Literature / Skin Game

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"If you want to live, if you want your friends and family to live, I expect you to do more than survive it. I expect you to skin them alive."

— Mab

Skin Game is book #15 of The Dresden Files.

The one where Harry teams up with the bad guys to rob two vaults.

After the events of Cold Days, Harry Dresden finds himself in a bad position: the parasite in his head is growing quickly, to the point that it's very close to killing him. On the one hand, as the Warden of Demonreach, he's safe on the island, and Demonreach is helping him by suppressing the pain the parasite is causing him. On the other hand, as a result, Harry can't leave the island, and none of his messages to Molly are getting through. Then, of course, things get worse: Mab shows up, and she's got an offer he can't refuse for him.

The offer? She's loaning him to the leader of the Order of the Blackened Denarius, Nicodemus Archleone, as part of a team Nicodemus is forming to rob Hades' vault. Naturally, Harry's not exactly jumping to accept, but if he refuses, Mab will do nothing... and the Parasite will not only kill him, but once it's free, it'll go after everyone he cares about, starting with his daughter. But there's a twist: Mab doesn't just want Harry to go help Nicodemus rob the vault. She wants him to help Nicodemus rob the vault... and then screw him over in any and every way possible. Sounds simple enough.

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Skin Game provides examples of the following tropes:

A-C

• Advantage Ball: As he is playing against Nicodemus, Harry seeks to grab this. He does so by immediately contacting Kringle for advice and, following Kringle's wisdom, buying off Goodman Grey before Nicodemus hires him.
  • In a villain version, both The Genowska arms himself with the Coin of Ursiel and Ascher becomes the new carrier of Lasciel.
• Affably Evil: Potentially the case with Goodman Gray. In spite of him helping Harry out, Michael still says that he's done terrible things. The fact that he's at least half naagloshii probably has something to do with it.
• Arc Words:
  • Harry is told by Karrin and Molly, "If a Knight with a Sword is meant to be here, one will be here." At the end of the book these words come true, as Waldo Butters is present. He just didn't know he was capable of being a Knight.
  • "A good man" is used throughout the book, both in Harry's mental description of Michael, and, more importantly, in Michael's of Harry.
• All Just a Dream: Harry and Murphy's smoking hot sex scene, much to his frustration. It's still super hot and hilariously anti-climactic, though.
• The Almighty Dollar: Befitting the myths about Hades being more than the keeper of the dead, but Lord of the Earth and the riches within, his vault is filled with treasures beyond measure and worth. From gem-formed plants, to fountains of diamonds, to the original masterpieces of great artists, everything is well-kept and one could easily take $20 million in valuables and not even make a scratch in his total sum in this vault alone.
• Alternate Character Interpretation: invoked In-Universe; Notably, Michael suggests that Nicodemus actually isn't as in control as he thinks he is, and he's really the Unwitting Pawn of Anduriel instead of an equal partner.
• Always Chaotic Evil: Surprisingly averted when it turns out that Goodman Grey is half-Naagloshii. Although he may or may not be a completely good character, he is at least willing to honorably work for good if that is the nature of his contract. And given that he only charged Harry a dollar for his services, he seems to favor the good guys, at least in this case.
• Amazon Chaser: Harry to Karrin. He describes her as a warrior and has no trouble with her muscular body or the fact that she could kick his ass in grappling.
• Anti-Magic: The Genoskwa can ground purely offensive magic and render it ineffective. He's not as invulnerable to physical projectiles propelled by magic, though.
• Arbitrarily Large Bank Account: Molly's new gig pays well. It has eight zeroes in it, putting her into the hundred millionaire club.
• Artistic License – Biology: Having no tongue wouldn't entirely eliminate the pleasure of eating, as "flavour" is actually how the brain blends together the senses of taste and smell, and sensitivity to spiciness comes from pain receptors throughout the oral cavity, not from taste buds. The mechanics of eating would be tricky, but flavor could still be experienced so long as the food is well-seasoned and fragrant. Of course, Michael, who makes this claim, might not know this, and the other psychological effects he lists are more or less accurate.
• As You Know: At the end of the book, Harry details everything he's figured out about Queen Mab and Baron Marcone's plan to their faces. When asked what his point is:
  Harry: I just wanted you to know I knew.
• The Atoner: Possibly Goodman Grey, who is said to have done terrible things in his past, yet only charges Harry a dollar for his services, and speaks of a person not being responsible for their parentage.
• Back in the Saddle: For his friends Harry and Karrin, for protecting his family, and by the Grace of Uriel given to him, Michael "the Fist of God" Carpenter walks back into battle once more, holding his old sword Amoracchius.
• Badass Boast: Butters gives one to both Nicodemus and Tessa.
  "Nice try? Mister, where I come from there is no try."
• Badass Normal: Butters becomes this with an assist from Bob. With Molly gone and Harry sequestered on Demonreach, he took it upon himself to "Batman" around Chicago fighting the Fomor. Between Bob helping him construct a number of magical items and then directly assisting him in the field, Butters does a fair job of it.
• Batman Gambit:
  • Nicodemus nearly kills Harry to entice Karrin into trying to kill him with the Sword, thus causing it to lose its power.
  • Mab, Marcone, and Hades run one on Nick and Harry, allowing Harry to obtain the Placard of Christ, the Thorned Crown, the real Shroud (which is not "of Turin"), and the Spear of Destiny to fight the Outsiders and destroy Nicodemus' reputation at the same time.
  • Uriel gives up his Grace in a gambit to save the majority of Nicodemus' men. It also has the side benefit of allowing Michael to act as the Voice of God, warning the various supernatural criminals that "Justice" will come to them eventually, so they best make the right choices.
  • A quick one by Nicodemus. He has Grey and The Genoskwa keep Michael focused on them by holding Harry and Anna hostage so he can kill his daughter without interruption.
