Powerful

14. If I Had My Way We'd Never Close Our Eyes

Jordyn sat bolt upright with a gasp, her lungs heaving in air, her heart beating wildly out of her chest.

"Woah, careful. Are you okay?"

Her eyes were struggling to focus, but eventually, she could pick out Virgil, and as the remainder of her senses returned to her, she could feel his hands on her arms, holding her gently in place. She collapsed into his arms, still breathing heavily, but her hands moved to grasp him, and hold him so he couldn't leave.

"That was the worst experience of my life," she muttered, when speech finally returned to her.

Virg chuckled, but held her tightly in his arms, allowing her time to calm down.

"Would it help if I told you you did great?"

"No," she sighed. "I'd know you were lying. I wasn't supposed to use my powers."

"You actually did pretty well, all things considered," he said, pulling away to meet her gaze. "Do you remember how many fears you faced?"

Jordyn frowned a little. She attempted to think back through what she'd just experienced. The first one was the beetles. The second, being trapped in a tank. The third... oh.

"Did you see all of that?" She asked him, feeling her cheeks heat up at the thought of it.

Virg smiled at her, with a slight nod.

"Let's just say, I'm happy you'd trust me. But I now understand why you struggled with it so much in the first place. That was your third fear, correct? A fear of trust."

Jordyn nodded.

"So. Beetles. Being trapped. Trust. The fourth one?"

"That was the worst one," the blonde muttered.

"It always goes from least to greatest."

"I don't even know what that was. But what I was most afraid of was losing control of my powers. I should have seen that one coming. But that's going to be a problem, my entire fear is centred around the fact that I have Divergence powers. How can I possibly hide that when the Dauntless leaders see my final test?"

Virg was staring at her, his brown eyes were filled with worry, despite the fact that he was trying to hide it.

"I don't know," he shook his head. "But we'll work it out, okay? You want to know something good though?"

"What?" She asked.

"You and I are the only Dauntless to ever have less than five fears."

Jordyn felt her eyes widen, now it was her turn to feel shocked.

"Are you serious?"

"Completely serious," he responded, with a laugh. "We both have only four. So at least we've got something going for us. We can work on the rest, okay? Believe me, you did really well, for your first shot at it. It took you only half the time to get through that than the other initiates are taking."

"Fine," she sighed. "I'll believe you."

Jordyn wished she got more time to discuss things with Virg, but he had to see to the next initiate, so she reluctantly left the room, and went to rejoin the others. She noticed a few looking up in surprise as she walked back to the corner of the room she'd occupied previously, sitting down on one of the training mats beside Ems, Rory, and Lola. Lia had been there when Jord had left, but now she had gone, and the blonde assumed she was currently facing her fears in the other room with Hendo.

"Did you not do it?" Asked Rory, looking at Jordyn curiously.

"What do you mean?" Asked Jord. "Of course I did it."