Thomas was on the ground, eyes closed, not moving. The ancient knife was lodged in his heart at a sharp, low angle. Lara was standing over him, screaming in rage and frustration. Behind me, McCoy was reacting the same way. I barely heard them.

I was completely numb. Thomas - my brother – was dead. My eyes crossed and the world started going black again. No. No, this could not be happening. I fell back, rolled over, and threw up what little there was in my stomach.

No.

The blackness at the edges of my vision started turning red.

No!

Heat rushed into my limbs, all exhaustion and physical pain forgotten.

NO!

I was lying face down in the grass. I was on my feet and running at the King. I was jumping through the air. I was screaming.

NO!

I unloaded all the remaining force rings on my right hand as I punched at the King's head. I knocked the fucking bastard flat on his back. Then I was unloading my left hand, splitting the mottled, ugly skin over his face.

His arm came up to hit me, and I grabbed it. I stopped that blow. His other arm came up, and I caught that, too. I held him fast. I stared him down, eye to eye. And I saw anger, hatred and fear on his face.

Then the Blackstaff came down, straight down, through his face and into the ground.

The arms went limp in my grip. I wasn't done, though. I dropped the arms and jumped on top of the body, hitting it over and over, yelling, pounding on the mushy, bloated, disgusting waste of space and blood that had taken my family away from me. The body began to decompose even as I sat on it.

"Harry," a voice said.

I kept hitting and making noise.

"Harry," it said again, more firm. I stopped, suddenly and profoundly tired. I heard bursts of gunfire, and rapidly fading unnatural screams. And my own hitched breathing. There might have been some sobs in there, too.

A small but strong hand found my shoulder. It pulled me to my feet, away from the vampire. I stumbled and almost knocked Karrin over, but she kept us both standing. I found myself next to McCoy. The black ink flowing all over his skin was slowly starting to retreat down his neck. He was breathing hard, looking a little confused, like he wasn't quite sure where he was.

He turned to look at the rest of the stadium. I followed his gaze. The vampires were almost all dead. The einherjar were walking among the bodies, occasionally putting bullets into heads. Fix, covered in bandages and strips of cloth and more than a little gore, was kneeling next to Elaine, helping her up. Her leg was in a splint and wrapped tightly, the light jacket she'd been wearing now serving a new purpose. There were dozens of vampire corpses near them. I watched her toss away a broken wand. Gard stood over them, eying the carnage and murmuring to herself.

Elaine got to her feet – well, foot – and they started hobbling towards me.

I turned to see the Alphas, human again and all alive, though bloodied. Will was a mess, but still standing. Georgia was in his arms. They were holding each other tight. I had a feeling most of the blood on them wasn't their own.

A little further to the left, Lara was sitting on the ground, next to Thomas, not looking at him. She was staring at the Red King's body, just beside us. Mouse sat at a respectful distance, watching her.

I don't remember making the choice to walk closer, more like I kind of started falling in that direction and Murph made sure my legs went with me. McCoy followed us. I was light-headed, probably due to blood loss. It didn't seem important.

When I reached Thomas, I looked down at him, but couldn't get a clear picture. It was blurry. I shrugged out of my duster, which hurt like hell on my right arm. Kneeling, I laid it over my brother, athame and all. I couldn't bring myself to pull it out, and to Hell with Mab if she wanted it back. The knife was in so deep and at such a sharp angle, it hardly made a wrinkle in the coat.

Will, Sanya, Elaine and Fix joined us.

Elaine's hand found my shoulder. "Mother of all, Harry. I have no words. I'm so sorry."

Will shook his head. "Are you sure he's - ?"

"Anything immortal – demons, gods, vampires, all – die when pierced by that blade," I said. "The Red King would have known that. He did know that." And all at once, I wanted to kill him again.

I looked up at Lara. She was gazing at Thomas' body, then looking away, then back. Her eyes were flecked with silver, but there were no tears. "Can you feel for me, wizard?"

"What?"

"I feel nothing."

"Nothing at all?"

"Oh, there's rage, and insult, and anger and hatred. But loss? Fear?" She shook her head. "Love? There's nothing. And yet, I was closer to him than any of my other siblings." She looked at me. "I've always known I was a monster. I've even said those very words to you." She looked down again. "But until today, I didn't realise that I was…" With that thought unfinished, she stood up and walked away. She was still nude, but I didn't watch her go. I felt no desire. I felt only loss.