  • Harry is able to provoke Nicodemus into breaking the deal by hammering in Deirdre's death, which both frees him up to fight and irrevocably trashes Nick's word in the supernatural community.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: When Harry tries to convince Hannah Ascher, who is the current bearer of Lasciel, to walk away and not fight him, she tells him that after he killed the Fellowship, the Nickelheads were actually nice to her, while the White Council have been hunting her down for killing three men who tried to rape her. Needless to say, she doesn't accept his offer.
• Berserk Button:
  • Mab actually slaps Harry (hard enough to dent a metal door with his head) in anger when he calls her a bitch, and follows it up by saying that while she accepts his criticism of her plans, she will not tolerate any judgement from him.
  • Nicodemus clearly doesn't like being reminded of how his voice has changed following his last encounter with Harry, though he manages to keep his reactions under control.
  • The Genoskwa is definitely not one of the Forest People.
• Best Served Cold: Mab and Marcone (with help from Hades) concoct a chillingly appropriate revenge to inflict on Nicodemus, in turn for the wrongs he did them back in Small Favor. The "shopping trip" of gaining the other four artifacts was a welcome bonus.
• Big Bad: In what seems to be shaping up to be a pattern every fifth book, Nicodemus. This time, though, Harry has to actually help him.
• Big Damn Kiss: Harry and Karrin finally re-establish their romantic relationship with rather overt nudging from Id-Harry. It also doubles as a Kiss of Distraction, as he quietly slips half of the diamonds he got from the heist to her.
• Big Eater: invoked Hannah almost always piles a lot of food on her plate when it’s available. Fridge Brilliance kicks in when you realize magic is at least partially Cast from Calories and she’s slinging enormous amounts of magic around all the time. Especially when she’s channelling the power of Lasciel.
• Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: The Genoskwa a bigfoot, a.k.a the species usually known as the "Forest People". As a result, he has powerful magical abilities he can call on, including supreme veils that hide his scent and the ability to ground out magical attacks, even Harry's powerful Infriga. Being the current wielder of Ursiel's Coin probably helped, too. Though he really doesn't like to be compared to the Forest People.
• Big Friendly Dog: Mouse is very much this, especially to Maggie. As is Cerberus, which Hades Lampshades when pointing out the similarities between himself and Dresden.
• Bittersweet Ending: Definitely.
  • The sweet: Harry, and by extension Mab, have now got their hands on four VERY powerful artifacts that will be vital in fighting the Outsiders — and Harry thinks that Nicodemus was probably really after one of the artifacts Harry now has, making his gaining the Grail more like a consolation prize. Furthermore, there’s finally a new Knight of the Cross to protect the world. Nicodemus' political power is broken, his lieutenant is dead, the Coins of two of his allied Fallen are locked in Hades' vault, and his squires have deserted him, no longer convinced of his total power and fortitude. Harry has reconnected with Maggie and the "parasite" is no longer a pressing health risk — in fact, it's now a new, very powerful ally that's firmly on Harry's side. Harry and Murphy are well on their way to getting together, too. Finally, the Carpenters, Harry, and Murphy are all now freaking rich.
  • In addition, as Michael pointed out, the last group of monsters who tried to make a play for Maggie got their entire species exterminated. Between the fate of the Red Court and Nicodemus losing his squires and running away, it's very unlikely that anyone else will be stupid enough to try and mess with Maggie. And given Mouse's ability to scare even Anduriel, if they do try, they'll most likely regret it.
  • The bitter is that, despite the beating he took, Nicodemus succeeded in his (stated) goal, is now in possession of the Holy Grail, and has every reason to pursue a very brutal and personal vendetta against Harry, especially given that Nicodemus has deduced that Harry too has a child. Murphy is facing months of physical recovery and will likely never be able to kick ass like she used to. Finally, Molly would appear to no longer be fully (or even mostly) human.
    • Also on the bitter side; the fact that Nicodemus managed to get his hands on the coins for Lasciel and Ursiel despite those two coins having been placed in the Church's custody relatively recently suggests that the Church has been compromised in some way and that the Knights cannot be sure that any of the coins they've sealed away are safe any longer. Further supported by Magog, who’s a member of Tessa's (estranged wife of Nicodemus) Denarian faction, being used to lure Sanya into another continent, when his coin too was in the custody of the Church.
    • And if that wasn't enough, in the final scene of the book Harry and Michael ponder which prospect is scarier; Mab twisting Harry into her pet monster, or what she might do to him when she realizes she can’t do that. Not to mention, Harry just went out of his way to defy and infuriate her in front of Marcone of all people, and if there’s one thing Mab doesn't tolerate, it's defying her in public. Either way, when the time comes for Mab to respond, it won't be pretty.
• Blessed with Suck: Butters theorizes that the Winter Knight's mantle is nothing more than the ability to run the human body with the limits turned off. You know, like the limits that keep one from breaking their own bones, shredding their own muscles or running themselves to death by exhaustion.
• Bodyguarding a Badass:
  • Queen Mab went to her meeting with Nicodemus accompanied by four Sidhe bodyguards and Harry. The sidhe even use a glamour to go from thin-looking pretty boys to tall, muscular men with buzz cuts. This is PURELY for show, since however tough they are, Mab is in another league entirely. It's just that Mab doesn't want to lower herself to wiping out opposition effortlessly: she has people for that.
  • Harry asks Murphy to be his bodyguard when taking the job with Nicodemus. He chose her over stronger people like Thomas because he needed a smart Badass Normal more than a supernatural powerhouse.
• Bond One-Liner: "Parkour, bitch."
• Boring, but Practical: In Hades' vault, Anna Valmont goes right for the fountain of diamonds, filling her sack from the spout. She chose them over the gold and other treasures because they have the highest value for their weight and would be easy to move once they got back home. Sure enough, she's the only one to get treasure that can be SPENT. Harry gets the four artifacts, and everyone else gets nada... so they just split the diamonds.
