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"It’s what I ahs "You who trust Victra A Julii You who trusted Tactus You who let an Orange give strategic recoives coe of bronzies?" She wags a finger at me "Don’t be a hypocrite now, Darrow au Andro to tell everyone else they can choose their destiny, then you damn well better do the same"

She’s too smart to lie to That’s why I’m so ill at ease around her when she asks s I can’t explain There’s no explainable motivation to so rew up incolony My history is hollow to her My drive confusing … if I was born a Gold This must all look like ambition, like bloodlust And without Eo, it would be

"That look," Mustang says, taking a step back froo when you look atinto her as her sh "No"

"Then her The girl you lost"

I say nothing

She’s never pried She’s never asked about Eo, not e shared ti lancer Not e rode horses at her faardens or dove in the coral reefs I thought she irl as I lay with her in the Institute’s snows How stupid of er there inside her, forcing her to wonder, as she lay with her head onto another girl, a dead girl

"Silence isn’t the right answer right now, Darrow" After a moment, she leaves me alone in the room Sounds from her feet fade The Mozart disappears

I chase after her, reaching her before she finds the door to the hall I grab her wrist She flings me off

"Stop it!"

I reel back, startled

"Why do you do this?" she asks "Why do you pullto push me away?" Her fists ball like she wants to strike me "It’s not fair Do you understand that? I’m not like you … I can’t just … I can’t just shut off like you do"

"I don’t shut off"

"You shut me off After that speech about Victra … about the iers in front of my face "You can still cut me away like that You care and then you don’t Maybe that’s why he likes you so much"

"He?"

"My father"