McCoy hunkered down beside me. The lines and blotches of black ink were retreating more quickly now. "I never… Stars and stones, boy, I never told him. Never told him that I'm his… was his grandfather."

There was a muffled sound from under my coat. "I know. Harry told me."

I fell back from the voice, and McCoy jumped straight up. "Thomas?"

McCoy grabbed my coat and cast it aside. My brother's eyes slowly peeled open. "Hell's bells!" Ebenezar was breathless.

Thomas' eyes found mine. "I… feel… terrible." He looked down at the old knife, and his eyebrows lifted. "Empty night, no wonder I can't breathe."

Before I could crawl forward, Lara was at his side. "Thomas?" She wasn't smiling; she looked confused. "How?" Her eyes narrowed. "What… something's different."

Will took a deep breath through his nose. "He smells different. More…" He shrugged. "Fragrant."

Mouse a few steps forward, carefully not touching Lara. He sniffed Thomas, then his tail started wagging fast enough to move his backside. He licked my brother on the cheek. "Ah, gross," Thomas said. On a hunch - a ridiculous, desperate hunch - I reached forward and gripped the athame, then quickly pulled it out. Thomas jerked. "Hey, that tickles." There was no blood. His shirt was sliced nicely, but his skin was whole. I looked at his eyes again.

After a fight like we'd just been through, after the amount of effort he had just exerted, despite the feeding he and Lara had indulged in, he should have been hungry, his demon close to the surface, and his eyes tinged with silver.

They were perfectly grey-brown.

Perfectly human.

And he had crow's feet.

"Thomas," I said, hardly daring to believe it, hardly daring to think it, "your demon. Your Hunger. Can you feel it? Can you tap into it?"

He looked at me like I was an idiot – a look I'm familiar with. His focus went to the middle distance. Then his eyes crinkled. Then his mouth fell open. I found myself smiling. "It's gone," he whispered. "It's gone!"

I started to laugh.

"Harry, what happened?"

I laughed all the while I said, "It's dead!" I held up the knife. "The Red King killed it! You collapsed because you were using it, and it was keeping you going!"

McCoy dropped to his knees beside me, clamped a still-dark hand on each of our shoulders. "I'll be damned. I still got both of you."

I didn't know what to do. The exhaustion, the fear, the anger and the joy all smooshed into each other and turned into the funniest thing I'd ever experienced. I leaned forward and gripped Thomas in a fierce hug, pushing Mouse and Lara away. I was still laughing.

Thomas hitched once, twice, then he was laughing, too. His arms got around me, held me tight, then we were both outright cackling in each other's ears. I'm pretty sure we were both crying, too, but it may have just been me. McCoy joined the hug, and damned if Lara didn't get a hand on Thomas, too. My brother was alive and safe. My ribs hurt like nobody's business, but I didn't care.

A few minutes later, Thomas and McCoy were speaking near home plate while the rest of us gave them some space. I found myself on the home team dugout stairs with Mouse, who was resting his head on my lap, and Elaine. Using an energy-movement technique she had perfected over the last few years, she'd dulled the pains in her leg and my ribs. I'd pulled my duster back on, minus the right sleeve. My bag, that sack containing almost all of my worldly possessions, was at my feet. It had slid into the dugout during the fight.

Fix, Sanya and Karrin were speaking a little ways away with Gard, who kept looking at her mercenaries like a protective mother.

Lara had wandered over to the Red King and Lords of Outer Night's corpses. I don't know if she was looting, but she seemed very interested in rummaging through their clothes; she'd even put one of their robes on.

"How long have you known?" I asked.

She shrugged. "A week or two, I guess. I think I figured it out right after you moved into her house, or maybe even when she was giving me her blessing while we were driving to rescue those White Court kids. I should have understood then, but I had some Harry-shaped blinders on."

"Yeah, I do have that effect on people."

"But that kiss right before you went after Cowl confirmed it." I winced. "Don't feel bad. I've always known you better than you knew yourself. Apparently, better than I knew myself. I miss you, Harry. But… I think it's time for the past to be the past."

I nodded. "I think you might be right."

"I do love you," she said.

"I love you, too. I'm just not…"

"In love with me?"

"Yeah. Fine but important distinction."

She snuck her nose in the air in feigned haughtiness. "Well, that's fine. I can go back to dating. Playing the field. I understand Carlos is looking for a girlfriend."

"Oh, jeez." I put my head in my hand and we both laughed. When I pulled it back up, the Knights were approaching. "Oh, no rest for the weary, I fear." I patted Mouse, who stood, then got up myself.

"Harry," Karrin said.