• Breaking Speech:
  • A long-term one when Harry slowly erodes the faith Jordan had in Nicodemus with small conversations. In the end, it is enough for the young man to find the strength to walk away from his cruel master.
  • Harry delivers an absolutely brutal one to old Nick. Needless to say, it works. Unfortunately, it also backfires because Nicodemus realizes the only way Harry could know what having a child feels like is if he has a child himself.
  • Nicodemus tries one on Michael. It doesn't work.
  • Michael tries one on Nicodemus after he has killed his daughter. It doesn't work, but it does bring out the full scope of Nicodemus's arrogance.
  • Nicodemus gives two brutal ones in sucession. To Murphy (along with a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown) and to Uriel. Murphy does break physically and mentally. In the case of Uriel, it ends up as Bullying a Dragon and Too Dumb to Live. Nicodemus later finds out why messing with the Nick Fury of Archangels is not a smart thing to do.
• Breather Episode: While it might not qualify by the normal standards of the trope, Skin Game is noticeably lighter than the previous few books. Harry engages in heist story antics, reconciles with his friends, and meets a god he actually likes; the bad guy's plan is thoroughly spoiled; and Harry gets an adorable reunion with his daughter. All in all a pretty good ending, at least by The Dresden Files standards.
• Bring It:
  • Harry asks Mab what's stopping him from dropping Mab into Demonreach when she threatens him. Mab notes that her removal from power would put the world in a very dangerous position. But if he's still willing to risk it, he can try.
  • Harry does this when facing down the Ursiel-powered Genoskwa in Hades' vault.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Harry, and the readers, learn that Harry's actions since Changes, along with his new Winter Knight persona, have slowly and heartrendingly eroded Butters' faith in Harry. Worse, Harry's exile on Demonreach while Chicago got worse without him there to protect people anymore was the straw that broke the camel's back in convincing Butters that Harry was becoming one of the monsters that he fought. Though he eventually realizes that Harry is still the same person that he saved in a museum years ago, and his faith in Harry is more than restored. Which is actually pretty important.
  • Nicodemus' squires go from fanatics utterly devoted to him to completely doubtful of his power as a fighter or a manipulator after seeing Butters drive Nicodemus and Tessa off in fear of the remade Fidelacchius.
• Brought Down to Badass:
  • Karrin beats Nicodemus in a fight and has the Sword of Faith at his throat. He counters by surrendering, dropping not only his weapons, but his coin and the noose that makes him invulnerable. Then he provokes Karrin into trying to kill him anyway, anticipates her perfectly, and uses what seems like a judo move to shatter the now-vulnerable Sword. He then utterly crushes her in fist-fight and grappling.
  • While in the frail human body, Uriel kills at least one of Nicodemus's men with a silent throat slash from behind. Take note he has no super strength or Intellectus at that moment.
• Brought Down to Normal:
  • Uriel loans his Grace (his angelic power) to Michael so he can help Harry as a Knight of the Cross once more, making Uriel mortal for the duration.
  • Harry himself has to wear steel thorn manacles to avoid tripping some magic-sensitive mines. As a result, he also has to survive a vicious fight with Tessa with neither his magic nor his Winter Knight powers.
• Buffy Speak: When Harry wonders about subatomic particles being emitted from Maggie's sleeping form against him making him drowsy, he dubs them "sleepeons".
• Bullying a Dragon:
  • Harry has not stopped arguing with Mab, but he does at least try not to challenge her in public, where her pride would force her to put him in his place. However, he doesn't waste any time openly mocking and insulting Nicodemus.
  • As Grey is a naagloshii scion, though he rejects his father's evil ways, he refuses to chance this by entering into the Carpenters' yard. Uriel doesn't say what might have happened if Grey had, but he's thankful that nothing had to happen.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • A couple of minor former characters (Anna Valmont and Binder) show up again.
  • Not to mention Lasciel coming back, this time not just a shadow of her.
• Buy Them Off: Using Grey's share of the diamonds, Harry offers Marcone part Makes Us Even and part weregild for the family of the woman who died during the heist. At first Marcone plays hardball, but when he sees the gems, he quickly revises his opinions. Some stipulations later and the deal is done.
• Call-Back:
  • Countless. The story serves to return Harry to his true character after the events of Changes, Ghost Story, and Cold Days. invoked
  • Harry tells Nick that he won't be a mushroom. Binder explains that it means "kept in the dark and fed on bullshit." This was first said in Turn Coat, which was also Binder's first appearance.
  • Grave Peril gets a reference when Harry recalls the awesome power of Michael's Holy Fire protection. In that book, it was used when a Red vampire touched his cross-embroidered cloak and immolated. Here, he uses the same power to burn away the bugs Tessa spewed onto Harry.
  • Death Masks gets a mention. When Harry causes more trouble for Michael's family, he wonders if Charity might break out the iodine to cleanse his wounds.
  • When Butters becomes a Knight of the Cross, Harry remembers how Butters saved him in Dead Beat. There's also a scene with Maggie pretending to ride a T. rex while battling evil, though whether this is another Dead Beat reference or a coincidence is left unclear.
  • The Swords of the Cross being beyond hard to destroy permanently is a call back to Thomas's speech about Love and Michael's descriptions of the Swords in earlier books as Faith, Hope, and Love are meant to outlive the universe.
  • Paranoid Gary from Cold Days, the one who was right about the boat rentals, gets a mention when he sends Karrin images of an active Iranian nuclear facility and three figures fighting near it. They appear to be Sanya and two Denarians.
  • Back in Ghost Story, Skaldi Skjeldson asked Butters when he's going to get into the ring and spar. Butter replied, "About five minutes after I get a functional lightsaber."
  • Harry notes that he has some experience with really big creatures — they don't corner well. He should know.
  • In Changes, Uriel was able to give Harry confirmation that Maggie is his daughter because Harry had already resolved to go save the child even if she isn't his. The action won't change the Choice a mortal has already made. Uriel gives Michael different aid, but still is only able to because it is a course Michael has already Chosen to take.
