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Tris faced hi her braids so they reached towards Keth like yearning hands Quietly she said, dont believe lightning has the power to hurt you any nize you as a kindred spirit But in case I , and I suppose I could be, / can protect you from it I can keep it off you But Keth, for that to happen, you have to trust , his mind in an uproar It did come to trust, didnt it? She was his teacher Until now shed been a good one threw lightning at me,he reminded her That hurt

youd put all of yours into ChimeQuick as a flash her hand whipped forward A thin streaot it with her braids all done up? shot between them to strike Keth s crossed ar else happened

Did it again!he yelled, outraged

s rightHer eyes were cold and steady a bit I yanked from the air, with the storm almost on us Did it hurt?

s beside the point!he cried threw

it hurt?she interrupted, steely-voiced

Keth struggled, trying to think of so to say Finally he snapped, tellat me

It was her turn to cross her aret you to listen to me, if you wont take my word for it?

Suddenly the ent out of his sails She was right She was right, and he, a grown ed far smaller, and far more trehed and wiped his sweaty face with a hand that shook s go, then

They cliallery, then up to the roof Ferouze had already taken the wash down fro a few buckets and a bench to endure the storh black clouds billowed overhead The wind rose, whistling through the streets and over the rooftops In a lodging house across the way someone had not closed his shutters completely: they slaes The air had taken on the green hue of olive oil Thunder rolled in the distance Keth shivered, and huddled in a corner of the rooftop wall, Little Bear on his left, Chiht he would be safe in this low part of Tharios that would not draw lightning That no longer mattered with Tris here With Tris for company, no place was safe

Ill protect you, she had said Now he had to learn, did he need protection?

Tris stood at the centre of the roof, idly re below her shoulders, flapping and popping in the wind

Lightning flashed Keth waited, counting silendy to himself At thirty he heard the roll of thunder The storm was fifteen kilometres away plenty of ti hiain Keth resu when thunder boomed at twenty Ten kilometres The storm moved fast Another flash, and another Thunder htened He couldn t remember if Ira had ever said if her child was afraid of storms Keth had never been afraid, one of the reasons he was stupid enough to be caught in the open when the Syth blew up a surprise

Lightning jabbed down near the Piraki Gate Thunder blasted through the narrow canyons ed, thun der on its heels It struck Tris squarely, all three prongs twining around her She held up her ar, a white-hot ladder to the clouds Several of her braids exploded fro that secured her to the sky Oddly enough, the rest of her hair stayed where it was, unbudging, locked in place with pins Keths rescuers told hiht up when he was found Why did soes kit Suddenly he believed that she held other forces ready for use in herwhen she had described the range of her power Niko had said nothing that day, not because he liked the joke Tris played on Keth, but because she told the literal truth

Irained fourteen-year-old

Chi his Free of the bowl of his lap and ar around the trapped branch of lightning that still clung to Tris

Keth stared Inside Chime he saw a skeleton of silver Around it twined veins that flickered and rippled like lightning

Little Bear had seen enough The big dog scras

The bolt that held Tris shrank It wasnt dying, Keth realized It was soaking into the hair that his young teacher had freed of its pins It grew thinner and thinner, until it was gone The braids that had absorbed it shimmered

An immense fist pounded Keth on the head He fell to his knees, staring at his hands They blazed he blazed with lightning He groped his scalp, and found solobe he dhad struck his head, in the same place the last bolt had struck His brain fizzed, his eyes filled with a glory of white fire that trickled down his throat, into his belly, through his ars had sohtning; it was simply overwhelhtning struck objects because it was drawn to the ghost of itself within them