The Divergent Library: Divergent; Insurgent; Allegiant; Four: The Transfer, The Initiate, The Son, and The Traitor (Divergent Series) (106 page)
Authors: Veronica Roth
All the Divergent fansites, for crazy-awesome internet (and real-life) enthusiasm.
My readers, for reading and thinking and squealing and tweeting and talking and lending and, above all, for teaching me so many valuable lessons about writing and life.
All of the people listed above have made this series what it is, and knowing you all has changed my life. I am so lucky.
I’ll say it one last time: Be brave.
In the spring of 2012, fifty blogs helped spread their love for the
DIVERGENT
series by supporting the release of
INSURGENT
in a faction-based online campaign. Every participant was integral to the success of this series! Thank you to:
ABNEGATION: Amanda Bell (faction leader), Katie Bartow, Heidi Bennett, Katie Butler, Asma Faizal, Hafsah Faizal, Ana Grilo, Kathy Habel, Thea James, Julie Jones, and HD Tolson
AMITY: Meg Caristi, Kassiah Faul, and Sherry Atwell (faction leaders), Kristin Aragon, Emily Ellsworth, Cindy Hand, Melissa Helmers, Abigail J., Sarah Pitre, Lisa Reeves, Stephanie Su, and Amanda Welling
CANDOR: Kristi Diehm (faction leader), Jaime Arnold, Harmony Beaufort, Damaris Cardinali, Kris Chen, Sara Gundell, Bailey Hewlett, John Jacobson, Hannah McBride, and Aeicha Matteson
DAUNTLESS: Alison Genet (faction leader), Lena Ainsworth, Stacey Canova and Amber Clark, April Conant, Lindsay Cummings, Jessica Estep, Ashley Gonzales, Anna Heinemann, Tram Hoang, Nancy Sanchez, and Yara Santos
ERUDITE: Pam van Hylckama Vlieg (faction leader), James Booth, Mary Brebner, Andrea Chapman, Amy Green, Jen Hamflett, Brittany Howard, O’Dell Hutchison, Benji Kenworthy, Lyndsey Lore, Jennifer McCoy, Lisa Parkin, and Lisa Roecker
#1
NEW YORK TIMES
BESTSELLERS
USA TODAY
BESTSELLERS
INDIE BESTSELLER LISTS
GOODREADS CHOICE AWARDS FAVORITE BOOK OF THE YEAR
GOODREADS CHOICE AWARDS BEST AUTHOR OF THE YEAR
GOODREADS CHOICE AWARDS BEST YA FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR
ALA TEENS’ TOP TEN #1 FAVORITE BOOK OF THE YEAR
ALA BEST FICTION FOR YOUNG ADULTS
ALA QUICK PICK FOR RELUCTANT YOUNG ADULT READERS
ROMANTIC TIMES AWARD, “BEST YA PROTAGONIST”
ROMANTIC TIMES AWARD, “BEST YA FANTASY/FUTURISTIC/SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL”
AMAZON.COM BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
BARNES & NOBLE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
CHAPTERS/INDIGO BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
NPR BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
“The next big thing.”—
ROLLING STONE
“Move over, Katniss. Tris is the next in line.”—
USA TODAY
“Thrilling.”—
US WEEKLY
“If you haven’t heard of Veronica Roth, just ask a teenager. They’ll know all about the twenty-four-year-old author of the wildly successful books. The trilogy might be ending, but Roth’s career is clearly just getting started.”
—THE
TODAY
SHOW
“Veronica Roth is the current rave among teen readers.”
—
ASSOCIATED PRESS
“Veronica Roth is already beyond hot but could become the next young adult author to blast off into orbit.”
—
NEW YORK POST
“The imaginative action and glimpses of a sprawling conspiracy are serious attention-grabbers, and the portrait of a shattered, derelict, overgrown, and abandoned Chicago is evocative as ever.”
—HOLLYWOODCRUSH.MTV.COM
“Promising author Roth tells the riveting and complex story of a teenage girl forced to choose between her routinized, selfless family and the adventurous, unrestrained future she longs for. A memorable, unpredictable journey from which it is nearly impossible to look away.”
—
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
(STARRED REVIEW)
“Roth paints her canvas with the same brush as Suzanne Collins. The plot, scenes, and characters are different but the colors are the same and just as rich. Fans of Collins, dystopias, and strong female characters will love this novel.”
—
SLJ
“With brisk pacing and lavish flights of imagination,
DIVERGENT
clearly has thrills, but it also movingly explores a more common adolescent anxiety—the painful realization that coming into one’s own sometimes means leaving family behind, both ideologically and physically.”
—
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
“Nonstop, adrenaline-heavy action. Packed with stunning twists and devastating betrayals.”
—
BCCB
“
DIVERGENT
is really an extended metaphor about the trials of modern adolescence: constantly having to take tests that sort and rank you among your peers, facing separation from your family, agonizing about where you fit in, and deciding when (or whether) to reveal the ways you may diverge from the group.”