• Calling Your Attacks:
  • Harry seems to be pathologically incapable of performing feats of acrobatics without screaming, "Parkour!"
  • Harry notes that Michael calls out his attacks with Latin phrases.
• Came Back Strong: A rare non-person variant. Fidelacchius is shattered by Murphy's improper usage of it. However, the power isn't gone forever. When Butters proves himself worthy, he can draw on the power once more, this time as a shaft of angelic light, accompanied by a choir-like hum. Or to be precise, a lightsaber. Because of his belief. In Star Wars.
• Came Back Wrong: Butters fears this about to Harry. In one of the most tear-jerking scenes in the book, he details exactly why he thinks this, because after Harry died the world became horrifyingly dark. The ones left behind had to damage themselves greatly just to try filling his shoes. Then he came back, and it was like the sun rising up. Except Harry didn't help. He just became distant and cryptic, asking them to put insane amounts of trust in him without giving any explanation as to what he was doing, and actually admitting to working with the bad guys to boot. Worse, he spent months holed up on Demonreach, not leaving despite the chaos going on outside. No wonder he cited Pet Sematary.
• Canine Companion: Mouse has become this to Maggie. Michael explains that he goes everywhere with her, even to school. They got him registered as her service dog, helping her to ward off panic attacks (and also serving as her bodyguard). Sadly, Michael notes that she probably would have a panic attack if he left. She's had a very very rough life for her age.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Harry invokes this from Nicodemus when he closes the Way back to Marcone's vault from the Underworld. He justifies that for the moment and until the Ice Gate is taken care of, Harry is still in this spot. Once he is no longer needed for the Ice Gate, Nicodemus might try to kill him. As they are deep inside Hades' domain, it’s likely not even Mab can see this far and so Nicodemus can kill Harry and blame something else.
• Caper Crew: Nicodemus is the Mastermind, Deirdre is the Partner in Crime, Harry's both the Distraction and the Burglar (he's the Ice Gate specialist), Goodman Grey is the Inside Man (as a shapeshifter, he’s a copy replacement of the man they needed on the inside), Anna is the Burglar, Hannah is both the Muscle and the Burglar (her fire magic gets them past the reinforced doors, and she's the Fire Gate specialist), and Binder (via his army of goons) and The Genoskwa are the Muscles. Mab, Marcone, and even Hades himself are the Backers. Grey, The Genoskwa, and Hannah turn out to be Inside Men as well — Harry buys Grey's services before Nick could, while Hannah and The Genoskwa are far from just hired specialists: they're the new bearers of Lasciel and Ursiel.
• Capital Letters Are Magic:
  • When Harry refers to the Swords of the Cross, he always capitalises the "S" in Sword. He even corrects himself when Murphy pulls out Fidelacchius.
  • Goodman Grey mentions that he has to pay the Rent when Dresden asks him why he took part in the heist. Harry can just hear the capitalization.
• Captain Obvious: When Harry asks how Mab was blocking his messages to Molly by way of Toot and Lacuna, Mab replies that she is a Queen of Faerie. They are faeries serving him, and so her. So, obviously.
• Casting a Shadow: Nick's shadow still contains his Fallen Angel. It's actually worse than it sounds — unless a sufficiently powerful being is blocking it, Anduriel can spy on anyone who casts a shadow by listening, and sometimes even looking, through their shadow.
• Chain of Corrections: A short one where Harry is making Monty Python references but Michael is too focused on the REAL Holy Grail the movie is named after.
• Character Development: Harry gets a bit more over the course of the book.
  • He improves his plotting abilities, learning actual subtlety and a degree of wisdom, as shown by talking with Kringle to discuss strategy. Mab approved of this idea and set it up ahead of time. And instead of just charging through the Ice Gate trap, he takes the time to find and learn the pattern.
  • For the first time Harry takes a genuine leap of Faith. He threw Fidelacchius to Charity, truly believing that Michael was right, and that the sword could be remade by the power of Charity's Faith.
  • In terms of ability, he continues to get better at casting without his full arsenal with each book. At least he has his staff this time, though.
  • Waldo Butters has come a long way since Harry met him eight years ago. He started out as a completely average muggle who had the misfortune of autopsying a vampire, and was reduced to cowering in the corner when zombies broke into the morgue. With the loss of Harry and Molly, he chose to step up to the plate in their wake. In addition to his combat-related skills, he's become more serious, confident, and focused. This is actually a problem at times; he isn't scared of calling Harry out on what he perceives as mistakes, though he is still patient enough to listen when his friends tell him it's all a misunderstanding. At the climax of the book, he has the Faith to accept that even though he'll be killed defending the Carpenter house from Nicodemus, it won't be a worthless sacrifice. He attempts a Heroic Sacrifice and a You Shall Not Pass! against Nicodemus and Tessa in order to buy the others time to escape, and it pays off big-time.
• Chekhov's Armoury: By the end of the book, Harry has obtained the Placard of Christ, the Thorned Crown, the real Shroud, and The Spear of Destiny. He plans to keep them safe inside Demonreach. Michael adds Amoracchius to the group.
• Chekhov's Gag:
  • Back in Small Favor, Harry put a service dog vest on Mouse to get him into the train station with fewer questions. It was a cute humorous moment. In this book, Michael reveals Mouse is a certified service animal and there for Maggie.
  • Michael has a Mjölnir bottle opener for the ale he gets from Mac. Harry even reads the inscription "Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of... THOR." In a serious moment, when Butters grips the broken Fidelacchius, he proved himself worthy and received the power of Faith in weapon form.
  • In Ghost Story, Uriel comments that he likes Star Wars because of the simple line between Good and Evil, of people fighting for the just cause, over Star Trek. Then at the end of this book, Butters' absolute Faith in dying to do the right thing and try to save some lives combines with Harry's Faith in the power still remaining inside the Sword despite it being shattered, resulting in the Sword of Faith reconstituting itself as a lightsaber.
