“Stop wiggling,” he says, stilling my hand. “Something’s wrong. Nothing should ever cause an outage like this.” His eyes narrow, and he glares down at me accusingly. “Have you done something?”

“Seriously? You’re still going down that road? I thought we were past distrust and on to simple, tepid loathing.”

Before he can answer, the lights flare on, and the chaos calms as the train lumbers back to life. It occurs to me then to tell Rafe that Hypatia snuck aboard so he can look out for her, but he’s already releasing me and stalking off without so much as a goodbye.

I see Georgie in the crowd and head toward her, but even though the shoving has stopped, I feel unsteady with the absence of Rafe’s strong body supporting mine.

21

We’re here. As the crowd presses toward the exit door, I lose sight of Georgie, but when I spill out onto the train platform, I find Michael and Kaylie.

At the sight of Michael’s tall form and floppy hair, adrenaline shoots through me. He’s wearing a dapper wool suit, the jacket open over a Beatles T-shirt. I’ve grown used to seeing him in his long professorial jacket and dress shirts, but now he looks more like the guy I met in Italy. More boyish, so if I squint, those inconvenient few years between us can almost melt away. I haven’t seen him since our trip to visit Hilde, and suddenly I’m nervous. I’d been holding on to my righteous indignation, but now I can’t quite remember why I’m supposed to be mad at him.

“You look beautiful,” Kaylie gushes at me. Her hand is lightly grasping Michael’s arm, and he gives me a small smile. Did they come together? And, like, as friends together or together together?

The wave of people pushes us into a cavernous station with high ceilings and walls covered in frescoes. I don’t know exactly where we are, but it’s somewhere in Italy, near Venice.

“Remmy!” Kaylie breaks from us and rushes toward a figure in the distance. When she reaches him, he grasps her in a fierce hug. Once he releases her, she excitedly drags him to us. “I wasn’t sure if you’d come!”

He’s lean with pale skin and short hair the same copper as Kaylie’s.

Kaylie is babbling with excitement. “… just a short train ride away from New York City, and yet I have to travel halfway around the world to see you!” As Michael embraces the newcomer with clear affection, Kaylie turns to me. “Ada, this is my brother, Remmy.”