Erudite headquartershelped me, somehow To hold on, maybe" I frown "Or htly" That sounds right "Someday I’ll tell you about it" My voice sounds far away
He touches h we’re in a roohter and conversation, slowly kisses me
"Whoa there, Tobias," says the ht the "
"Then how do you explain all the Abnegation children?" Tobias raises his eyebrows
"They’re brought into being by sheer force of will," the woman on the arm of the chair interjects "Didn’t you know that, Tobias?"
"No, I wasn’t aware" He grins "My apologies"
They all laugh We all laugh And it occurs toTobias’s true faction They are not characterized by a particular virtue They claim all colors, all activities, all virtues, and all flaws as their own
I don’t knohat binds theround they have, as far as I know, is failure Whatever it is, it seeh
I feel, as I look at hi him as he is, instead of how he is in relation to me So hoell do I really know hiinning to set The Abnegation sector is far from quiet The Dauntless and factionless wander the streets, souns in their other hands
Ahead of me, Zeke pushes Shauna in her wheelchair past the house of Alice Brewster, foration leader They don’t see ain!" she says
"Are you sure?"
"Yes!"
"Okay" Zeke starts to jog behind the wheelchair Then, when he’s almost too far away for me to see, he pushes hi the ground, and together they fly down the
I turn left at the next intersection and start down the cracked sidewalk toward the building where Abnegation had its h it feels like it has been a long time since I last went there, I still remember where it is One block south, two blocks west