• Chekhov's Gift: Harry keeps his promise and makes Bob a new home. It later becomes his newborn daughter's new home (as a spirit of intellect, she needed one the same way Bob does).
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • When Harry first recruits Karrin, she notes that it's been about three hours since Harry left Nicodemus with Mab, and wonders what he was doing during the missing time. Harry says he can't tell her yet. Later, it's revealed that Harry used that time to hire Goodman Grey himself before Nicodemus.
    • On a related note, Harry spends the book insistently keeping his agenda even more secret than usual. Turns out he knows that Anduriel, and by extension Nicodemus, are listening to everything he says from the shadows. Literally.
  • In Hades' vault, Anna gathers her prize from a fountain of diamonds instead of water. When they get back, she's the only one with any salable goods, so she and Harry are able to bribe Binder with a share.
  • In Dead Beat, Harry is saved in the nick of time by Butters, as per the norm of the Knights of the Cross. By the end of this book, Butters turns out to be a great candidate for becoming a Knight of the Cross.
  • In Ghost Story, Harry witnesses the shade of Sir Stuart grant him a boon of power across a magic circle and could only do so by choosing to cut himself off of this power beforehand. Similarly, Uriel can’t change anything in the world without affecting free will save himself. Like Sir Stuart, he cuts off his Grace to give to Michael, though he is anticipating it back.
• Chekhov's Skill:
  • In the previous book, Maeve shows the ability to carefully glamour just Harry's mouth to change the words Lily heard. It seems likely, when Mab states she altered Harry's messages to Karrin and Thomas when they were on the island, Mab probably pulled a similar trick on them so they wouldn’t get the correct message.
  • Played straight with Harry's parkour training. It helps him evade and escape through the Ice Gate when retreating from The Genoskwa-Ursiel.
  • Also averted, as Karrin early on points out Harry's ability to "weasel out of... bargains". However, Harry is savvy enough to rely on Nicodemus' Chronic Backstabbing Disorder in order to not have to do any weaseling.
  • Id-Harry points out to Harry that him being able to play music on his guitar even after Lash died was a hint that she wasn't completely gone.
• The Chessmaster:
  • Nicodemus is one. He learns the hard way that he's far from the best.
  • Kringle gives Harry lessons and once more fools Nick.
• The Chooser of the One:
  • Murphy still has Fidelacchius and Amoracchius, having appointed herself to this role after Harry "died". She failed when she took it upon herself to wield one of her charges, as she tried to use Fidelacchius in an improper way, which led to it being broken for a time.
  • Michael gives Harry Amoracchius once more to keep safe on Demonreach, along with the other holy weapons he collected.
• The Chosen One: While nothing is set in stone, thank you free will, Uriel notes that as far back as Dead Beat Butters had it in him to become a Knight when the time was right.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Mab knows Nicodemus is going to betray her. Harry knows it too, so she expects "superior, more creative treachery" on his part.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Harry notes if the real Shroud has been with Hades all along, then the one Anna stole was a fake. However, if enough people believed in it, it could have similar powers as the original.
• Come with Me If You Want to Live:
  • Harry when he re-meets up with Anna.
  • Harry delivers this line to Harvey exactly, and is at least a little dismayed when Harvey doesn't recognize it (or even react properly).
• Consummate Liar: Nicodemus, as usual. This actually bites him in the ass — when he said his target was the Holy Grail, that meant that Harry was only bound to help him get the Holy Grail, and is free to obstruct his quest for the other items (one of which is Nicodemus's real target) as much as he wants.
• Continuity Nod: Amanda Carpenter still calls Harry Dresden "Bill", and Hope Carpenter insists that Harry calls her "Hobbit".
• Cool Board: Butters flees from the warehouse on an enchanted skateboard when his spying on the heist crew's meeting is detected.
• Cool Crown: Hades wears a crown formed from pieces of levitating Mordite. Mordite being a substance from Outside that drains the life out of anything it touches.
• Corridor Cubbyhole Run: The Gate of Ice averts this. While Harry took a decent length of time to discern the seconds-long interval and pattern of the safe spots, the final row, being too far for him to see clearly, didn't match up with the preceding one. With the way forward and back cut off, he takes a third option.
  Harry: Parkour!
• Corrupt Church: Harry and Michael agree near the end of the book that this is probably how the Denarians that they had previously defeated made it back into circulation.
• Crazy-Prepared: Butters when he's doing his Batman act with Bob.
• Crimefighting with Cash: Harry hires Goodman Grey to work as a double agent for him before Nicodemus can hire him. And as it turns out, Grey's price is one dollar.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Hannah Ascher does fire magic, and only fire magic. She's even better at it than Harry, but skill doesn't equal versatility. Even with Lasciel in her head, she still can't do any other kinds of magic.
• Crystal Prison: Demonreach. There are some crystals the size of small houses.
• Cute Monster Girl:
  • Deconstructed by Harry, who mentions all of the beautiful monsters who, literally, have wanted to eat him. It's why he's instinctively leery about Ascher's advances. Bonus points, Ascher is Lasciel's new host at the time.
  • Harry's new daughter in her wooden skull.

D-I

• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Butter's use of Bob to power his Magitek devices. It lets him do a pretty decent wizard impression, but it also requires Butters to be physically carrying Bob's skull with him, which means that if any of the assorted villains get their hands on Butters they gain control of Bob. Considering how much damage Bob's knowledge could do in the wrong hands, it's no wonder than Harry never dared use Bob that way.
• Daydream Surprise: After the dream talk with Molly, Harry slips into the erotic dream with Karrin, and ends with Lasciel-Karrin killing him.
• Deadly Nosebleed: Unusual example with Uriel, who gets hit in the face with Harry's aluminum arm brace, causing a nosebleed. That, in turn, causes everyone to realize that a freaking archangel normally doesn't bleed at all, revealing that he’s become mortal.
