History Literature / ColdDays

* BiggerBad:
** [[spoiler:Nemesis: an infectious and sentient form of madness, that can affect anyone -- even the Faerie Queens -- and turn them to the side of the Outsiders.]]
** Also, [[spoiler:The Outsiders in general. ''Strongly'' implied to be the BigBad of the entire series.]]
** [[spoiler:Possibly the Black Council as well. What role the Black Council plays in all of this is still unclear. They were the ones that spread Nemesis to Victor Sells, Leonid Kravos, the FBI agents, the Red Court, Lea (and, through Lea, Maeve), and the White Court. It is unclear whether the Black Council is using Nemesis for its own ends, whether it is working with Nemesis in a partnership, or whether it is serving Nemesis]]. What is certain is this: According to WordOfGod, [[spoiler:Justin [=DuMorne=] was ''collecting'' the Starborn to raise them into a weapon to destroy outsiders.]] Why? No idea.

* BrainwashedAndCrazy: When Harry discusses [[spoiler:the contagion with Lily]] he comes to the realization [[spoiler:the contagion had brainwashed [[Literature/StormFront Victor Sells]] into a domestic abusing, drug dealing warlock, [[Literature/FoolMoon FBI Agent Denton and company]] into {{Dirty Cop}}s, gave [[Literature/GravePeril Leonid Kravos]] the suicidal overconfidence to try and summon demons to take over Chicago, turned [[Literature/SummerKnight Summer Lady Aurora]] into an insane woman bent on ending the constant war between Summer and Winter no matter the cost]].

** Though not blood, Maeve refers to Lily as her cousin and [[spoiler:has been stringing her along with lies about who was really corrupted by Nemesis to get her to destroy Demonreach, and when that fails kills her]].

[[TheOneWith The one with]] all the [[TheFairFolk Fae]] and [[EldritchAbomination Outsiders]].

* NotSoDifferent:

* ArtisticLicenseGunSafety: Andi points a loaded gun at Harry, puts her finger on the trigger and keeps it on, while she ponders what to do with him. After some talk, she finally removes her finger to the trigger guard, but won't stop pointing the gun at Harry, even when he asks her to.

* DeadlyDecadentCourt:

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: [[spoiler:Maeve coldly asks Sarissa "Does she talk about me?" when her sister is trying to encourage her into a HeelFaceTurn and fight against Nemesis' influence. Sarissa's brief hesitation only further confirms to Maeve that she is TheUnfavorite and she shouldn't fight Nemesis as it's giving her the chance to get revenge on their mother]].

[[TheOneWith The one with]] all the [[EldritchAbomination Outsiders]].

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Titania almost smiles a couple of times at two of Harry's comments about Mab.

** Lily, compared to Maeve, is a paragon of nice and warmth. When she gets pissed, however, she can throw flames out that would melt steel. One of her attacks is described like a miniature sun.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: A reestablishment after not appearing since ''Summer Knight'', one of Mother Winter's first lines is to angrily describe ''Mab'' as "a romantic."

* EvilIsPetty: [[spoiler:Maeve reveals, after killing Lily, her primary goal was not to help Nemesis nor release the prisoners inside Demonreach. It was to get Sarissa close enough so when Maeve did kill Lily, Sarissa would become the Summer Lady, forever taking her from Mab's side]].

** Also, who chose the name "Warden" for the armies of the White Council? Isn't a Warden the person in charge of a prison?
** It's not like Merlin and The Archive were metaphorical, so there's no reason to assume any other positions are.

* ExtremelyShortTimespan: Aside from the three months of physical therapy that starts the book, the entire novel takes place over ''one'' day. Halloween, to be specific, and Harry's birthday.
* ExtremeMeleeRevenge: [[spoiler:Had Harry not moved, when he pissed Fix off enough, his sword would have cleaved Harry in halves]].
* TheFairFolk: There's almost more fae characters in the book than humans.

* FightingFromTheInside: [[spoiler:Harry encourages Cat Sith to do this when he was possessed by ''Nemesis''. Harry watched him struggle to fight it but Nemesis just fully asserts itself and silences Cat Sith.]]

