26
" He put his hands on hers. The shadows looked like smoke, in the air, but they pulled back into Cyra’s body like dozens of strings yanked at once.
Cyra’s odd smile was gone, and she was staring at their joined hands.
“What will happen when you let go?” she said quietly.
“You’ll be just fine,” he said. “You’ll learn to control it. You can do that now, remember?”
She let out an airy laugh.
“I can hang on as long as you like,” he said.
Her eyes hardened. When she spoke, it was with gritted teeth. “Let go.”
Akos couldn’t help but think back to something he’d read in one of the books Cyra had put in his room on the sojourn ship. He’d had to read it through a translator, because it was written in Shotet, and it had been called Tenets of Shotet Culture and Belief.
It said: The most marked characteristic of the Shotet people is directly translated as “armored,” but outsiders might call it “mettle.” It refers not to courageous acts in difficult situations--though the Shotet certainly hold valor in high regard--but to an inherent quality that cannot be learned or imitated; it is in the blood as surely as their revelatory language. Mettle is bearing up again and again under assaults. It is perseverance, acceptance of risk, and the unwillingness to surrender.
That paragraph had never made more sense to him than it did right now. "
― Veronica Roth , The Fates Divide (Carve the Mark, #2)
29
" Akos watched her carefully as she spoke, as she pulled him closer and touched her forehead to his, so they could still look at each other, breathing the same air.
“What I did,” he said, “cut out a piece of me.”
“It’s all right,” she said. “I’m all hacked up and stitched back together, too.”
She pulled away.
“For now,” she said, “just be my friend again, okay? And we can talk about the whole ‘I’m still in love with you, what the hell do we do about it’ question later.”
Akos smiled.
“Show me your house,” she said. “Are there embarrassing pictures of you? On the journey, your sister told me you were very particular about your socks.”
And so Akos took her upstairs, his fingers laced with hers, and opened all his drawers, letting himself be thoroughly mocked. "
― Veronica Roth , The Fates Divide (Carve the Mark, #2)
30
" I had accepted the likelihood of death when I decided to kill my father, but now that I had my life, I wanted to keep it again. Even without Akos, even without family, even with most of Shotet hating me, what I had told Teka before was right. I had more now. I had friends. Hope for my own future, and for myself.
But I also had love for my people, broken though some of them may have been. Their stubborn will to survive. The way they looked at discarded objects, not as garbage, but as possibilities. They crash-landed through hostile atmospheres. They coasted alongside the currentstream. They were explorers, innovators, warriors, wanderers. And I belonged to them. "
― Veronica Roth , The Fates Divide (Carve the Mark, #2)
35
" Come with me,” I said in a harsh whisper. “Or I will kill you, right now, with my bare hands. You may have some of Ryzek’s learned skill, but you are still in the body of Eijeh Kereseth, and he is no match for me in a footrace or a fight or even a goddamn contest of wills.”
“Threats,” he gritted out. “I would say they are beneath you, but they never have been, have they?”
“I prefer to think of them as promises,” I said, smiling, all teeth. "
― Veronica Roth , The Fates Divide (Carve the Mark, #2)
36
" Don’t worry,” Teka said, likely noticing that the rest of us had gone silent. “We’re cloaked. We look like a patrol ship to them.”
At that very moment, a red light flashed on the nav panel. Yssa looked back at Teka with eyebrows raised. It was a call, probably from the patrol vessel.
“Patch them through,” Teka said, unbuckling herself and moving to stand at Yssa’s shoulder.
“This is patrol ship XA774. Please identify yourself.”
“Patrol ship XA993. What are you doing afloat, XA774?” Teka said, without faltering for even a moment. “I don’t see you listed on the updated schedule.”
She was pantomiming for Yssa, pointing out the spot where Ettrek’s people had told us to land, urging her to move fast.
“At what time was your schedule issued, 993?”
“1440,” Teka replied.
“You’re out of date. This one was issued at 1500 hours.”
“Ah,” Teka said. “Our mistake. We’ll make our way back to our docking station.”
She slapped a hand over the switch to turn off our communicator: Go!”
Yssa pressed hard on the accelerator with the heel of her hand, and we zoomed toward the landing spot. Teka was nearly knocked off her feet by the sudden movement, so she clung to the back of Yssa’s chair as we lost altitude. Yssa lowered the ship to the patch of empty rooftop on the outer rim of Voa that Ettrek’s contacts had indicated.
“Is there really a patrol ship XA993?” I asked.
Teka grinned. “No. They only go up to 950. "
― Veronica Roth , The Fates Divide (Carve the Mark, #2)
40
" You’re the one thing that makes my life bearable,” he said, and the sudden tension in him, suffusing every muscle, reminded me of how he had braced himself every time Vas came around. It was the way he looked when he was guarding himself against pain. “You’re this bright spot of light. You’re--Cyra, before I knew you, I thought about…”
I raised my eyebrows.
He drew a sharp breath. His gray eyes looked glassy.
“Before I knew you,” he began again, “I didn’t intend to live past rescuing my brother. I didn’t want to serve the Noavek family. I didn’t want to give my life to them. But when it’s you…it seems like whatever the end is, it might be worthwhile. "
― Veronica Roth , The Fates Divide (Carve the Mark, #2)
