The Watcher's townhouse welcomed her with the ashy smell of burning logs and incense.

There was barely a stir as Harper made her way inside, Avian on her heel. She moved slowly, her body protesting against even the slightest of movements, telling her it needed time to mend. She had it now, she realized with a start.

Time.

She had time to rest and recover. The thought hit her like a hammer and she stopped in the middle of the hall. She clutched the folder to her chest, struggling to breathe.

Avian's hands appeared on her shoulders in an instant. "Hey," he said softly. "Are you okay?"

Harper's insides churned with a mix of relief and sorrow. Honey and amaranth. She let herself feel whatever this feeling was, and then pushed it aside the way she would have filed a discovery for later review in her previous life. Her mind and body could only take so much.

Her voice suddenly lost, she settled on nodding a few times until Avian let go. "Okay," he said. "I'll go put on a pot of coffee in the kitchen. Declan should be here, somewhere. We will be driving to the funeral soon."

Harper searched the house one room at a time. Each had some small reminder of Gerard. The chair where he would sit to warm his old bones by the fire. The bench in the drawing room where he would rest his cane on the better days when he wouldn't need it as much. The loose handle on the door to his bedroom that jangled when he would retire for the evening. Harper couldn't bring herself to enter. The vision of his lifeless body overpowered her, and she hurried back downstairs to Declan's bedroom where she found him at last.

Declan sat on his bed next to a neatly-ironed suit laid out. He stared out the window with a faraway expression. If it wasn't for his clasped knuckles turning white in his lap, he'd have looked almost serene. Scratches along his arms and a bruise on his cheek were the only visible signs that he'd almost died very recently. The broken sight of him made Harper's heart heavy. There was no solace she could offer him, nothing at all, so she withdrew from the threshold to leave.

He turned at the sound, startling back into awareness. "Harper! You're back."

She hesitated momentarily, then drifted into the bedroom and sat down next to him. He took a sharp inhale at the sight of her face. Dark-green veins framed her eyes like a painted-on mask, pulsing with light from within. They flowed down the sides of her neck and disappeared into her neckline. She drew her sleeves down over her wrists.

He ran a finger down the inside of her wrist. "Does it hurt?"

Harper snorted. Anyone else would have had a million questions. How. Why. What. But not Declan. His first instinct would always be to protect.

"Not really," she said. "It might if I tried transporting, but I'm too weak to do that now."

Declan clasped his hands, squeezing the fingers together.

Harper raised her hand to reach for his, but chickened out and found herself smoothing the suit laid out behind them. "I can't believe he's gone," she murmured.

"I know," Declan said, his eyes flashing. "I still catch myself listening for his cane down the hall."

"Pretty sure I will flinch whenever I see a cane for a long time," said Harper, laughter creeping into her voice.

They chuckled at the memory of Gerard threatening with his cane in the air. They both quieted at the same time when reality hit them.

"What now?" said Declan.

What now? Harper echoed in her mind.

Wasn't that the question. She didn't even know how to begin answering that. She cast her gaze onto her lap where the folder lay. It was a start.

"I have a lead on a new expedition," she said.

Declan jerked his head back, and Harper could tell what he was thinking. An expedition? Are you serious? Gerard died, we destroyed the Society of Ra, you almost lost your daughter, and the first thing you're thinking of is an expedition? But instead of berating her, he took the folder and perused its content. His features gathered like storm clouds by the time he came to the photograph. "Is this the Secretary? And...?"

"That is Ethan and my parents when they were young, yes. And this," she tapped the journal page, "means that somewhere out there exists a way to take this curse off of me and put it back into a vessel, like the transporter necklace we had before. I have to try and find it."

"Understandable," Declan said after a thoughtful pause, sparing a glance at Harper's veined mask. "I suppose this explains why you took so well to the quasar. Looks like your family keeps running into this particular type." He lowered the folder between them. "Where did you get this?"

Harper sat back. "Ethan visited me in the hospital."

Declan looked alarmed. "He what?"

"It was fine. Nothing happened. He gave me this and left."

You have changed the game, Harper.

Declan gave a low whistle. "He is a dead man walking. If he's still walking, that is."

Harper frowned. "What do you mean?"

"A man like that is a king, and kings need power like fire needs oxygen. What do you think happens to a king when you vanquish the source of his power? When his enemies learn that the Society of Ra is destitute of quasars?" Declan said, letting it sink in.

