After meeting Joseph in Oregon, Cassie and Drummond sit in the rain outside Matt’s All-American Burgers and realize they fled without paying. Cassie laughs through lingering tears, then turns serious, arguing that destroying the Book of Doors makes no sense when Drummond claims it is necessary for protecting the Fox Library’s other books.

Drummond asks Cassie to use the Book of Doors again so he can show her the threat he has been hiding from. Cassie agrees, and they arrive in New York City in the summer of 2012, sitting in Bryant Park facing the New York Public Library, drying off in the heat while Cassie takes in the decade-old details of the city.

Drummond admits he brought them there to see his friends again. He points out Lily, Yasmin, and Wagner—fellow caretakers and researchers of special books rather than profit-driven book hunters—and explains that they used to meet yearly to share discoveries and theories about where the books’ magic came from. Cassie watches them greet each other warmly, realizing how much Drummond misses this former life.

Drummond then shows Cassie his younger self arriving to join the group, and he narrates the rest of that day: friendly conversation, then dinner in SoHo where they traded stories about special books and complained about Lottie, the “Bookseller” who auctions books to hunters. As Drummond’s tone darkens, he describes the walk later that night to Washington Square Park, when freak cold and mist descended and an unknown woman appeared.

Drummond reveals the woman killed Lily, Yasmin, and Wagner that night, leaving him the only survivor; she has hunted him ever since because she wants the Fox Library. To make Cassie understand what he has been running from, Drummond produces the Book of Memories and offers to show her his recollection of the massacre. Cassie takes the book, and Bryant Park vanishes as she is pulled into Drummond’s point of view.