** Molly's line about not getting between siblings in a fight.
** [[spoiler:Empty Night[[note]]:Thomas's curse of choice and, per Jim, the planned title for one of the last three books of the series]][[/note]] is mentioned as what will result if [[spoiler:the Outsiders]] are victorious.

** Also, the headaches themselves are revealed to be foreshadowing, from as early as ''Small Favor.''

** Harry's conversation with Mother Summer, [[spoiler:particularly what is mentioned in OneDialogueTwoConversations]].
* FullFrontalAssault: Harry spends most of the climactic battle naked, after [[spoiler:Demonreach's]] wards disintegrate his clothing.
* GambitPileup: By the end of the book, [[spoiler:Mab, Maeve, Harry, and the Outsiders all have a gambit in play, with Harry and Maeve's gambits being spawned off of that of Mab and the Outsiders, respectively. In the end, nobody really gets what they wanted]].
* AGlitchInTheMatrix: When Harry faces "Sharkface" [[spoiler:during the assault on the Demonreach, Sharkface puts a powerful MindRape on Harry, but missed one detail. Mab, for all her power, does not handle iron well. Harry has seen her jump away from a tiny nail rolling gently at her. Thus making her hold an iron knife that is rusting while torturing Harry is said glitch. This fact is used by Harry to break the illusion]].

* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: But which?

* GoodAllAlong: [[spoiler: Mab, sort of. It turns out that having Maeve killed is justified, and that her real purpose is defending our universe from the Outsiders. She's still a scary, scary Sidhe Queen, though.]]
* GoodCounterpart: Harry always assumed the Summer Knight was Summer's hitman, just like the Winter Knight is Winter's. It turns out that the Summer Knight's job is simply to stop the Winter Knight.

** Maeve states that [[spoiler: tricking Harry into combat with the Redcap, siccing a second band upon Harry later, and enjoying all of it]] is her being a ''good person''. [[spoiler: It's a ruse to trick Lily and Harry into believing her lies.]]

* ImmodestOrgasm: Harry to Murphy on what he claims their relationship will be like if they ever become romantically involved.

*** When [[spoiler:TheWildHunt]] is charging after him and Murphy, [[spoiler:Harry shoots Herne's helmet dead on and gets Kringle to face him in an old steel mill where iron dust permeates the walls and dirt.]]
*** Averted with [[spoiler:Mother Winter, who could touch iron. She could even turn it into rust.]]

* LaughingMad[=/=]MirthlessLaughter: Harry starts to laugh hysterically when he realizes that Demonreach is not a stronghold: [[spoiler:it's a prison so hard that six ''naagloshi'' (one of which nearly killed him in ''Literature/TurnCoat'') are in ''minimum security''.]]
* LawyerFriendlyCameo: Invoked in-universe, when Bob's explanation of one of the plot's ticking time bombs starts looking suspiciously like the opening to a Franchise/StarWars movie.

* LetsGetDangerous: [[spoiler: Mac of all people]] gets one when [[spoiler: Sharkface]] comes and threatens Harry and Thomas. He pulls out a shotgun and slides a pistol towards the brothers.

** Despite his growth in power and size, Toot-toot is still this. When Harry asked him to watch his back, Toot asked Harry to lean forward.
** [[spoiler:After becoming Harry's vassal and prisoner, Lacuna shows this as well]].

** [[spoiler:Demonreach's final barrier around the Well will prevent anything that is not ''of the Island'' from passing through. Thomas, Murphy, and others cover themselves in mud, every nook and cranny of their bodies where the barrier could touch. It worked.]]

* LoveAtFirstPunch: [[spoiler: Toot-toot for Lacuna, once he saw Lacuna was a girl under that armor.]]

* MakeItLookLikeAStruggle: Harry means to do this to Andi, he really does, but he can't bring himself to [[WouldntHitAGirl hit a girl]].

** Titania calls herself this because of her tendency to act on emotions. As a result, [[spoiler:she still has yet to forgive Harry for slaying Aurora]].
** In hindsight [[spoiler:the ogre who made Sarissa bleed and made Mab go black with fury, caused Mab to step into this because not only did this thing make someone bleed, he made Mab's daughter bleed]].

