Page 101 of The Sixth Fraction

“Time is running out,” Eric says. “So you better have a name for me soon, or—”

He pauses as the other person speaks. I can’t hear them at all, which must mean they have a higher voice—a girl, maybe? Or just someone who’s not talking as loud.

“Can’t do that, you know that. I have to . . . appearances.”

The gravel digs into the soles of my shoes. There are dandelions here, growing from cracks in the pavement, tall enough to brush against my calves.

“Just get it done,” Eric says. “We have a hard deadline.”

For what? I want to scream. A deadline for what?

As unclear as all of this is, it tells me one thing: Eric is part of some bigger plan.

Which means maybe I’ve been suspicious of the wrong people this whole time.

I hear his footsteps on the wooden stairs, and I stay low as I scurry toward the end of the alley. But he’s moving faster than I thought he was; he rounds the corner before I can join the patchwork of Dauntless near the entrance. I’m still walking alone, conspicuous.

“Hey!” he calls out.

I weigh my options. I could keep walking, try to disappear in Dauntless headquarters. Or I could turn around and try to lie my way out of the situation.

If I do turn around, I’ll be close enough to find out what I want to know. But I’m too isolated here.

I don’t run, but I don’t confront him, either. Instead, trusting that he’ll follow me, I dodge one of the Dauntless girls standing near the entrance to the glass building and head toward the stairs that lead down, into the Pit. I’ve never been here before, but there’s only one path that lines the Pit.

I make it down the stairs and onto the stone path near the Pit’s edge. Then a hand grabs my shoulder and wrenches me around. I gasp at the pain of the movement, and then Eric is shoving me up against the stone wall, his arm like a metal bar across my chest. He’s so close I can smell his breath.

“What the hell are you doing here?” he says.

Chapter 36

Tris

He’s pushing so hard against my chest that it’s hard for me to breathe. “I—” The rings in his lip are gleaming. Over his shoulder I see a familiar face, and I call out before I can think better of it. “Uriah!”

Uriah, just descending the steps to the Pit, meets my eyes with an alarmed look, and I can’t tell if he’s alarmed by seeing me in Dauntless headquarters or by the way Eric is pinning me to the wall. I grit my teeth so hard they squeak. He’ll either give me away, tell Eric I’m factionless and I don’t belong here, or . . . he’ll lie for me.

“Beatrice,” he says, leaving the group he’s with—I recognize the two girls with him from school, Marlene and Lynn—and jogging over to us. “What’s going on?”

Eric glares down at me. “You know this girl? She’s Dauntless?”

“Of course,” Uriah says. “She’s—”

“Fifteen,” I say, interrupting him. “I’m fifteen. I haven’t chosen yet.”

Eric takes his arm away from my chest, but he doesn’t step back. “I just saw you—” He pauses. He can’t admit to where he just saw me, not in front of Uriah. His gaze drops to my clothes. “I just saw you get off a train. Where were you?”

I duck my head, hoping I look convincingly sheepish. As I’m doing it, I look at the gun at his side. But the holster is covering it—I can’t tell whether it’s a needle gun or not.

“I went to see my brother,” I say, ignoring the sinking in my stomach. “He chose a couple months ago, and I couldn’t go see him on Visiting Day, and I just miss him so much that I thought I could maybe sneak into Erudite headquarters and—”

Eric holds up a hand to stop me. “You know it’s against the rules to sneak into another faction’s headquarters, especially if it’s to see a new initiate.”

“It was stupid.” I wish I could cry on command—if I know one thing about boys, it’s that they tend to get really uncomfortable around crying girls. I sniffle, like maybe I’m about to. “I’m sorry.”

He rolls his eyes. “I despair for the future of this faction. Don’t let me catch you breaking the rules again, understand?”

I blink a few times, rapidly, and nod.