“And you think this will work?” I asked, eyeing the stack of small bottles Rend was loading into a large leather bag.

It had taken him almost an entire day to create potions for all of the girls we saved from the asylum.

“It’s the best memory potion I know how to create,” he said. “Much stronger than the Elixir of Kendria. This has worked on some people who had severe memory loss after the types of torture you’ve described to me, but I’ve had other instances where it didn’t work. It depends on just how deep the priestess’s tactics were and how much she used them on each girl.”

“And there’s nothing we can do for the girls who were lobotomized?” I asked.

He ran a hand through his thick dark hair and sighed. “I’ve included some strong healing potions for those girls,” he said. “It might help to heal the damage that was done to their brains, but I can’t promise it will cure them. Give them the healing potion, and if there seems to be some improvement, give them the memory potion. All we can do is hope for the best.”

“How do you plan to get them home?” Azure asked.

“I honestly don’t know,” I said, fear tightening my chest. I was taking this one step at a time. “I’m hoping we can find the portal before it closes and get everyone through. But even if we locate it, I have no idea what we’ll find once we go through. There could be an army of witches there waiting for us.”

“And if you can’t find it?” she asked. “Or if it’s closed by the time you do?”

I smiled, holding back tears. “Then we find another way. I’m not giving up, no matter how long it takes.”

Azure pulled me into a hug, and it surprised me so much I nearly lost my balance. Azure was so not the hugging type.

“I’ve never met someone so brave,” she said. “If there’s one thing I want Venom to become, it’s a safe place for witches who have no other home to go to. I want this place to become a home for them where they know they’re safe from the Order.”

“It will be, Azure,” I said. “It will be, because you want it to be.”

“If you do find that portal and there’s an army of witches defending it, I’ll gladly come to help you fight,” Rend said. He handed the leather bag to me.

It was so much lighter than I expected it to be, and I smiled, wondering if he’d gotten these bags from the Shadow World. From someone in Essex’s family line who knew how to make bags like this.

“I could bring an army to you,” he said. “We could help you defeat them. I have a personal stake in the fight against the Order, just as much as you do.”

I grabbed his hand.

“I know you lost your sister to the Order,” I said. “I know that’s why you’re here in the human world, and I wish more than anything I could have done something to save her. But there’s nothing more you can do to help me in this fight. I need you to be alive. You have a major role to play in the fight that’s yet to come. Both of you.”

“But—”

“No, listen to me,” I said. “I’ve taken a great risk coming to you now. If you tell anyone the things I’ve told you or if you do anything to fight back knowing what you now know, it could risk everything we’ve worked so hard to accomplish.”

He nodded, but he still looked determined to fight.

“You have to promise me you’ll take those potions as soon as I’m on my way,” I said, nodding to the two small vials left on the alchemy table. “I know it’s hard when you feel like you could do something now, but you have to trust me. One wrong move and everything could change. I need you to be there to warn Jackson. Please.”

Rend sighed and picked up one of the small vials. Inside was a potion that would cause both he and Azure to forget everything about this exchange until some moment in the future when Jackson decided to use the emerald ritual items to free one of the emerald gates. Since we didn’t know the exact moment it would happen, it wasn’t an exact science.

We just had to pray the trigger would work, and he would remember in time to save them.

“You’re asking a lot of me, Harper,” he said. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to put an end to the Order of Shadows. Now that we know there’s a way to kill them, all I want to do is hunt them down and rip their hearts from their chest. Do you know how many demons will die between now and then, while we wait? Thousands, Harper. Innocent demons, like my sister.”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

“I promise you that I am well aware of the innocent people who will lose their lives in the years to come,” I said. “People I love with all my heart. People I loved and never even knew, like my own mother. My father. One of my best friends. But if you hunt down the priestesses now, even if you manage to find them and surprise them, you’ll change everything. You could put everything we’ve accomplished so far at risk. You have to see that.”

“I do see it, but I don't have to like it,” he said, slamming his hand down on the table. “Damn. I want to do more.”

“You will,” I said. “We all will, but now isn’t the right time. You’ll take the potions?”

He took a deep breath and finally met my eyes. “I will,” he said. “But you better be telling the truth. If you aren’t, I’ll find you and kill you myself.”

I put my hand on his shoulder and smiled. “In a few minutes, you won’t even remember you met me,” I said. “But someday, you’ll remember, and you’ll know. I look forward to seeing you again when that moment comes.”

“Me, too,” he said. “I wish you great power in your battle against the remaining priestesses. I just hope I’m standing there at your side when the final priestess falls.”

“And Rend? If we don’t… I mean, if I don’t make it home… promise me you’ll tell Jackson that I loved him until the very end,” I said.

“You’ll tell him yourself,” he said. “Goodbye, Harper.”

“Goodbye, Rend,” I said. Then I smiled. “See you later.”

He nodded and smiled back. “Yeah,” he said. “See you later.”

Azure hugged me again and walked me to the elevator.

“I’ll make sure he takes it,” she said once we were headed back up to the top floor.

“Thanks for everything,” I said. “I owe you.”

“Just tell me one thing.” She shifted her weight nervously from one foot to the other. “Are we happy in the future? Rend and I? Are we…”

Her voice trailed off, but I knew what she was asking me, and I couldn’t bear to tell her the truth. I wouldn’t break her heart by telling her about Franki, but I wouldn’t lie to her, either.

“It’s hard for anyone to be happy during a war like this,” I said. “Even Jackson and I have been through so much heartache, it’s hard to say that we’re happy.”

I thought of the image Jackson had drawn of us sitting on the lawn in the Southern Kingdom, our son playing in the grass. That was the future I held onto throughout all of the torture I’d been forced to endure.

“All I know is that someday, when this war is over and the Order is defeated, we’ll all find the happiness we deserve.”

She smiled a sad smile, as if understanding that the answer was far more complicated than I could explain during a simple elevator ride.

“I’m counting on you guys,” I said.

“We won’t let you down, Harper,” she said. “Jackson is going to be okay. We’ll make sure of it. I know more than most how complicated love can be. Finding the perfect person who loves you back is the most valuable thing in the world. I’m glad you’ve found that, and I’ll fight to make sure that when you get home, he’s there to welcome you with open arms.”

“Thank you, Azure,” I said.

We rode the rest of the way up in silence, thoughts of the decades to come and the uncertain future ahead for all of us.