If Alex still breathed, she would have held that breath at that moment, watching him with the bauble, part of her waiting for him to ruin it somehow, for Lord Harry to push out and refuse to be taken down like this, for something to go wrong, utterly terrified for so many reasons.
But he did it, he made the wish. The wording was good, and the bauble vanished, and now when he looked at her, he wasn't looking in her eyes. Instead he was looking in her vague direction, where she had been as he had last seen her.
He couldn't see her any more. Hal was human.
He had actually done it.
And Alex let out the utterly unneeded breath.
She held up the bauble, watched the colours swirl around before it settled on a shade of green, her favourite. It matched her dress, the dress she had been stuck in for two years, looking like a girl, in boots that pinched her toes and a bra that dug into her ribs. Annoyances that even affected ghosts.
"I wish to be human, to be alive and mortal, to remember everything that's happened to me." With that, she closed her eyes and hoped, hoped that it was clear enough, that the bauble wouldn't trick her.
It took a moment. And then she felt it. A thump in her chest, followed by another one, and another. A rush of air in her lungs, the uncomfortable clothes suddenly being even more annoying. "Oh my god, I'm alive." There was a look of stunned wonder as she looked up at Hal. "I'm alive." She paused before she leaned down and roughly unzipped the boots. "Finally!" There was an actual whoop of triumph as she threw the damned things across the room. Maybe later she would burn them. That might feel good.
And then she looked again at Hal, human Hal, with his slightly fluffy hair, and all the complications. Fuck complications. She stepped forward and yanked him closer, fingers tangled in his shirt as she kissed him.