Page 44 of Flickerstate

***

All ten candles stand extinguished, black wicks drowning in whitewax.

“Perfect,” Mr. Davis says.

Elena stalks through the open door into the rain. Rafe, glaring, follows. Carrie mumbles “Good job” and flees after them.

Bree sits on a lab stool, jamming tissues against her nose. Candace stands beside her, arms crossed over her stomach. I’m tempted to flee too, but I’m not a total coward, so I walk over to them.

“Through to trial two,” Candace drawls before I can speak.

“I want an A as much as the next striver,” Bree says, muffled through her tissue wad. “But not enough to break somebody’s nose over it.”

“I broke your nose?” I ask, shoulders hunching.

She sighs. “Hyperbole, Norah? You’ve heard of it?”

I relax a little. If she’s sarcastic, not crying, I can’t have hurt her too badly. But it freaks me out that I don’t know what happened. “Why’d you stop channeling to me?”

Candace tilts her head, calm as a surgeon about to cut. “How deep were you in flickerstate?”

“I’m not sure. Deep.”

“Could you hear the real?”

“I heard shouting. Was that real?”

“Sam tried to cheat. He counter-navigated Antoine’s candles. When Antoine caught him, they were both pretty unhappy. Dr. Langmore disqualified Sam’s whole team.”

I glance around the room. Dr. Langmore is speaking soberly to Antoine near door 9. Sam’s nowhere to be seen. “What does thathave to do with stopping channeling?”

“When navigators hear trouble in the real, they usually stop navigating on reflex.”

Bree nods. “Like how, when you get into a car accident, your bladder seizes up so you can’t pee yourself.”

Candace winces at the comparison. “We were working to reopen the channels when you smashed in and took everything. Why did you think you had to siphon us?”

I wasn’t thinking. I was too scared of losing, too desperate to control the outcome. “I—I’m sorry.”

Bree huffs. “If you can’t help siphoning us, our main navigator can’t be you.”

I want to cave:Of course. I’m so sorry.But at the same time—because I siphoned them, we won the trial. Isn’t that what matters?

“Let’s discuss it later.” Candace gives me a wary look. With a sick pang, I realize she’s even angrier than Bree; she’s just more reserved about it. “When we’ve had time to think. No practice tonight. And why don’t we…skip our team dinner. Take a breather. Catch up with friends who aren’t in the trials.”

I bite back a bitter response:Right, all my friends who aren’t in the trials. I know what Candace is doing. She’s giving us time to cool off. We’re all angry, vulnerable, and exhausted, and people make bad decisions when they’re sweaty and pissed.

That doesn’t mean I like it. Not whenI’mthe reason we need to cool off.

I grit my teeth. “Yeah. Let’s do that.”

Candace and Bree quickly gather their bags, like they can’t waitto get away from me.

I scan the room for Vik. Did he see me siphon my own teammates? What did he think if he did?

Vik stands near door 12, wet hair painting black strokes across his forehead. Nearby, Griffin lifts Mirabel and spins her while she raises her fist, triumphant. Guess their team won too.

I might end up facing Vik after all. Hurting him. Like I hurt Candace and Bree. Like I hurt Dad.