• Deadly Upgrade: The Winter Mantle blocks Harry's natural inhibitors and sense of pain, allowing him to work harder, longer, and ignore more pain than he should be able to. Butters compares it to being like a professional boxer or American football player who pushes himself so hard that he'll have to retire in his thirties. If Harry doesn't take some time to cool down and let his Wizard healing catch up, he's going to be damaged enough to be extremely vulnerable. On a related note, Harry realizes that one of the side effects of the earring Mab gave him is that it forces him to rely on the Mantle more.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  • Practically everyone. Even Nicodemus, who is normally unfailingly polite, occasionally indulges.
  • Of Harry's prisoners, in contrast to the others who continuously spew out threats or offers, the one that "just sounded... British" simply tells Harry to "piss off" and berates him for not understanding the concept of "stasis".
• Declaration of Protection: Molly tells Harry that she will protect her family's home from now on, at least from muggle threats. With her finances, she will buy a house down the street and set up a contingent of Sidhe soldiers there to watch her family's house 24/7.
• Deconstruction: Harry is hit yet again with the realistic consequences of eradicating the Red Court. Not everyone in a species is evil, and as it turns out since it killed members of the Fellowship of St. Giles, one former member wants revenge.
• Department of Redundancy Department: Harry's reason for not wanting to work with Nicodemus is simple: He's "a murderous, murdering murderer".
• Desperate Object Catch: Harry throws Fidelacchius' hilt to Charity, hoping her Faith will let her wield it when all else has failed. It bounces away from Charity and lands in Butters' palm, restoring the Sword and making him a Knight.
• Determinator: Michael Carpenter definitely considers Harry this. It's one of the reasons he's not worried about Harry losing the fight with the Mantle and becoming a monster.
  Michael: Because I know you, Harry Dresden. You are pathologically incapable of knowing when to quit. You don't surrender. And I don't believe for a second that you actually intend to help Nicodemus do whatever it is he's doing.
• Didn't See That Coming:
  • Nicodemus didn't see Harry having bought off Goodman Grey before Nick made his offer.
  • He also doesn't seem to have anticipated Uriel loaning Michael his Grace so he'll be a match for the Denarians when he leaves his protected home. If he had, he probably wouldn't have done the nose-flick...
  • Nicodemus has Harry play the Distraction when they enter the building. The challenge is magic will likely set off the place's security measures. Harry wraps several fireworks together and lit them simultaneously with a butane torch. Nicodemus notes he hadn't expected that and hopes Harry took into account the sprinkler system, which promptly goes off.
  • During the heist, Anna finds that the vault door she has to open is not the same as the one Nicodemus gave her the schematics to. Considering all the Claymore mines and Norse runes scattered around, she's not happy about having to try it blind.
  • Many didn't expect that Butters would become the next Knight of the Cross, wielding Fidelacchius, and his Sword would be a lightsaber. Even Uriel was surprised by that last part.
    Butters: A Jewish Knight of the Cross?
  • Harry didn't foresee that the parasite is his child, made from Lash's act of sacrifice, which was motivated by unconditional love. By extension of this, it makes Harry pregnant with their child. Murphy falls on the floor laughing at this when he explains it to her.
  • Harry didn't foresee Hades giving him Sacred Hospitality after being caught "breaking in".
• Didn't Think This Through: Harry accuses Nicodemus of doing this after sacrificing his daughter in Hades' domain, pointing out Hell is non-discriminatory in its punishments, whereas in Tartarus they get personalized.
• Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: Hades takes Harry to a private study to share a pleasant conversation and some wine.
• Distinction Without a Difference: When Harry asks Karrin to be his second, she notes that he wants her help to rob a Greek God. Harry corrects her and says they will merely burgle Hades, as Harry isn't planning on threatening said God if he shows up.
• Distracted from Death: Nicodemus knows Tessa wouldn't approve of his plan to sacrifice their daughter to open the Gate of Blood, so he sends her to Iran to cause trouble for Sanya. She still tries to interfere with the mission, though.
• Don't Fear the Reaper: Hades turns out to be a pretty nice guy, or at least a very reasonable one. He has a job to do, and he will do it. That's all.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: The parasite/child of Harry and Lash will have all the knowledge of the Fallen Angel, the knowledge of a powerful wizard, and the love for Harry's comrades that Harry has. When she is born, she will seek them out to help them, but because of her naïve mind, she won't comprehend all the harm she could do by helping them in the wrong way. Or, as Harry puts it, Maggie would get a very dangerous invisible friend.
• Double Meaning:
  • Early on, Harry passes on a chance to sleep with Ascher. Later, she tells him "thanks for turning me down" and that it's much easier to "just open up and let someone in." This takes on new meaning when you learn that she's the new bearer of Lasciel. "You had a chance for that and you turned it down?... I'm not making the same mistake."
  • Everything between Harry and Grey takes on a double-meaning when you find out that they've been speaking in code the whole time.
• Eating the Eye Candy: Harry is embarrassed when he spots Ascher leering at his parkour-derived Heroic Build while he's changing into a tuxedo for their recruitment of Anna Valmont.
• The Dragon: The Genoskwa and Deirdre are this to Nicodemus.
• Elite Mooks: Harry considers the Sidhe sailors and guards Mab brings with her to be this. Yes, they're dangerous on their own, but compared to Mab they aren't that impressive.
• Enemy Mine:
  • Harry calls Mab a dangerous murdering villain, but notes she is still their dangerous murdering villain and the human world needs her dark and deadly powers to protect them from the Outsiders.
  • In addition to the main plot, where Harry is forced to work with Nicodemus and his own little Evil League of Evil, at the climax Harry has to team up with Binder, who he had threatened to kill if he ever set foot in Chicago again, which is more in the spirit of this trope.
  • Mab and Marcone worked together to set up Nicodemus in order to take him down.