"Heading out?"

"Yes."

"Well, let's get going."

She looked at me skeptically. "Are you feeling up to it?"

I pulled the old athame from its sheath, spun it around a finger and slid it back in. I looked at Fix. "I'm not leaving a friend in the lurch. Especially when he's just risked everything to help us."

She smiled and nodded. "Figured. Gard's agreed to bring the mercs."

Fix added, "We'll need all the firepower we can get."

"Da," Sanya added, "is why I bring I bring extra bullets."

"Wizard!" I looked up at the sound of Lara's voice. She ran up to us, inhumanly quick. She had her hand out, palm up. "Why does this look familiar?"

She was holding a small, smooth black stone. I stared. McCoy and Thomas joined us. "Still kicking up a fuss, Lara?" Thomas asked.

"Exploring a hunch," she said.

"What the hell is that?" my grandfather asked.

I picked it up. There was a slight vibration of power as I touched it. "It's a calling stone," I said. "Where did you get this?" I asked.

"One of the Lords' robes. Our enemies have been well coordinated, too well to be relying on messengers."

"It's just like ours," I said to McCoy.

"The technique's been around for centuries. I learned how to make them from the Wardens decades ago," he said, taking it. He closed his eyes for a moment, concentrating. "Yeah, it's just like ours. Exactly like ours. Same basic energy signature." He opened his eyes. "Only the Wardens make them like this."

"Wardens," I said. "Or Senior Council."

He gave me a worried look but said nothing.

"We know, from Mab's own lips, that there were three traitors on the White Council. I never got to ask her if that included Peabody and Cristos, but it means there's at least one more."

"You think it's Mai or Langtry?"

"I think they've both had plenty of reason and opportunity to make our lives difficult. Or short. And I think that even after Peabody, someone was feeding our enemies information. It couldn't have been all Cristos."

He ground his teeth together. "Son of a bitch. If you're heading after Summer, I'm coming. The sooner this is done, the sooner we get answers."

"Damn right," Thomas said.

We all just kind of stopped. Everybody looked at him, then at each other. "Absolutely not," Lara said.

"What? Why?" Thomas asked. "Because I'm suddenly so powerless?"

"Thomas, I thought I'd lost you for good not ten minutes ago. I'm not risking that again."

"But I - "

"And I just met you, really," McCoy said. "I don't want to risk it, either."

Thomas looked at me. "Harry, come on."

"I don't want to risk losing you, either," I said. He rolled his eyes. "Which is why you should come."

"What!" Lara and McCoy both tried to shout at the same time, and it came out in a weird stereo effect.

"All I'm saying is that if we don't stop Summer, we all still die. Can either of you argue with that?" They could not. "Then personally, I'd rather have him close, regardless of what happens."

He gave me a nod. I owe you one.

I gave one back. No problem.

"Ah hell, let's get out of here," McCoy said. "We've got a Faerie Queen's ass to kick."

There wasn't any cheering, but everyone nodded and started moving out; Fix was first in line. After a moment, I found myself at the back of the line with Karrin. "So," I said. "Uh, something was recently brought to my attention."

"Yeah. Fix mentioned something about that." We shared an awkward smile, then a laugh. That helped to break the tension.

So, here was the moment, so many years and distractions in coming. With both feet, then. "Murph - Karrin. I - "

As you might imagine, that's when the earthquake - the last earthquake, as far as I know - hit. The ground started shaking violently, and Karrin and I were tossed apart. I almost ended up back in the dugout. 60 feet away, in the shallow outfield, I saw the others shaking and falling, too. Even Mouse was flat on his belly. I got up to my hands and knees.

"Karrin!"

"I'm okay! Just wait it out!"

The shaking continued, though. I heard metal protesting, masonry falling. And over that, a higher sound, almost like… bees buzzing? I twisted my neck to look up, and saw the swarm. It was not bees.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me! I hate sylphs!"

Over the top edge of the stadium's wall, a flight of air faeries, each one looking like a woman with wings, came flooding in. They were heralds and messengers of the Summer Court, usually. But lately, they had been serving as foot soldiers. I wasn't able to get up with all the shaking, but I tried. If Summer had sent troops, the battle wasn't over.

With the buzzing ever louder, I finally managed to get my feet under me, knees bent deeply and one hand still kind of on the ground. I looked up as I reached for the athame.

The last thing I saw was a sylph with very sharp teeth and a crooked, broken-looking nose punching me in the face.

