Page 25 of Flickerstate

“I was bitten. Then I was healed. Both times, something happened to me that I neither understood nor controlled. And I’m still dealing with the fallout.”

“You are?” Bree looks a bit scared.

Candace meets her eyes dead-on. “Were youunaware,” she asks, “of how everyone was treating me at Orientation, until Norah showed up and made a scene?”

“We didn’t know you were healed,” Bree protests. Then, when she hears what she admitted, her face floods pink. “I’m sorry if—I mean, I’m sorry that… I’m sorry.”

Candace nods meaningfully, acknowledging the apology. “The Archive could help me understand what happened. If I understand it, I can keep it from happening again. You see?”

Bree stares at Candace with a strange expression, respectful and something else I can’t identify. Admiring? “Yeah. Yeah, I do.”

“And are you all in?”

Bree nods. “I’ll—I’ll try not to let you down.”

Candace has handled the situation better than I would have. And to think, a minute ago I was whining about teamwork. “Great,” I say. “We’re in it to win it.”

The three of us walk into the dining hall shoulder to shoulder.

***

Candace, Bree, and I dump our bags on a bar top to claim it. Bree skitters toward the food, but Candace pauses. “You didn’t answer Bree’s question.”

“Bree’s question?” I repeat like I don’t know what she means.

“Why we care so much. I explained. You didn’t.”

“I told you yesterday.”

“You want to understand.”

“Yeah.”

“Everything.”

“Yeah.”

Candace gives another meaningful nod. This one suggests that she doesn’t believe me but she’ll do me the courtesy of not demanding answers. For now. Then she walks off in search of food. I’m about to follow when I spot Vik, Griffin, and Mirabel walking into the dining hall. They’ve changed clothes. The boys’ hair is damp; Mirabel’s crackles with a recent blow-dry.

I feel a sudden hunch—the kind that comes just before a working strategy. Okay, I didn’t recruit Vik to my team. But since the Academy gave me an ultra-competent peer mentor, Iwillmake his competence work for me.

Leaguing’s my leverage.

Instead of heading for the cornucopia, I head for him.

“Hi, guys,” I say to Griffin and Mirabel. “Vik, can I talk to youfor a minute?”

Mirabel walks past like I don’t exist, but Griffin stops, hooking an arm around Vik’s shoulders. “Supergirl!”

“Supergirl?” Vik echoes.

“Inside joke,” Griffin asserts baselessly. “You passed the screening.”

“Yep,” I say.

“And your first day, you lasted six minutes dueling Mirabel.”

“Yep.”