• Empowered Badass Normal: Butters has started learning some forms of magic from Bob the Skull, enabling him to create Magitek items, and as of the end of the book, he is also the new Knight of Faith. (At this time, the picture for that trope is Batman with a lightsaber, which is exactly what Butters' is compared to, and what the Sword becomes.) (Which makes one wonder if perhaps Mr. Butcher is spending a bit too much time on this site himself.)
• Erotic Dream: Harry has one hell of a sex dream about Murphy. Sadly, it turns into a nightmare, but it's definitely one for the books before that point.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • Nicodemus, though it doesn't keep him from killing Deirdre — unless you take their last exchange seriously, wherein he explains that she will be safe from "the Enemy" in Hades' realm (either unaware or not thinking of what Hades actually does to spirits stuck in his realm). There's a third alternative that fits this trope: whatever "the Enemy" happens to be is so horrible that Nicodemus considers Deirdre's fate in Hades' realm to be better than what she'd get at "the Enemy's" hands. And what creature have we heard of that Nicodemus fears that's always referred to as things like the Enemy and the Adversary?
  • The reason that Tessa interferes is because she knew her daughter would die if the plan went through.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Deirdre and Nicodemus say a few stray things that imply that they’re working to oppose the Outsider threat of Nemesis. Neither of them is happy about Nicodemus planning to kill Tessa, either.
  • Harry notes to Mab that she—who isn't quite evil but toes the line pretty well—could never bear to kill her daughter. Which is, of course, exactly why she did what she did to Nicodemus.
• Everybody Hates Hades: Averted in full force. Hades is pulling the strings behind the whole heist, along with Mab and Marcone, primarily to get some powerful weapons for the fight against the Outsiders. When he meets Harry, he's very cordial and friendly. And he's a dog lover, just like Harry. He does find the trope a bit annoying though, if his talk with Harry is any indication, though not as much as one would likely expect.
• Everyone Can See It: Seriously, it only takes about a day for the entire burglary team to see that Harry and Murphy have massive amounts of Unresolved Sexual Tension.
• Exact Words: When the Fae are involved, this should be taken into account.
  Michael: Faeries. I never understood why they're such lawyers about everything.
  • When Harry asks Mab what she'll do if he refuses to get on her boat, she replied "nothing". If he refuses, she'll leave without so much as throwing an insult his way, and his parasite will fatally break out of his head in just about three days and then be off to hurt his friends.
  • Mab promises Nicodemus that Harry will serve him until he obtains the item he wants. She fully expects Harry to betray Nick the moment he has it in his possession. She gets annoyed that Harry doesn't immediately pick up on this.
  • Likewise, Mab knows Nicodemus will stick to the exact words and hold off on any overt action to kill Harry until he gets what he wants.
  • Mab refers to the thing in Harry's mind as a parasite. As Id-Harry notes, technically you could call a fetus the same thing.
  • Harry asks Kringle if he’s really a different person from Donar. Kringle tells him, legally, yes. Had Mab called on him as Donar, Donar would have said "Get in line." But calling him to a meeting as Kringle of the Winter Wyldfae, and he must come to his Queen's command.
  • Nicodemus says he wants the Holy Grail. When Harry finds the other items from the Crucifixion on the same altar, he hides them all save the Grail. Nicodemus has to get that before Harry can openly thwart him — but that’s the only thing he’s promised, even if it isn't what he’s really after. That's what he said he wants, so that's what he gets.
  • Michael offers to leave his zone of protection in exchange for his friends' safety. He never promises to actually surrender. He also never promises to come out unarmed.
• Eye Scream: When Grey takes on Ursiel-Genoskwa, he goes for The Genoskwa's eyes first, forcing him to stay in Ursiel-form to be able to see.
• Fallen Angel: Uriel risks becoming this if Michael cannot return the Grace Uriel bestowed upon him, or if Michael abuses the power. Considering the damage the last archangel did when he fell, Michael and Harry understandably do their best to make sure it doesn't happen twice.
• Fallen Hero: During her furious Motive Rant, Ascher reveals to Harry that she actually used to work for the Fellowship of Saint Giles and had been a great aid to them against the Red Court. Unfortunately, Harry wiping out all of the Red Court in Changes caused most of the Fellowship's members to turn to dust in a matter of seconds, and she's since taken up Lasciel's Coin to get her revenge on the man responsible for the death of her friends.
• Fatal MacGuffin: Harry Dresden helps Nicodemus raid the Vault of Hades; to get there requires passing through several guarding Gates. And... one of the Gates apparently requires one of the party members to be sacrificed. While the actual lock can be turned [only] by a ghost/spirit, the sacrifice also seems to be an important part, since Nicodemus made it part of his plan, and he's The Chessmaster.
• Fate Worse than Death: Harry briefly considers the fates of those who ended up royally pissing off the Greek gods, like Tantalus and Sisyphus, and then realizes Deirdre will likely be suffering from a similar fate all too soon. As Harry noted, Hell is just Hell — indiscriminate when it comes to punishing the evil. The Underworld specializes in very specific torments for the worst people, and Deirdre definitely fits that bill.
• Fanservice: The smoking-hot sex dream between Harry and Murphy.
• Faux Affably Evil: As usual, Nicodemus is very cordial and self-controlled, but the "ugly" look in his eyes that Harry has described in previous books seems to come out much more quickly now, though it doesn't affect his smile.
• Fear Is the Appropriate Response: When the Sword you thought destroyed reconstitutes itself in the hands of a true Knight, and it comes back not as a physical blade but a Laser Blade, able to cut through your sword like a katana through a toothpick, and a Temple Dog that terrifies your Fallen partner is behind you, yes, Nick, you hightail it.
• Fiery Salamander: One is hidden in the Gate of Fire as added protection.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing:
  • Before the formal reveal of his miracle, Uriel volunteers to get something, then has to pause and ask Michael where it is. An archangel with Intellectus would already know.