When I came to, I was hurting. The steady pounding I could hear didn't help. I was on something hard and uneven. The air had the uncomfortable feel of a warm night after a humid day. When my eyes finally opened, I was looking up at a cloudy night. My hand came up to my face; I touched my poor nose and winced. I also felt dried blood on my face. That couldn't be good.

Stars and stones. So much broken or destroyed lately; my house, car, staff, blasting rod, ribs, duster, soul and now my nose. I was turning out to be one broken wizard.

The pounding continued. I groaned. "Harry?" The voice was a whisper. I turned my head slowly to the side. Several large stones, many standing, some not, came into view. It wasn't quite Stonehenge, but that was the first thing that came to mind. I was lying on another such slab, though mine was covered in carvings that I was too close to see clearly. "Harry?" Another insistent whisper.

I lifted my head a little. Just past the edge of the slab, I saw a man's head. A familiar man. "Father Forthill?" I asked. Then I corrected myself. "Edimon?"

The old Sidhe, who had for so long pretended to be human, so convincingly that he'd damn near become one, smiled up at me. "Can you move?" he asked.

I wasn't sure. So I tried. My legs responded, so I tried rolling closer to him. He was sitting on the ground, which consisted mostly of yellowing grass. His arms were secured behind his back, as were his ankles. "What the hell?"

"Can you help us?" he asked.

Us? I looked a little further to the left. The Summer Lady, pure white hair disheveled, bright green dress covered in mud, was similarly restrained. "Lily." I finished waking up. The pains in my ribs and face started getting louder. The pounding noise continued. I pushed myself up to a sitting position, legs hanging off the slab, and fought down some nausea.

"Harry? The Queen, she's gone crazy!"

"Yeah, I heard. Fix caught up to me." I heaved my legs over the edge of the stone slab. The carvings on the slab caught my eye, and I realized where I was. "The Stone Table?"

The Father nodded.

"How long have I been here?"

"Just a few minutes. The sylphs dropped you."

"Harry, please hurry," Lily said. "The Queen will come back soon."

I wobbled up to my feet. "What is that pounding?"

"Titania and Mab," she said. "They're fighting each other."

I turned in the direction of the noise. There was a light show going on, a massive colouring of green or red, blue or gold, each in time with the sound of impact. I turned back, and reached for the athame. Damned if it wasn't still there. I could now see that the restraints were handcuffs, further chained to stone hoops embedded in the ground. Well, the old knife had worked on the seatbelt in Tilly's car, but would it cut metal? "I can't believe they didn't take this away from me."

I moved to kneel beside the Father, but he gestured with his head. "Lily first. She has to get away."

I nodded and took three extra steps. "Been a while," I said, kneeling down. I started trying to cut the chain between the cuffs. "Fix said you were taken a couple days ago."

Lily shook her head. "More like weeks."

"That doesn't make any sense." The chain was giving fairly quickly. "Fix only came to me yesterday."

"Time dilation. Titania accelerated time inside Chicago."

"Chicago isn't her domain – oh, right, the Transit." I shook the remaining fog out of my head. "Fix said time was moving differently."

She nodded. "With the help of the Circle, she could treat Chicago as an extension of Faerie."

"Spectacular." I was almost through the chain. "Just out of curiosity, what is the date?"

"December 21." The chain snapped. "The Northern Winter Equinox." She pulled her wrists apart, and I started in on the chain at her ankles. The knife moved through more quickly now, like it had learned from the material around her wrists.

"Seriously? It's been that long?"

"Well, the actual, precise time is a few minutes off, yet."

"That's why you have to get her out of here," the father said. "Given the chance, the Queen – or the Walker that controls her – will try to kill Lily."

"And if she does it after Winter takes control of the Stone Table, we have the same problem we had with – uh, the same problem we almost had a few years ago."

"Exactly. And don't feel awkward, harry; I loved Aurora, but she would have brought about the slow end of humanity and Earth itself." For no reason I could tell, his head snapped up. "Oh, no."

The chain snapped. "Okay, let's get you out of here, too, Father."

"There's no time!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Harry, listen!"

I did. The pounding noise had stopped. "Oh, hell's bells!" I grabbed Lily's hand and turned to run, in the direction opposite where the lightshow had been coming from. We got five steps. I ran face-first into a shield between two of the huge stone monoliths. It hurt. "Ow! Son of a bitch!" My nose started bleeding and it and my ribs started hurting all over again. I pulled a loose strip of fabric from my tattered sleeve to stop up my nose.

