Free Four - Tobias tells the Divergent Knife-Throwing Scene. Вероника Рот

I don’t really need her eyes to be on mine, but I feel better when they are. I breathe the dust-sweat-metal smell and pass a knife from my left hand to my right. Eric inches closer.

      My view of the room narrows around the part in her hair, and I throw with my exhale.

      I hear Eric behind me. “Hmm” is all he says.

      “Come on, Stiff,” I say. “Let someone else stand there and take it.”

      “Shut up, Four!” she says, and I want to yell back that I’m as frustrated as she is, with an Erudite vulture analyzing my every move, searching for my weak points so he can hit them as hard as he can.

      I hear that “hmm” again and I’m not sure if it’s Eric or my imagination, but I know I have to convince him that she’s just another initiate to me, and I have to do it now. I breathe deep, and make a quick decision, staring at the tip of her ear, the quick-healing cartilage.

      The fear does not exist. My beating heart, tight chest, and sweating palms do not exist.

      I throw the knife and look away when she winces, too relieved to feel bad for hurting her. I did it.

      “I would love to stay and see if the rest of you are as daring as she is, but I think that’s enough for today,” says Eric. To me, he mutters, “Well. That should scare them, huh.”

      I think—I hope—that means he’s not suspicious of me anymore.

      He touches her shoulder, and gives her a metal-framed smile. “I should keep my eye on you.”

      I watch blood trickle down her ear and onto her neck and feel sick.