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Karrin suffers from a quiet one [[spoiler:after killing Maeve]]. All she knew was at that moment [[spoiler:Maeve was going to kill Harry]]. Nothing else mattered and so she [[spoiler:shot Maeve]]. Murphy didn't realize the consequences of [[spoiler:killing Maeve would turn Molly into the next Winter Lady]].

** Cat Sith. Mentioning his name alone freaks Bob and Sarissa out. When one is the King of Malks and one of Mab's top valets, running would be smart if this feline is your enemy.

* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: Harry mentions the goblins, and notes that they're not like how they're portrayed in ''Literature/TheHobbit.''

** Mab, of all people, invokes this [[spoiler:after Maeve's death, in regards to Harry. She goes into great detail about how Harry shaped Molly into the perfect minion over the years. Then it becomes clear that despite all that, she ''does'' feel bad about what happened]].

** [[spoiler: Mab is TheSpock, Titania is TheMcCoy. Yet the plot is set in motion because of Mab being emotional -- she can't kill Maeve herself because she loves her. And when Harry meets Titania, she notes that the wisdom of her heart says that she should ''hate'' Harry for killing Aurora -- but she lets him go because, logically, Harry needed to do it (since Aurora was possessed by Nemesis) and killing Harry wouldn't give her Aurora back. And then there's Mab's actions in the final chapter -- when Harry threatens her with imprisonment in Demonsreach, she shows genuine fear. When Harry worries about Molly, she actually tries to comfort him in her own twisted way. In the end, she reveals a secret of herself to Harry]].
* OutOfCharacterAlert: Harry realizes that [[spoiler:Cat Sith and Maeve]] have been suborned by Nemesis when they show some moments of this (although it took him a while to realize Maeve's moment)- [[spoiler:Cat Sith gloats to Harry instead of just killing him from ambush, and Maeve gives a straight, easy-to-understand rundown of the events with no roundaboutness, ambiguity, or ExactWords to speak of (which is basically impossible to the fae, as being indirect is part of their nature)]].
* OutOfCharacterMoment: Of a sort. Harry first realizes that the feline in his chambers is more than the average [[MegaNeko Malk]] when he calmly rebuffs Harry's threats--up til then, Harry's experience with malks has been with them as bloodthirsty little monsters (they're to cats what Hannibal Lector is to people, according to Harry).

** [[spoiler:The iconic beat of the song actually stops Harry from tapping into one of the island's ley lines, which would have had potentially disastrous consequences, given its source.]]
* PowerupFullColorChange: At the party for Harry, [[spoiler:an ogre punched Sarissa, spilling her blood]]. This causes [[spoiler:Mab to change the color of her clothes, eyes, and hair from snow white, to ink black as she barely contains her anger at this violation of her law]].

* RapeAsDrama: Invoked, but not used fully. Thanks to the warping influence of the Knight's mantle, Harry has vivid fantasies of raping Maeve, Lily, Molly, and Andi. Harry resists, but finds the implications just as disturbing as the reader does.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Mother Summer, Mother Winter. Also, Kris Kringle. Sort of.

* TheReveal: In spades. [[spoiler: Demonreach is the guardian for a whole ''island'' full of SealedEvilInACan, the Winter Court serves as the first line of defense against Outsiders, and Molly has been groomed to assume the mantle of a Sidhe Queen.]]

** Harry [[spoiler: asks Mother Winter for help in stopping a great tragedy. She just laughs and reminds him she is the Queen of destruction and tragedy, finding sorrow and suffering extremely enjoyable. He has to tell her that Nemesis is involved in order to get her help]].

** Also, a tiny detail slipped in that's probably going to end up being incredibly important -- Mother Summer has a shelf in her cabin that is lined with small bottles sealed with wax. The shelf shifts, and Harry goes to put them back up for her -- [[spoiler:and then realizes that they are labeled with things like "Black Death" and "Cholera". One is slightly cracked, and Mother Summer gently puts it back up, saying "This one is not ready to be born yet." That bottle is labeled "Wormwood". In the Biblical chapter of Revelation, wormwood is a star that falls to earth during the apocalypse and poisons all of Earth's water.]] Fun fact: The word for "wormwood" in one Ukrainian dialect is [[spoiler:''chernobyl''. Guess we know when that jar got cracked...]]

