Cassie returns to New York with the Book of Safety hidden in her coat pocket and spends several days moving between hotels, staying out of sight and alone.

On the third night, with snow beginning to fall, Cassie walks to Kellner Books and watches through the window from across the street. She sees her younger self working in the shop on the night everything first changed for her, knowing that Mr. Webber is inside at the coffee bar reading The Count of Monte Cristo.

As Cassie watches her younger self move through the store and gaze at the snowfall, Cassie realizes she is crying. She understands that, unseen by the younger Cassie, Mr. Webber is quietly dying inside, and Cassie aches that she cannot be at his side, remembering the similar pain of missing her grandfather’s final moment.

Cassie relocates to another doorway and witnesses the aftermath: paramedics and police arrive and then leave. Soon after, her younger self exits, locks up, and pauses right in front of Cassie’s hiding place to briefly open and inspect the Book of Doors before walking away into the snow.

Wiping her tears, Cassie steels herself, reminding herself this is the night she first traveled using the Book of Doors. She looks ahead to the moment when Dr. Barbary will be waiting to hurl her back into the past—and decides that this time she will be waiting too, older and prepared.