“I see—things. Places other than where I’m standing. I didn’t realize it before, but it’s like I’m watching them from the shadow world. And the shadows themselves, they . . .” She shook her head. “I don’t know how it’s possible.”

“Well, it’s another universe, right?” Phillip’s mind was whirring on frequencies, circuitry. Liam’s explanation had made so much sense, just the kind of diagram he needed to understand the world. Hell. It made more sense than anything else he’d seen out here. “If it’s that close to our world, then some people might have a—a sensitivity to it. A frequency, maybe. They can probably sense the weakness in the barriers and maybe even glimpse through those barriers without realizing it.”

“So there is nothing mystical about it. Just science.” She didn’t sound too thrilled.

Phillip winced. “Doesn’t that make it better?”

“It’s not better or worse. But . . . I don’t want to have this—this connection to a world like that.”

“An evil world?” he asked.

She pressed her lips together. “A place of darkness. I want there to be more than just the darkness.”

He leaned forward, intending to tuck back a brown lock of hair that had drifted into her face. He wasn’t even thinking as he did it; it felt natural, instinctive. He stopped himself just before touching the lock, and their eyes met.

“Sorry,” he said, at the same time she told him, “Don’t be sorry.”

He laughed softly and secured the hair behind her ear. Her skin was so cold, but then, he supposed, so were his hands.

“There’s more than just the darkness,” he told her. There was more to the world than the paths that had been laid out for them. The opportunities lost. The wounds they’d inflicted. He had to believe it because the alternative would crush him alive. “There has to be.”

“I want to find it,” she said.

Phillip opened his mouth to answer, but Simone returned then, towering over them.

“I don’t know how, but it’s completely empty. No sign anyone has been there for days.”

Phillip scrambled to his feet, the thought of a safe haven too much to resist. “You’re sure?”

“Sure as I can be.” She shrugged. “They still have electricity, but we don’t touch any lights, don’t turn anything on or off. We leave it exactly as it is. And we take turns guarding.” She fixed her stare on Phillip. “You’re first.”