[[TheOneWith The one with]] all the [[EldritchAbomination Outsiders]].

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Titania almost smiles a couple of times at two of Harry's comments about Mab.

** Lily, compared to Maeve, is a paragon of nice and warmth. When she gets pissed, however, she can throw flames out that would melt steel. One of her attacks is described like a miniature sun.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: A reestablishment after not appearing since ''Summer Knight'', one of Mother Winter's first lines is to angrily describe ''Mab'' as "a romantic."

* EvilIsPetty: [[spoiler:Maeve reveals, after killing Lily, her primary goal was not to help Nemesis nor release the prisoners inside Demonreach. It was to get Sarissa close enough so when Maeve did kill Lily, Sarissa would become the Summer Lady, forever taking her from Mab's side]].

** Also, who chose the name "Warden" for the armies of the White Council? Isn't a Warden the person in charge of a prison?
** It's not like Merlin and The Archive were metaphorical, so there's no reason to assume any other positions are.

* ExtremelyShortTimespan: Aside from the three months of physical therapy that starts the book, the entire novel takes place over ''one'' day. Halloween, to be specific, and Harry's birthday.
* ExtremeMeleeRevenge: [[spoiler:Had Harry not moved, when he pissed Fix off enough, his sword would have cleaved Harry in halves]].
* TheFairFolk: There's almost more fae characters in the book than humans.

* FightingFromTheInside: [[spoiler:Harry encourages Cat Sith to do this when he was possessed by ''Nemesis''. Harry watched him struggle to fight it but Nemesis just fully asserts itself and silences Cat Sith.]]

** Molly's line about not getting between siblings in a fight.
** [[spoiler:Empty Night[[note]]:Thomas's curse of choice and, per Jim, the planned title for one of the last three books of the series]][[/note]] is mentioned as what will result if [[spoiler:the Outsiders]] are victorious.

** Also, the headaches themselves are revealed to be foreshadowing, from as early as ''Small Favor.''

** Harry's conversation with Mother Summer, [[spoiler:particularly what is mentioned in OneDialogueTwoConversations]].
* FullFrontalAssault: Harry spends most of the climactic battle naked, after [[spoiler:Demonreach's]] wards disintegrate his clothing.
* GambitPileup: By the end of the book, [[spoiler:Mab, Maeve, Harry, and the Outsiders all have a gambit in play, with Harry and Maeve's gambits being spawned off of that of Mab and the Outsiders, respectively. In the end, nobody really gets what they wanted]].
* AGlitchInTheMatrix: When Harry faces "Sharkface" [[spoiler:during the assault on the Demonreach, Sharkface puts a powerful MindRape on Harry, but missed one detail. Mab, for all her power, does not handle iron well. Harry has seen her jump away from a tiny nail rolling gently at her. Thus making her hold an iron knife that is rusting while torturing Harry is said glitch. This fact is used by Harry to break the illusion]].

* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: But which?

* GoodAllAlong: [[spoiler: Mab, sort of. It turns out that having Maeve killed is justified, and that her real purpose is defending our universe from the Outsiders. She's still a scary, scary Sidhe Queen, though.]]
* GoodCounterpart: Harry always assumed the Summer Knight was Summer's hitman, just like the Winter Knight is Winter's. It turns out that the Summer Knight's job is simply to stop the Winter Knight.

** Maeve states that [[spoiler: tricking Harry into combat with the Redcap, siccing a second band upon Harry later, and enjoying all of it]] is her being a ''good person''. [[spoiler: It's a ruse to trick Lily and Harry into believing her lies.]]

* ImmodestOrgasm: Harry to Murphy on what he claims their relationship will be like if they ever become romantically involved.

*** When [[spoiler:TheWildHunt]] is charging after him and Murphy, [[spoiler:Harry shoots Herne's helmet dead on and gets Kringle to face him in an old steel mill where iron dust permeates the walls and dirt.]]
*** Averted with [[spoiler:Mother Winter, who could touch iron. She could even turn it into rust.]]