Lily put her hand against the invisible barrier. "I can't…". She trailed off and got look of realization on her face. "Harry, she's here." We both slowly turned around.

The Summer Queen was there, standing atop the Stone Table. She had arrived with no fanfare, no disturbance, no freaking noise at all. For a moment, it was all I could do to just stay standing in her presence; she was terribly beautiful.

Her hair was the colour of the Sun itself, yellow-orange and pointing in every direction. Her skin was the deep tan of a farmer. She was tall and regal, shoulders square, limbs long.

She wore a dress that looked like it was woven of stalks of grain and flower stems, edged with white lace. It was mostly covered in a set of plate mail, each piece intricately carved and emblazoned with runes and images of flora and fauna. It looked like steel, but wasn't. It was also covered in dents and scratches, and more than a few holes.

Her boots covered her knees, and they, too, bore the signs of recent battle. But it was her face that concerned me the most.

She looked a lot like Aurora, of course. But she also had no eyes. It looked like they had been roughly carved right out of her skull, though the rest of her face was untouched save for lines of blood or something running from the sockets. "Harry," the Queen said. "So good of you to finally join us." The voice came out gruff and low; dare I say, masculine? And with a rather pronounced Oxford accent. I had a feeling it wasn't her proper voice.

"Run while you can!" the Father shouted. "The athame should break the barrier!"

The Queen was down and crouching behind the Father before I could blink. She had no problem moving around with no eyes, I guess. I was about to take a step in front of Lily - part of that hindbrain default setting I have - when Lily stepped in front of me protectively. I was momentarily confused and insulted, but then I remembered she was a hell of a lot more powerful than I was on a good day, and I was on my last legs. Again.

The Queen put a knife to Forthill's - I still had trouble thinking of him as anything but human - throat. "Flee and he dies," she said. Her tone was matter-of-fact. She fixed us with those empty sockets, blood of a kind dripping down her cheeks. "Either of you."

"You don't need the wizard," Lily said. Again, my protective streak - some would call it chauvinism - took a blow. It was a strange dichotomy; this girl - this woman - was scarcely bigger than Murphy, and I'd never seen her fight, but had to put my life in her hands.

Was this what it was like for people meeting me for the first time?

"On the contrary," Titania said. "His presence is necessary."

"It's okay, Lily. If she wants my help with anything, she won't hurt him."

The thing that had once been a Faerie Queen grunted. "DuMorne did enjoy breaking the headstrong. Almost a pity he hadn't the chance with you. It would have made quite the show."

"What do you know about DuMorne?" I asked.

She smiled. "The night you drove me Out was not the first time he and I had dealings." She yanked on the Father, pulling him to a standing position. He grunted in pain as the steel cuffs bit into his flesh, but the chain linking his wrists to his ankles snapped. "You see, he was silent." She smiled, and her teeth appeared to be rotting out of her head. "For that reason, I liked him."

"Silent?" Lash's words came back to me: The sounds of mortal minds... hurts them somehow. "His mind didn't... make noise?"

"Not to them," she said in a different voice. An angry one?

Her real one. Maybe I could work with that.

She shook her head and continued as before. "The din that you and all your kind produce was absent in him. It made him singularly interesting to all of the Outside. And, we thought, singularly useful. He could, with our guidance, find those like you."

"Like me?" I found myself making fists and dipping my head, like I wanted to charge into a fight. "You mean the ones who can hurt you."

"Quite. Once we knew where you all were, we could eliminate you."

"Knocking off the only people who could hold you back? The only ones who could kill you? Smart, I'd say, except that if you hadn't done anything, I never would have known."

"One of you would have. The Reach would have seen to it."

"The Reach? You mean Demonreach?"

"It was always looking for you. Always needed to have champions at the ready should the rest of us ever try to come after it."

"I don't understand."

"Of course not."

"It's been protecting us, Harry," Lily said. "Isn't that right, Your Highness?" I heard the disrespect in her tone and silently approved.

"Ever was it an enemy of its fellows. It enjoyed the noise the rest of us so abhorred. When we found DuMorne, we recognized our chance, to destroy the Reach and all mortals. We could finally have peace." Things started to fall into place in my over-stressed mind.

"This was all to destroy the island? Because it always had a few humans it could work through to stop you." I shook my head, still confused. "Then why Chicago? Why the Circle?"

The Outsider laughed with the Sidhe's mouth. "The Circle consisted of the most powerful hunters and destroyers we could influence; we had been seeking them for centuries, whenever we were able to gain access. With DuMorne gone, we needed them more than ever. The promise of power, over both creation and destruction, was enough for each of them. There was one who needed no convincing, of course, who provided us with the means to contain you." I gulped at that.

