Page 120 of Flickerstate

I splash back into the glowing, hallucinogenic real.

Dr. Langmore’s legs blur forward. “You’re never supposed to enter another assistant’s section,” she blusters. “What are you doing here?”

Mirabel stands framed against the dark tunnel. Loose ponytail, sweatpants, sneakers. Her eyes glint under the fluorescent light, taking us all in: me, strapped upside down to some weird machine. Dr. Langmore, manipulating the machine who knows how. Griffin and Mr. Davis, attacking Vik and Candace in flickerstate as they frantically occlude.

“What am I—” Mirabel cuts herself off. “I went to get some water and saw Griffin’s door had malfunctioned. It wouldn’t stay closed. I was trying to find him and let him know. What areyoudoing?”

The Cruciform’s current tugs at me, urging me back towardflickerstate. A sharp thought pierces my mind’s glow and blur:If Dr. Langmore never managed to harness my nav with the Cruciform, the machine hasn’t endangered me yet. I can’t let it pull me under. But—can I navigate? Can I help us somehow?

“Ms. Delgado, let me explain.” Dr. Langmore’s bluster has exited the chat. She’s trying for a reasonable, adult tone. “Ms. Sullivan was helping us with a special experiment when Mr. Souza and Ms. Yang burst in and—”

Fighting the Cruciform’s tug every second, I dive into flickerstate.

On the red sands, the pyre burns higher. Its base has fused into a single thick gout of flame. Some forks I saw earlier must have corresponded to Mirabel discovering or not discovering us. Now that she’s here, the spread of futures has changed.

In every future I see, Mirabel tries to unstrap me from the Cruciform. In almost every offshoot of those futures, Mr. Davis swerves out of the dragged-out flickerstate battle with Vik and Candace to stop her. He puts her in a chokehold, knocks her out, and injects her, or holds her down and injects her till her sneakers stop kicking the concrete, or—in a few ghastly streams—throws her so hard against the floor that her neck cracks and her chest stills. And in almost every offshoot of those offshoots, Dr. Langmore takes advantage of Vik’s and Candace’s distraction as they rush to help Mirabel to interfere with them, navving them unconscious.

Mirabel doesn’t have much time. Neither do Vik and Candace.

As soon as I find a future where Mr. Davis and Dr. Langmore can’t hurt or kill them, I throw all my nav toward it.

In that future, a swarm manifests above us—just like in my last bite-dream—and tries to devour the Cruciform. And us.

In that future, the Cruciform is destroyed.

In that future, we aren’t fighting each other because we’re busy trying not to die.

Chapter Thirty

Reality tears. Beasts pour from the domed ceiling: finned and gilled, arachnoid, serpentine, and simian, trilling and hissing and clicking.

Mr. Davis has Mirabel pinned, struggling, in his arms. When he sees the tear, he lets her go.

Griffin, Vik, and Candace must have seen this future shift from infinitesimally likely to inevitable in flickerstate. They return to the real with twitching eyes and shaking heads.

“What did youdo?” Dr. Langmore cries.

Restraints press me to the Cruciform; when the machine overheats, shaking, I feel it in my bones. Sparks sizzle against my clothes. Some hit my bare ankles and hands. I can’t crane and see beasts chewing the wiring along the machine’s back, but I can guess what they’re doing.

I willed them here. I summoned them to distract Mr. Davis and Griffin and Dr. Langmore, to wreck the Cruciform. Anything they do now, any harm they cause, is because of me.

Vik runs to me and pulls the metal band from around my neck. He starts unbuckling the tight restraints around my wrists.

“Mirabel.” Candace reaches out a hand. When Mirabel takes it, their eyes go glassy. Channeling—Candace throwing her last nav to Mirabel, Mirabel willing the beasts away from the tender human flesh in the room.

Dr. Langmore skitters across the concrete. She’s running toward the beasts, not away—around to the slanted, sparking back of the Cruciform. “Mr. Davis!” she yells. “Griffin!”

Mr. Davis runs too—straight for the exit. He’s gone in seconds.

Griffin ducks around the machine.

“What are youdoing?” Dr. Langmore demands. “Any minute, Secretary Tully—”

Griffin stumbles into my line of sight. He’s thrown Bree over his shoulder, his arms clasped around her knees. He lumbers past Candace and Mirabel into the dark tunnel.

“Griff, you’d betterhelpher,” Candace calls desperately after him.

Vik finishes unbuckling me. I slide downward. Before my head hits concrete, he catches my waist and hauls me to my feet.