* LaughingMad[=/=]MirthlessLaughter: Harry starts to laugh hysterically when he realizes that Demonreach is not a stronghold: [[spoiler:it's a prison so hard that six ''naagloshi'' (one of which nearly killed him in ''Literature/TurnCoat'') are in ''minimum security''.]]
* LawyerFriendlyCameo: Invoked in-universe, when Bob's explanation of one of the plot's ticking time bombs starts looking suspiciously like the opening to a Franchise/StarWars movie.

* LetsGetDangerous: [[spoiler: Mac of all people]] gets one when [[spoiler: Sharkface]] comes and threatens Harry and Thomas. He pulls out a shotgun and slides a pistol towards the brothers.

** Despite his growth in power and size, Toot-toot is still this. When Harry asked him to watch his back, Toot asked Harry to lean forward.
** [[spoiler:After becoming Harry's vassal and prisoner, Lacuna shows this as well]].

** [[spoiler:Demonreach's final barrier around the Well will prevent anything that is not ''of the Island'' from passing through. Thomas, Murphy, and others cover themselves in mud, every nook and cranny of their bodies where the barrier could touch. It worked.]]

* LoveAtFirstPunch: [[spoiler: Toot-toot for Lacuna, once he saw Lacuna was a girl under that armor.]]

* MakeItLookLikeAStruggle: Harry means to do this to Andi, he really does, but he can't bring himself to [[WouldntHitAGirl hit a girl]].

** Titania calls herself this because of her tendency to act on emotions. As a result, [[spoiler:she still has yet to forgive Harry for slaying Aurora]].
** In hindsight [[spoiler:the ogre who made Sarissa bleed and made Mab go black with fury, caused Mab to step into this because not only did this thing make someone bleed, he made Mab's daughter bleed]].

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Karrin suffers from a quiet one [[spoiler:after killing Maeve]]. All she knew was at that moment [[spoiler:Maeve was going to kill Harry]]. Nothing else mattered and so she [[spoiler:shot Maeve]]. Murphy didn't realize the consequences of [[spoiler:killing Maeve would turn Molly into the next Winter Lady]].

** Cat Sith. Mentioning his name alone freaks Bob and Sarissa out. When one is the King of Malks and one of Mab's top valets, running would be smart if this feline is your enemy.

* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: Harry mentions the goblins, and notes that they're not like how they're portrayed in ''Literature/TheHobbit.''

** Mab, of all people, invokes this [[spoiler:after Maeve's death, in regards to Harry. She goes into great detail about how Harry shaped Molly into the perfect minion over the years. Then it becomes clear that despite all that, she ''does'' feel bad about what happened]].

** [[spoiler: Mab is TheSpock, Titania is TheMcCoy. Yet the plot is set in motion because of Mab being emotional -- she can't kill Maeve herself because she loves her. And when Harry meets Titania, she notes that the wisdom of her heart says that she should ''hate'' Harry for killing Aurora -- but she lets him go because, logically, Harry needed to do it (since Aurora was possessed by Nemesis) and killing Harry wouldn't give her Aurora back. And then there's Mab's actions in the final chapter -- when Harry threatens her with imprisonment in Demonsreach, she shows genuine fear. When Harry worries about Molly, she actually tries to comfort him in her own twisted way. In the end, she reveals a secret of herself to Harry]].
* OutOfCharacterAlert: Harry realizes that [[spoiler:Cat Sith and Maeve]] have been suborned by Nemesis when they show some moments of this (although it took him a while to realize Maeve's moment)- [[spoiler:Cat Sith gloats to Harry instead of just killing him from ambush, and Maeve gives a straight, easy-to-understand rundown of the events with no roundaboutness, ambiguity, or ExactWords to speak of (which is basically impossible to the fae, as being indirect is part of their nature)]].
* OutOfCharacterMoment: Of a sort. Harry first realizes that the feline in his chambers is more than the average [[MegaNeko Malk]] when he calmly rebuffs Harry's threats--up til then, Harry's experience with malks has been with them as bloodthirsty little monsters (they're to cats what Hannibal Lector is to people, according to Harry).

