“Explain it to me,” Liam said, though he would’ve listened to Pitr recite the tax code. Anything to linger in his orbit a little longer, forget the world where he hauled boxes and changed the dressing on his mother’s face, his slender illusion of control ripped away. The world where he stopped existing inside Pitr’s.

Pitr laughed, though there was warmth in it. “I’m not sure you’ll understand it. You are two years younger than me, after all.”

Liam pouted—not exactly helping his case—and hooked his ankle around Pitr’s. Dragged him close. “Don’t make me tease it out of you.”

A heavy beat. Liam was sure he’d misstepped. That the rules inside the bathroom fell apart when exposed to the open air, as if they’d been written on one of Pitr’s fragile tomes. For a moment, Pitr’s expression turned hard, and Liam was overwhelmed with shame. There’d always been such darkness lurking in there, coals waiting to be lit.

But then Pitr chuckled to himself and ran a finger along Liam’s forearm, Liam’s pulse leaping in reply. “As fun as that might be . . .” He shoved away from Liam’s chair and gathered a handful of notes. “I’m looking at a common thread between scattered writings throughout the medieval era. Medici Italy, Ethiopia, Bohemia . . . Mystics all over claiming to be following the guidance of some man named Tomasi Sicarelli to unlock another world.”

“Mystics, huh?” Liam reached for a slender folio on top of Pitr’s stack of books. The Mysticism of John Dee. “You mean frauds who make up angelic alphabets and burn poor ladies at the stake?”

“They weren’t all frauds.” Pitr snatched the book back. “Some of them genuinely believed in what they were doing. Not so different from your Newton or Einstein, really,” he added, with a poke to Liam’s ribs.

Liam rolled his eyes, but leaned closer. “Go on.”

“Well, some of them call it the ‘wrinkle’—a folded part of the world trapped out of sight. Others think it’s a form of purgatory, a place where lost things go. But whatever the case, they all describe it as a world alongside ours that doesn’t fit so neatly into any one religion’s construct. Some even claim to have traveled there with Sicarelli and communicated with beings who lived there, who granted them access to a powerful energy source.” Pitr shrugged, looking suddenly chastened. “I thought it was interesting, that’s all.”

Liam caught his mouth sliding open, the way it always did when he was running figures in his head. “A universe alongside our own.”

Pitr blinked a few times. “I suppose. Is that—something that exists? Have you heard of it?”