—WALL STREET JOURNAL
“This gritty, paranoid world is built with careful details and intriguing scope. The plot clips along at an addictive pace, with steady jolts of brutal violence and swoony romance. Fans snared by the ratcheting suspense will be unable to resist speculating on their own factional allegiance.”
—
KIRKUS REVIEWS
“You’ll be up all night with
DIVERGENT
, a brainy thrill-ride of a novel.”
—
BOOKPAGE
Cover art ™ & © Veronica Roth 2013
Cover design and landscape art by Joel Tippie
Katherine Tegen Books is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
ALLEGIANT
. Copyright © 2013 by Veronica Roth. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013941315
ISBN 978-0-06-202406-0 (trade bdg.)
ISBN 978-0-06-228733-5 (international edition)
EPub Edition August 2013 ISBN 9780062359384
Version 06102014
13 14 15 16 17
LP/CG/RRDH
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FIRST EDITION
Four: The Transfer: A Divergent Story
I
EMERGE FROM
the simulation with a yell. My lip stings, and when I take my hand away from it, there is blood on my fingertips. I must have bitten it during the test.
The Dauntless woman administering my aptitude test—Tori, she said her name was—gives me a strange look as she pulls her black hair back and ties it in a knot. Her arms are marked up and down with ink, flames and rays of light and hawk wings.
“When you were in the simulation . . . were you aware that it wasn’t real?” Tori says to me as she turns off the machine. She sounds and looks casual, but it’s a studied casualness, learned from years of practice. I know it when I see it. I always do.
Suddenly I’m aware of my own heartbeat. This is what my father said would happen. He told me that they would ask me if I was aware during the simulation, and he told me what to say when they did.
“No,” I say. “If I was, do you think I would have chewed through my lip?”
Tori studies me for a few seconds, then bites down on the ring in her lip before she says, “Congratulations. Your result was textbook Abnegation.”
I nod, but the word “Abnegation” feels like a noose wrapped around my throat.
“Aren’t you pleased?” she says.
“My faction members will be.”
“I didn’t ask about them, I asked about you.” Tori’s mouth and eyes turn down at the corners like they bear little weights. Like she’s sad about something. “This is a safe room. You can say whatever you want here.”
I knew what my choices in the aptitude test would add up to before I arrived at school this morning. I chose food over a weapon. I threw myself in the path of the dog to save the little girl. I knew that after I made those choices, the test would end and I would receive Abnegation as a result. And I don’t know that I would have made different choices if my father hadn’t coached me, hadn’t controlled every part of my aptitude test from afar. So what was I expecting? What faction did I want?
Any of them. Any of them but Abnegation
.
“I’m pleased,” I say firmly. I don’t care what she says—this isn’t a safe room. There are no safe rooms, no safe truths, no safe secrets to tell.
I can still feel the dog’s teeth closing around my arm, tearing my skin. I nod to Tori and start toward the door, but just before I leave, her hand closes around my elbow.
“You’re the one who has to live with your choice,” she says. “Everyone else will get over it, move on, no matter what you decide. But you never will.”
I open the door and walk out.
I return to the cafeteria and sit down at the Abnegation table, among the people who barely know me. My father doesn’t permit me to come to most community events. He claims that I’ll cause a disruption, that I’ll do something to hurt his reputation. I don’t care. I’m happier in my room, in the silent house, than surrounded by the deferential, apologetic Abnegation.
The consequence of my constant absence, though, is that the other Abnegation are wary of me, convinced there’s something wrong with me, that I’m ill or immoral or strange. Even those willing to nod at me in greeting don’t quite meet my eyes.
I sit with my hands clenching my knees, watching the other tables, while the other students finish their aptitude tests. The Erudite table is covered in reading material, but they aren’t all studying—they’re just making a show of it, trading conversation instead of ideas, their eyes snapping back to the words every time
they think someone’s watching them. The Candor are talking loudly, as always. The Amity are laughing, smiling, pulling food from their pockets and passing it around. The Dauntless are raucous and loud, slung over the tables and chairs, leaning on one another and poking one another and teasing.
I wanted any other faction. Any other faction but mine, where everyone has already decided that I am not worth their attention.
Finally an Erudite woman enters the cafeteria and holds up a hand for silence. The Abnegation and Erudite quiet down right away, but it takes her shouting “Quiet!” for the Dauntless, Amity, and Candor to notice her.
“The aptitude tests are now finished,” she says. “Remember that you are not permitted to discuss your results with
anyone
, not even your friends or family. The Choosing Ceremony will be tomorrow at the Hub. Plan to arrive at least ten minutes before it begins. You are dismissed.”
Everyone rushes toward the doors except our table, where we wait for everyone else to leave before we even get to our feet. I know the path my fellow Abnegation will take out of here, down the hallway and out the front doors to the bus stop. They could be there for
over an hour letting other people get on in front of them. I don’t think I can bear any more of this silence.