** [[spoiler:The iconic beat of the song actually stops Harry from tapping into one of the island's ley lines, which would have had potentially disastrous consequences, given its source.]]
* PowerupFullColorChange: At the party for Harry, [[spoiler:an ogre punched Sarissa, spilling her blood]]. This causes [[spoiler:Mab to change the color of her clothes, eyes, and hair from snow white, to ink black as she barely contains her anger at this violation of her law]].

* RapeAsDrama: Invoked, but not used fully. Thanks to the warping influence of the Knight's mantle, Harry has vivid fantasies of raping Maeve, Lily, Molly, and Andi. Harry resists, but finds the implications just as disturbing as the reader does.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Mother Summer, Mother Winter. Also, Kris Kringle. Sort of.

* TheReveal: In spades. [[spoiler: Demonreach is the guardian for a whole ''island'' full of SealedEvilInACan, the Winter Court serves as the first line of defense against Outsiders, and Molly has been groomed to assume the mantle of a Sidhe Queen.]]

** Harry [[spoiler: asks Mother Winter for help in stopping a great tragedy. She just laughs and reminds him she is the Queen of destruction and tragedy, finding sorrow and suffering extremely enjoyable. He has to tell her that Nemesis is involved in order to get her help]].

** Also, a tiny detail slipped in that's probably going to end up being incredibly important -- Mother Summer has a shelf in her cabin that is lined with small bottles sealed with wax. The shelf shifts, and Harry goes to put them back up for her -- [[spoiler:and then realizes that they are labeled with things like "Black Death" and "Cholera". One is slightly cracked, and Mother Summer gently puts it back up, saying "This one is not ready to be born yet." That bottle is labeled "Wormwood". In the Biblical chapter of Revelation, wormwood is a star that falls to earth during the apocalypse and poisons all of Earth's water.]] Fun fact: The word for "wormwood" in one Ukrainian dialect is [[spoiler:''chernobyl''. Guess we know when that jar got cracked...]]

* YouRemindMeOfX: Mab tells Harry he reminds her of [[spoiler:the previous Winter Knight Literature/TamLin]] when Harry [[spoiler:told her court he would protect any mortal he catches them abusing.]] It should also be said [[spoiler:Literature/TamLin, according to legend, was also loved by the Fairy Queen]].

* ObstructiveCodeOfConduct: [[spoiler:Mac operates on this. He is "out" and seeks to be nothing more than a neutral tavern owner. Not even when Sharkface crashes into his tavern, he is captured by Redcap's people, and the threat of the the well being breached makes him talk]].

* OhCrap: Many, including [[spoiler:Harry's reaction to realizing that Molly has been turned into a Sidhe Queen]].

** As fearsome and dangerous as [[spoiler:the Redcap]] is, even he and his companions crap themselves when they realize Cat Sith attacking them. See StealthHiBye below.

* OnlyTheWorthyMayPass: This is the Winter Queens' belief for who becomes the Winter Knight. The catch is that each one has different criteria. So while Harry was selected by Mab and went through TrainingFromHell, and liked well-enough by Maeve, this means little to Mother Winter as she [[spoiler:plans to kill him, stew his remains and pick the next knight herself, until Harry breaks free of her binding over him and then shows both loyalty to her (despite what she was about to do), wisdom, and has the courage of his convictions]].

* PapaWolf: Harry tells Karrin he loves his daughter Maggie so much and the thought that she could be in pain is unbearable to him. This fact will lead to the EurekaMoment above.

* ThePowerOfHate: [[spoiler:The Mantle of the Winter Knight makes Harry a predator of the worse mindset, with looking at his weaker female friends as prey to be claimed and male friends as competition to be destroyed. Later, when facing Maeve, he calls on its power, and she ''uses'' it as a way into his mind to make him hate more and be corrupt like her.]]

* RoyalWe: At the formal party in the beginning of the book, when Mab addressed the entire court she speaks with this and not a singular pronoun until after [[spoiler:Maeve and Redcap's failed attempt to kill Sarissa and one of Maeve's lackeys spilled blood]] at which time, she went back to single pronouns.

** A ogre who spills blood in defiance of one of Mab's commands. It doesn't end well for it.

** Soulfire comes up again. And with it [[spoiler:infused into a bullet, plus one shot to the head, finally destroys Sharkface's body and sends him back to whence he came]].