"We needed the others to hunt down the rest of you. The Reach itself was immobile, of course. Why else would it need champions? Just recently, the Circle managed to bring you all together. Dozens of potential champions, subtly manipulated and guided to Chicago over the years... and now there are only two of you left. And the Circle themselves; you've taken care of them nicely. Together they might have stood against us. But that problem is now moot."

"The last few years... The last few millennia. All the death and destruction, all the manipulation… It was just step one." I felt my teeth grinding together. "Lash was right. You don't need us. You actually want to destroy us. To destroy everything."

"And we shall finally do so, just as soon as the other champion arrives."

"Elaine? She doesn't know where we are."

"Oh, dear mortal, do you truly believe that will stop her?" She laughed and I scowled. "She will chase you down through those rings about your neck."

I didn't know what to say.

Lily didn't have that problem. "Monster! Release her!" You may have heard of the 'halo effect'; humans in general are more willing to listen to or follow certain people simply because those people are beautiful. Of course, in regular humans the glowing effect of a halo isn't literal, but for a second there, I would have followed Lily to the ends of the Earth.

Titania's face turned to her, slowly. "Or what?"

Lily's lip pulled away from her teeth. "Or I will drive you Out!" In her hands, fire and water seemed to coalesce.

"Be careful, child," Titania said in her own voice again. She was hiding inside her own body. Her Own mind. Behind the Queen, the pounding noises began again. Her voice switched back with hardly any notice. Lily and I exchanged a look, then I made eye contact with the Father. He'd heard it too, and knew what it meant. "Hmm. It would seem Mab has regained her balance. Very well, young Changling. Do your worst."

"Lily, no!" the Father shouted. He struggled against Titania's grip in vain. "I've lost one daughter to this beast, don't throw yourself away; run!"

"Never!" the Lady said. "Release him!"

"Lily!" I stepped forward again. "If she kills you, she gets the Summer Lady's mantle back. She could resurrect Aurora. Or if this really is the equinox and she feeds the power into Winter, she could throw the Courts out of balance and the world into chaos." I nodded like a fencer acknowledging a touch. "Long-term back-up plan?"

The Queen's grin was fierce, and I swear some of her teeth were pointed, now. "We have waited an eternity. 'Long-term' does not even begin to explain our plans." She turned her face towards one of the standing stone monoliths.

Head hanging in shame, Anastacia Luccio stepped out from behind it.

I actually stopped thinking for a moment. My brain was simply paralyzed in shock. Then confusion set in; what was she doing here?

Slowly, I figured it out. "You... Ana..."

"Harry, I'm sorry. But... Is it true? Are the Circle members wiped out? Are they all dead?"

My voice was hardly a whisper. "You sold us out to the vampires?"

She nodded slowly.

"How... How could..."

"My sister's descendants." She finally lifted her head. Her eyes were red over dark circles. "My family."

I closed my eyes. Most wizards live for centuries if they lead lives less interesting than mine. In that time, they watch a lot of people die. Most of them lose all of their family. Distant descendants are all most of them end up with.

One of the reasons wizards are loathe to speak of or even reveal their families to others is the leverage those others would gain from that knowledge. The threat to one's family - especially those who are not wizards or even aware of the supernatural - is enormous.

"Please tell me you understand, Harry."

"I..." I wanted to hate her. I wanted to scream.

"Would you have done any less for your family?"

I'd damn near lost my mind on the Red King. But betray humanity? "No. No, I could never sell out dozens - hundreds! - of people to those monsters."

"Not even for your brother? Your grandfather?" At that point, it didn't even surprise me that she knew I had a grandfather. She'd obviously known more than she'd let on for years. "What if you had a child, Harry? Or a niece or nephew?" She stepped forward. "What about your parents?"

I suddenly found it hard to breathe. What if my parents had been threatened? The answer was instantly obvious; I would do anything to protect them, just like they would do for me. Just as any parent worth their salt would do, just like I would do if I had a child. She'd had no choice.

But that didn't make it right.

Did it?

The Summer Queen and the thing inside her laughed at us. "Morality. So foreign. Yet so amusing."

"Yeah, it's the Monty Python of human attributes," I said, finally finding a target for my anger. I stomped forward. "You manipulative son of a bitch! You push her into an impossible decision for amusement? For the sheer fun of it?"

"Harry!" I barely heard Lily.

