She stepped closer. “But didn’t those actions come with consequences?” “Yes.” “And you probably knew they would. But you acted for those who couldn’t speak up for themselves. That’s special, America.
Having a boy see you, acknowledge you in such a way that you felt sure no one had ever experienced that feeling before, all the while knowing you’d joined a long line of people who did the same dance to find the person they spend their lives with.
I pulled back the covers and leaped into the morning.
It took only one charged second to hear the heart that I’d had so little faith in.
Yeah, five. Most families out there have lots of kids. I’d have lots if I could.” “Oh, really?” Maxon’s eyebrows were raised.
As I looked into his eyes, I felt that unnameable feeling that was growing between us.
They might have gone through their lives with much less than I have, but they have enriched my life in ways I can’t begin to express.
I’ve held back so much from you out of fear. I’m afraid that if I show you everything at once, it will overwhelm you, and you’ll run away. I’m afraid that somewhere in the back of your heart is a love for someone else that will never die. I’m afraid that I will make a mistake again, something so huge that you retreat into that silent world of yours. No scolding from a tutor, no lashing from my father, no isolation in my youth has ever hurt me so much as you separating yourself from me.
Of all the lies you’ve told me, that’s the one I resent the most.
Maxon Schreave, you are nothing but a child who has his hands on a toy that he doesn’t want but can’t stand for someone else to have.
Beside him, another guard recognized me, and one by one they bowed, deeply and reverently.
There we were, two little spots of light growing together, inseparable.
I was home. And I finally found my voice. Yes.
Maybe one day another life might catch up with me. Or there could be no other life at all. I guess I couldn’t say for sure. Either way, I choose Akinli. There are some things you just know. And I know I want Akinli. I hope that will always be a good enough answer: that he’s what I would take over anything else.
To him, it would be the saddest ending. But I thought about my family and Jillian. I thought about the lives they led and how special they were. Isn’t it the last chapter of a book that really makes it worth reading? Every story has to end. And everyone thinks death is a sad way to end a story. But that’s just not true. If it is, we are all just walking tragedies.
It’s a strange thing to discover how much you matter to people you didn’t really know you mattered to. Or to find that the slow disintegration of yourself causes a smaller version to happen in other people.
Everyone keeps saying that: it might be good for me. What does that even mean? I’m smart and beautiful and strong. I don’t need to be rescued.
There, lying in the hospital wing, my heart broke for the first time over Maxon Schreave.
Oh, Celeste was making it clear that if I hurt you, she’d make me cry,” he said with a smile.
He scoffed and started pacing again. ‘Please, America, you’ve said and done so many things, I’m surprised you can even be embarrassed anymore.