*** Also an oblique reference to both ''Fool Moon'' and ''Proven Guilty'', as he recalls it's not the first time he's re-visited the same site during two otherwise-unrelated debacles.

** ''Turn Coat'' also gets a nod, when Harry repeatedly has mental hiccups due to trying ''not'' to think about the Naagloshii.
** ''Summer Knight'' gets one as well. When Harry asked Bob what would happen if Summer won, there would be a boom of growth, including [[spoiler:viruses and what does Mother Summer have in her side of the cabin, and handled with loving care? Several of the plagues which had devastated humanity in the past, like the ''Black Death'' and ''Cholera''.]]
** ''Storm Front'' gets a mention when Butters asks what the bad guys could do with a bit of Harry. Harry mentions they could make his heart stop or explode. Butters flashes back to that book's gruesome murders, now finally knowing what caused them.

** Many passing references to ''Ghost Story'', some obvious and others coy (e.g. Harry calls Thomas a "dandysprat", an archaic term he picked up from Sir Stuart).
** When Harry contacts [[spoiler:the Norse god Odin]] for a meeting from Thomas' home, he calls himself "Doughnut Boy" a reference to when Harry faced the Eldest Gruff and what the contact served Harry at their last meeting. A doughnut is also what Harry was served when he first visited Monoc security headquarters in ''Changes''.
** A nearly blink and you'll miss it nod to a conversation with [=MacFinn=] in ''Fool Moon'' when Thomas explains the situation with the Redcap. Harry rather likes the term "Lickspittles".

** Harry briefly muses that should he survive, he will need to get new ID cards for his new job as the Winter Knight, stylized in the same way his old ones were narrated as in ''Storm Front''.

** Harry talks to Thomas about the attempted coup of the White Court back in ''White Night''. [[spoiler:Specifically, he mentions the psychic assault of the Outsider there, which was near identical to what Sharkface used on Harry, Thomas, and Mac]].

** ''Turn Coat'' gets a mention when [[spoiler:one of the baddies pulled the gum-in-the-key-slot trick on him]].

'''Maeve:''' [[PunctuatedForEmphasis They. Were. ''Diamonds!'']]

* GrandfatherParadox: Referenced when Harry is talking to Vadderung about time travel and its consequences. Harry asks what would happen if he went back in time to kill his own grandfather (Ebenezer [=McCoy=]). Vadderung's answer is, [[BadassGrandpa "He beats you senseless, I suspect."]]
* UsefulNotes/GunSafety: [[spoiler:After killing Maeve in the climax]] Murphy is still sure to check the piece she just fired and put the safety back on before handing it over.

* UsefulNotes/TheLawsAndCustomsOfWar: Of the Fae Courts. Harry learns that there is a strict code of Law and Custom in the ongoing wars and battles between Summer and Winter, and whoever might be fighting them as well. A Fae or representative of the Court must honor the Laws if invoked. Harry learns he is now such a representative. He also invokes this to stop any reprisals from Fix attacking Winter Fae, by using his authority to recognize Fix as an ally in this matter.

* AdvantageBall: [[spoiler:Fighting Harry on the grounds of Demonreach is not a smart choice. Though given what it contains, it is their only choice]].

** [[spoiler:On the furthest reaches of Faerie, Outsiders continually assault the boundaries of the universe, seeking to break in. The only thing that stops them is the armies of Winter. Those few who are just injured and not killed are healed by Summer fae working as medics. Mother Summer notes that they may be enemies, but they are both of the same universe. They will put aside differences to protect it]].

** Cat Sith admits his favored method of fighting is ambushing an unaware enemy.

* BreakingTheBonds: When [[spoiler:Maeve is about to kill Harry]] Karrin does this [[spoiler:to the ice binding her hands and shoots Maeve in the head]].

** One of Mab's laws for a formal party in Arctis Tor is that no one may spill blood without her knowledge and consent. Just a little while later, [[spoiler:the Redcap threatens Harry with killing Sarissa, reassuring Harry that he'll just strangle Sarissa, and not a single drop of blood will be shed]]. Harry later likewise abuses a similar loophole by [[spoiler:flash-freezing an opponent and shattering him — frozen blood doesn't spill.]]