"We needed the power over wizards of course. But I also wanted to know how one such as you would react. It is remarkable how you avoid blaming her."

"He's a manipulator, Harry!" the Father said. "Don't listen!" He was choked off by the Outsider's grip.

"I know, Father." I stomped forward, athame in hand. I know the Queen's eyes were missing, but I also know she looked at the old knife, just from the way her nose moved around. "He's a controller and a destroyer." I got to within a few feet of them, then held the athame up and pointed it right the Queen's throat. "But I also know he's possessing one of the most powerful beings of the Inside." I grinned as her face twitched. "And I bet she's pissed."

The Queen of Summer screamed in two voices. One was high and beautiful, though pained. The other was low and rough, angry. She shoved the Father at me, and I caught him in my off hand. Lily jumped past me and got her hands on Titania's wrists while the Queen kept screaming and dropped her knife. Both of them called Summer Fire to their hands, and the smell of burning flesh took no time at all to reach me.

Breathing through my mouth, I eased the Father down and touched the athame to his bonds; it slid through quickly. We both watched as Lily twisted the Queen to her knees. "Help her, Harry, please!" He pulled himself to his feet, but looked unsteady. At the same time, Legion, or He Who Walks Behind - not Titania, she wasn't in control - got a hand under Lily, lifting off her feet and tossing her on to the Stone Table with a cry. Lily' dress caught fire.

Then the Queen scratched at her own face. Guess I know how she lost her eyes.

"I got it!" I jumped up and hefted the athame one more time. "Not so fast, you body-snatching son of a bitch!" I took a jab at her back, but she moved like a ripple of wind through a grain field and dodged me. I've never felt so clumsy.

"So arrogant," the Outsider said. She raked a hand at me. I tried to dodge, but it was embarrassing next to her speed. My duster took most of it, but on top of all the damage it had already taken, it never stood a chance. I felt the enchantments snap and give out even as long strips of leather fell away. She pointed a finger at me and I went flying backwards. I was airborne for about three whole seconds before I hit one of the stone monoliths and stuck to it, pinned in place. I didn't get a concussion, so score one for learning from your mistakes. The remains of my coat bunched up behind me uncomfortably.

"My Queen," the Father said. His voice was pleading. "I know you're in there. I know you can stop it! Titania, please!"

The Summer Queen's head turned to the old Sidhe. "Fool," she said. A gesture sent him tumbling back.

Then the ground itself opened up and tried to swallow her. The grass and mud of the vale turned to liquid and began to run up her legs and pull her down. Behind her, Lily, naked save for cuts, bruises and burns was kneeling on the Table, arms pointed at the ground. "You cannot fight forever! Release her!"

But the composite Queen just laughed. "Child." She turned and moved her legs as though she were stepping out of a puddle rather than two feet of soil and stone. She lifted a hand and sent a ball of golden light flying at the Summer Lady.

Lily wasn't stupid. She prepared a greenish ball of energy herself, and the two impacted in the air just a few feet away from her face. Lily tumbled backwards off the table.

"Harry!" The sound was a hiss. I turned my head towards it. Ana was crouched beside my monolith. "Harry, is it true? Is the Circle gone?"

I still didn't know how to feel about her actions, but at least she was human. "Yes," I said. "All three flavours of vampire, Cowl, and a few demon buddies for seasoning. Titania's all that's left."

She nodded. "Hand me the athame. I can cut through the barrier."

That was almost crazy enough to work. I hesitated, still not sure I could trust her, but hell, it was that or die pinned to a wall. I let go of the blade, and watched it drop. Ana caught it in one hand, turned to the barrier, and froze. Simultaneously, I felt the power holding me in place weaken. I looked back at the Queen, who was facing - I couldn't say 'looking' - in our direction. "No," the Outsider said. As I watched, Ana jerked and turned around. Her face was set in rage and effort. "I'll take that, mortal."

"No," Ana whispered, but seemed to be all the fight she had in her. She started moving towards the Queen in jerky, stiff movements.

"Let her go," I shouted. "I thought I was the one you needed."

"You are. But this tool is singularly dangerous and useful. I will have it."

"Never!" Say what you will about Lily, she had a lot of moxie. She tackled the Walker from behind, coming out of nowhere. This finally broke the Outsider's concentration, and I dropped to the ground. I managed to keep my feet, and threw off my useless duster. I was going to miss it, but had other things to worry about. Luccio looked at me. "Sever the barrier!" I said. She glanced at the knife, then before I could stop her, she charged forward, right at the embodiments of Summer, screaming. "Ana, no!" I ran after her as she headed for the tussle.

