Page 56 of Flickerstate

“Are you planning to?”

“You misunderstand. You asked a yes/no question, and my answer is—nope. No beasts when my nav manifested.” Hey, I’m not Vik. I’ll lie if I have to.

Griffin squints at me. “Disappointing.”

“I was not disappointed in the slightest.”

“Not disappointing foryou. But we already know powerful navigation attracts beasts. I have this theory beasts manifest when powerful navigators first access their abilities, too. You’ve poked a hole—” Griffin startles happily and throws up an arm. “Hey, guys, come sit with us.”

I twist in my chair. Candace and Mirabel have paused in the runway between the left and right seating areas. After a second Candace swerves toward our table. It’s unusual for her to take suggestions from Griffin, even friendly ones—so she must feel weird about one-on-one mentoring from the girl who blabbed about her bites.

Mirabel marches after Candace with her plate in a tendon-flexing grip, like she can barely refrain from mashing it into someone’s face. Mine, I guess?

Candace slides her plate onto the table. “Scooch, Griff. And get us some chairs.”

“I’m a feminist,” Griffin says. “I truly believe you can get your own chairs.”

“We won’t all fit,” Mirabel says. “Candace and I should go.”

“Fine. Act out your internalized sexism and bully me.” Griffin hops from his chair. “Take mine, Mir. I’ll find some for myself andCandy.”

But Mirabel’s right: Five chairs won’t fit around the bar top. Besides, what if she graduates from staring daggers at me to sprinkling arsenic on my chicken? “Candace can take mine,” I say. “I’m finished.”

Right away, Mirabel brushes past Griffin and hops into his vacated seat.

“Thanks, babe,” Candace says to me with mild irritation, miffed I’ve abandoned her to Team Three’s tender mercies.

“Anything for you,” I say. Then I circle toward Vik. “Hey, you have the thing?”

He unzips his backpack and pulls outPhilosophy of Navigation. “Here.”

Griffin, loitering near the table, freezes when he sees the cover. “Is that Jake’s?”

Vik zips up his backpack. “It was.”

Griffin flinches like someone jabbed him in the kidney. Mirabel scowls. Candace—noting their reactions—flexes an eyebrow at me.

I shove the book under my arm and grab my plate. “Gotta bus this. Bye.”

***

Back in my single, I thumpPhilosophy of Navigationonto my desk: gray dust jacket, white title in a conservative font. Aggressively boring-looking. Nothing explains its bad vibes—except that it belonged to Jake, he who maybe interfered.

It belonged to Jake. So what? Lots of people commit acts of heinous evil while also owning books. That doesn’t make the books evil.

I sit down and flip to the beginning.

Unfortunately, the first three chapters match the cover: dull, dull, dull. And I’ve been getting far less than the recommended eight hours of sleep. My head droops toward the pages. Each time I blink, my eyes open more slowly, until…

***

I stand in the dark, in the cold, in the woods. Wind tosses the trees, branches groaning. A withered leaf tumbles through the air past my face.

A crack overhead. Loud as snapped bone.

A blunt object strikes my skull—

***