With Barbary holding Izzy at gunpoint and demanding Cassie’s Book of Doors and Izzy’s book, the room turns toward Cassie. Barbary suddenly falters, clutching his head and demanding to know what Lottie did to him; Lottie explains she took away most of Barbary’s pain, leaving him shaken and uncertain about his own violent impulses.

As Cassie tries to edge closer to Izzy, Diego makes a desperate dash toward Lottie to seize the Book of Pain. Drummond reacts instantly, using his power to yank Diego into the air and hurl him into a wall, shattering a mirror and leaving Diego unconscious or dead. Barbary, lost in confusion and self-questioning, briefly drops to his knees, then regains resolve and lifts the gun again.

Cassie calls to Drummond and throws open a door, revealing a sunny street beyond. Drummond rips Barbary off his feet, knocks the gun loose, and drags Barbary through the doorway as Cassie shouts for him to “go back to the past.” Cassie slams the door, and the ballroom collectively exhales with the immediate threat removed.

Lottie pushes the room back into auction mode, pressing Okoro to stop posturing with Lund and resume bidding now that many rivals are incapacitated. Rapid bids follow among the remaining participants, with Okoro and others escalating quickly while Lottie privately debates whether to sell the Book of Doors now or wait for a better, safer auction.

The auction is interrupted again when a gray mist spreads across the far end of the ballroom, swallowing bidders into indistinct silhouettes. Drummond urgently demands Cassie hand over the book, and the mist parts to reveal a striking woman in black and white carrying a book that pulses with gray light. Lottie recognizes her arrival as the moment she feared: “too late” has come.