I thought, for one wild second when Titania's back was to us, that she just might end it all right then and there. Instead, a quick rippling movement followed by an even quicker backhand knocked Ana into me. The athame flew away.

I followed its flight path, up over a corner of the Stone Table, then back down at the Father's feet. He picked it up quickly.

The Outsider threw Lily into the air, too, ducked and grabbed the knife she'd dropped a minute ago, then stopped, facing at the being who had once been her Court Fool. All the while, the pounding sound on the barrier continued. Lily came down on the Table again and stopped trying to get up. The Father checked that she was still breathing, then took of his suit jacket and covered her with it. "My Queen," the former priest said. His voice was shaky, his eyes pleading, his clothes damaged. But when he lifted the old knife, his hands were steady. "My love," he said. "You have to fight it. You must drive it out!"

For a second or three, her face contorted in agony and her real voice came through. "I cannot! It is so strong. So entwined. I cannot tell where it ends and I begin!"

She jerked to the side, growling. "Nor will you ever!" she growled at herself and scratched long lines down her face with her singed arms.

The old Father nodded to himself, eyes clouding up but never leaving the Queen's face. "I feared as much."

"This vessel is mine!"

"No," he said, quietly, and firmly. "It belongs to she who the Sun worships."

Then the old Sidhe launched himself at her, moving so fast that I actually lost track of him for a second. He slashed and jabbed and parried like an Olympic champion's wet dream. Ana and I tried to crawl backwards, but I was partially frozen in shock. I'd heard of fighting monks, but fighting priests was new. Titania fought back, but it was painfully obvious, even to my eyes, that she never stood a chance. Edimon had been the Court Fool, but he was brilliant.

The display of grace and power would only be cheapened if I tried to put it into words. But much like everything about the Sidhe, it was beautiful and terrifying at the same time. The two knives struck each other so quickly that a single chime was raised in the air, a ringing note that sounded like every sword fight and none of them. It was beautiful and painful.

Eventually, though, the Father pushed her back, and I saw an opportunity to help, thanks to a rough go in high school. The Outsider took a step back, and I rolled my body into position behind her heels. The Father took one more swing, and she tripped over me.

He stepped over me and had the athame to her throat before she finished falling. And he hesitated. I didn't move. I didn't breathe.

"Do it," Titania - and it was the Queen's voice - said. She wasn't just asking - she was begging. "End it!"

"I..." The Father held the blade steady, but he didn't use it. "I can't," he said. His voice was a harsh whisper.

"It will not stop. I can't - " she gasped, her voice hitching. Then it changed. "Weak. We will devour you all!"

Her arms snapped up and grabbed his, fire erupting and burning away his shirt, his skin, his flesh. He cried out as she pulled herself back to her feet.

I lifted a hand and shouted, "Forzare!" Though it granted me a splitting headache, the spell did its work, and drove a wedge between them. The Father fell back, his arms at his sides, the old athame planted blade up in the dirt, still in his much weaker grip. The Queen didn't fall, but seemed to come back to herself again.

She looked at the old priest, and even though her eyes were gone, she did look at him. She actually saw him. Maybe she saw him clearly for the first time in centuries.

Maybe for the first time ever. "My love," she whispered. "It will not hurt you again."

He managed to move his head and whisper, "No, please," before she let herself fall forward. She landed right on the blade, heart first, and rolled to the side. The barrier vanished. I know because that damn pounding noise finally stopped.

From between two stone monoliths, one solid and one broken, I saw a tall dark figure appear. It took a second to recognize. "Rashid?"

"Wizard Dresden. You have survived," the Gatekeeper said. He sounded relieved as he helped me up. For once, his hood was down, fully exposing his scarred face and artificial eye.

I didn't bother to ask how he got there or why or anything like that. He'd probably been here, waiting for this moment, since the Wardens had been ambushed by the vampires - "Ana!" I snapped back to full awareness and looked around. The Captain was nowhere to be seen.

There was a rush of air above us, and a shadow dropped from the sky, landing like a boulder, shaking the ground. "Where is my enemy?" Mab demanded. Her voice was rough but firm, and she was clad in fantastically ornate armour.

I gestured. "The Queen of Summer is dead," I said.

She hardly spared a glance for the body of Titania and the weeping man beside her. "I know that, you fool. Where is the Outsider?"

"Here!" came the shrieked answer. And Lily threw herself at the Winter Queen.