Page 101 of Flickerstate

I pause. “About?”

“Mirabel.”

“Mirabel’s a gunner, not a Real Housewife. She didn’t throw punch at me. Austin’s drunk ass knocked her arm.”

Griffin smiles. “Whatever you say.”

The longer I keep Griffin talking, the more time Vik has to return the keycard. I need to rattle Griffin. Stop him in his tracks.

An idea hits me.

I turn and cross my arms, facing Griffin down. Notcoincidentally, I’m now blocking his way to Lucasson. “Can I ask you a question?”

He grins. “You seem determined to. Sure, go ahead.”

“How do you see yourself in flickerstate?”

His face snaps from amusement to cold clarity. “How doyousee yourself?”

“Hellfire.”

“And how did you see me?” He asks like he wants to confirm something he already knows.

“Blood,” I admit. “A whirlpool of blood. But what we see in flickerstate—it’s just our brains processing an experience they can’t digest in a raw state into something theycan.”

“The processing is an interpretation. Interpretation always tells us something.”

“If you say so. How do you see your nav?”

Griffin looks out over the dark quad. “I only ever see what the people I’m navigating with see. Like I’m telepathic. I take on their interpretation.”

I frown. “Why don’t you want anyone to know?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“You think… You think it means you have no sense of self. You get shape and content from the people around you. Otherwise, you’re a…”

“Void.” He looks at me challengingly.

I look back unfazed. “You maybe jumped to conclusions. Just because you can’t see yourself, that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to see.”

His jaw softens with surprise. “That’s what Dr. Langmore said when I told her.”

“You told her? When?”

“In her junior seminar on practical applications of nav. Or, well, afterward. The night before, my dad called and told me Candace had been bitten. You know Lady C likes to pretend she hates me, but we’ve been friends since we were two. After my mom left, I would sit by myself at preschool, and Candace would come sit with me. Share her juice. And so when I heard that she mightdie, I kept thinking, if I had just been there when…” He grimaces. “Anyway, after seminar, Dr. Langmore pulled me aside and asked me if something was bothering me, and I—I lost my shit. Told her about Candace, about my flickerstate, about everything.”

I know what Griffin means, how he felt when he got the call. If I’d had training, if I’d been smarter, I could have banished the beasts before they reached my dad. “Was Dr. Langmore…nice?”

If she wasn’t, I’m going to find her and kick her in the shins.

“I mean, not warm and fuzzy. But she told my teachers to give me extensions so I could fly home the next day. She called my dad to say she was sorry.” Griffin smiles, unsteady and warm. “Hey, I don’t mind the heart-to-heart, but can we walk? Wet tuxedo pants are not a treat to stand around in.”

We’ve talked for five or so minutes. Enough time for Vik to sprint across campus and up the Lucasson stairs? Doubtful. Crap. I should keep stalling, but how? I match Griffin step for step toward Lucasson.

“Can I ask you a different kind of question?” he says.

“Sure.” Any breath he spends talking is breath he can’t spend speeding up.