Harper felt the temperature drop. She shook her head. "But this is Ethan you're talking about. Knowing him, not only will he be fine, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him at Gerard's funeral." Her voice softened. "They used to be friends once upon a time, and he always had a special fondness for Gerard."

"Gerard did for him, as well," said Declan. "I never understood it."

They fell silent again. She saw eyes the color of pumpkin seeds and heard bell-like laughter. Once upon a time, she had a friend like that. She would choose to think fondly of Shakti. Not the Shakti who'd stared her down coldly as if they were strangers, but the one she'd been friends with. Even Crispin had been a friend first. Perhaps in time she'd be able to recall that version of him. And Theo, who had been once her love: he would always have a special place in her heart.

Yes, she could understand Gerard and Ethan. No matter what side you were on, some people would always be a part of your history, and therefore a part of you.

"I saw Theo in the hospital," she said.

Declan stiffened next to her. "Did you tell him?"

The same question that Beth had asked her about Aisling. Does he know?

Harper shook her head no. "Maybe someday things will be different, but not right now."

Declan clenched his jaw. He kept his gaze on the fist resting on his knee. "What is next for the two of you?"

Harper took a deep breath. "Declan, I know we've... I know I hurt you—repeatedly—and I shut you out. But you should know that I've only hurt myself in the process by pushing you away."

"Harper, don't. You really don't have to do this," he said.

"I'm trying to tell you I love you, you idiot. Not Theo, you. He will always be a part of my life in some way or form because of who he is to Aisling. But you? I choose you." She laid one hand on top of his closed fist. "I hope someday you will find a way to forgive me for all the times I hurt you. It doesn't have to be today. I will wait. I just wanted you to know that."

When he said nothing, Harper heaved a shaky sigh and rose with the folder in her hand. She wished the floor would open and swallow her whole. Just as they were recovering, just as she was getting at least her friend back, she'd ruined it by saying too much.

She dashed for the door when a firm, calloused hand closed around her wrist and pulled her back. The folder fluttered, spilling its content onto the floor. Declan left no room for doubt about how he felt as he melded her body into his. He found her lips with his own, kissing her with desperation unlike anything she'd ever felt before. It crackled with weeks of tension and spat with built-up anguish. Hot and cold and electric, it was like coming upon a fresh spring of water after stumbling through a desert.

It was so all-consuming that neither of them noticed Avian in the door, or heard him until he cleared his throat for the third time, coughing loudly. "Ahem. AHEM!"

Harper and Declan broke apart, panting. Declan's hands remained on Harper's hips as he turned to scowl at Avian.

Avian looked from Harper to Declan. "What's happening here?"

Harper found herself blushing, and feeling utterly ridiculous for it. She was spared from replying when Avian bent over to pick up the photo laying at his feet. He bit the inside of his cherubic cheek. "What is this?"

"Harper's got a new mission," said Declan. His eyes coated her like a layer of rich, soft toffee. How she'd missed those wonderful, wondrous eyes of his.

"And I'd love for you to come with me," she told Declan, brushing the nape of his neck with her fingertips.

"Got room for one more?" piped Avian. "I can pay," he said, hoisting a silver briefcase onto the bed.

Intrigued, Harper approached as he popped it open. Her eyes bulged when he revealed it filled to the brim with stacks of bills.

"Is that—"

"The money that we duped the Society of Ra into bringing to that fake exchange in Berlin?" Avian said, the corners of his mouth stretching to their limits. "I may have grabbed it in the shuffle." He gave a one-shouldered shrug. "You know, for our troubles. And I thought about spending it all at Harrod's, but I am willing to reconsider its purpose."

Harper and Declan exchanged a look of admiration. Gerard would have been proud, too.

"Come here," she said to Avian, and embraced him like a brother. "Of course, there's room for you. Always. I couldn't do this without you." Her gaze found Declan's. "Without either of you."

Tears welled in Harper's eyes. Here, in the Townhouse of the Watcher's Order, with Declan and Avian by her side, and Gerard's presence all around them, she felt invincible. Aisling was safe, which was the only thing that mattered. And with Ethan's parting gift, she would complete her father's mission to put this strange quasar power, this green poison flowing through her veins, back where it belonged: into the second vessel that could hold it. She would either find a way to protect it then, or destroy it so it could never be used to harm.

There would be adventure on this quest, of course. Danger, almost certainly.

But there was not a drop of trepidation in Harper.

Her Researcher's heart hummed with anticipation, and a jade glow lit up the room.

For the first time, she was unafraid of what the future held, and together with the Watcher's Order, she knew she could face anything, anything at all.