  • One of Michael's defining traits has been his willingness to choose the mission over his family because he thought it was the right choice to make. Near the end of the book, Butters made the same choice. He could have gone back to Andi after dropping Murphy off, but he chose to return to the Carpenter house in case they needed more protection. His last wish is for Bob to tell Andi he loves her. Just like Michael would.
• Flat "What": When Harry tells Karrin they can’t kill the parasite, but must save it. She gives a flat look and this response.
• Fluffy the Terrible:
  • The spirit of Demonreach gets a first name: Alfred.
  • Hades has a three-headed dog just like in the stories. Hades explains that the proper translation of Cerberus is "spotted".
    Harry: ...You named your dog Spot?
    Hades: [pets Cerberus] Who's a good boy? Spot is.
• Foil:
  • Hannah Ascher ultimately turns out to be one for Harry. Both killed people with fire magic as teenagers (in self-defense too, provided she isn't lying), both are especially noted for their skill with fire magic (in Harry's case, it's his most well-known skill; in Ascher's case, it literally seems to be the only kind of magic she can do). Both were offered and took Lasciel's Coin, though Harry took it to save the soul of a child while Ascher took it to join a new family. However, whereas Harry rejected the temptation to accept Lasciel, Ascher fully embraced it. Furthermore, they have fundamental difference in their views of magic, power, and how a wizard should use them (broadly speaking, Harry loves being a wizard and being able to explore the study of magic for both its own sake and to make the world a better place, while Ascher... likes to watch things blow up or burn down and feels that her magic should be used only to benefit herself and at everyone else's expense if necessary). Finally, Ascher's fire magic skills (which far exceed anything Harry was ever capable of), serve as a foil to his increasing skill with and reliance on his Winter Knight powers.
  • Nicodemus, to Michael. Like Michael, he will choose the mission over his family. Unlike Michael, he will outright sacrifice them for it.
  • Uriel to Anduriel, Nicodemus' fallen. Both are spymasters for their teams, allied with humans who are foils for each other. But where Anduriel helps Nicodemus believe his own lies that they are equals and doesn't try to stop him from killing his own child for the sake of more power, Uriel tries to stop Michael from making a Heroic Sacrifice and would risk Falling from Grace in order to save Michael by granting Michael True Power.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Not only does Harry firmly denounce Everybody Hates Hades, but he even goes on to suggest that Hades is very likely the most responsible of the Olympian siblings by a wide margin. Reason being there were never any myths about Hades shirking his duties or doing anything unnecessarily cruel, whereas myths about Foolish Siblings Zeus and Poseidon had them getting up to weird shenanigans all the freaking time. Even the myth about Hades kidnapping Persephone turned out to be inaccurate.
• Forced to Watch:
  • Nicodemus plans on making Charity watch as her house is burned while her children are trapped inside.
  • His earlier gambit of ordering The Genowska to kill Harry in front of Karrin, provoking her to unmake the Sword of Faith.
• Foreshadowing:
  • When Ascher and Harry go collect Anna, Anna realizes that part of the first job — collecting needed information — was an audition. Later, Harry realizes part of being able to break into Hades' vault, bypass the traps, and get the goods was also an audition for Hades.
  • When Ascher uses her fire-manipulation to pass through and extinguish the first gate, the cooling chamber that's left behind is covered in half-melted limestone formations and fragments of stalactites that have fallen from the ceiling. Next time she uses her fire power (this time on Harry), Harry deflects her Hellfire-blasts upwards and they melt the vault's roof, collapsing it on top of her.
  • Harry hears a voice when he wakes up, saying "She's right in front of you, you fool!", and later Id-Harry tells him to "remember how the dream ended", the dream in question ending with Murphy pulling a gun on him and telling him that "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned". Both of these are his subconscious trying to warn him that Lasciel is back and out for Harry's blood, and her Coin is in the possession of Hannah Ascher.
    • The appearance of an active Magog on a satellite photo acquired by a Paranet hacker also foreshadows this, as Magog's Coin, like Lasciel's, was last seen in Church custody. If he's loose, she can be too.
  • Tessa appears twice in an unexplained attempt to stop Nicodemus' heist. This is no garden-variety Gambit Pileup or Chronic Backstabbing Disorder; Nicodemus' plan involves the death of their daughter.
  • Goodman Grey matches Harry's pop-culture references. Butcher's true villains never do.
  • Grey and The Genoskwa have a quiet conversation in a language unfamiliar to Harry, hinting that they both have roots in Native American folklore, one being a sasquatch and the other a half-naagloshii.
    • Binder protesting that Grey "turned his coat" in favour of Harry. Not only a play on words for a shapeshifter, but Grey is apparently (partly) a naagloshii, like the Skinwalker of Turn Coat.
  • Way the heck back in Dead Beat, as Harry was being beaten up by Cassius, he desperately wonders if a Knight will show up and save him. Instead, Butters (and Mouse) show up and save him. Eight books later, and look who's a knight...
  • There's several subtle clues to Ascher's motivation and true allegiance. At first she and Dresden are very terse to each other, but the moment the two get in private, she switches immediately to trying to seduce him (similar to how Lash kept trying to goad Harry into joining the dark side). In that same conversation, she asks Harry about his burned hand, and when he says "vampires with flamethrowers", inquires as to which Court. Later on, Ascher refers to relationships as "You open yourself up and let someone in," which was previously a turn of phrasing that Harry used in relation to Lasciel trying to corrupt him. And lastly, Ascher literally tells Harry that she's good at deception.
  • The reader is purposely told Harry did something that took about three hours between leaving Mab after getting the job and going to Murphy's, but Harry declines to tell anyone what he was up to during that time. He went to talk to Kringle, then hired Goodman Grey.
• A Form You Are Comfortable With:
  • While never appearing exactly the same each time they meet, Uriel usually takes on an adult human male form with varying degrees of physical fitness.
  • The Parasite's face takes on an amalgamation of all the women Harry has known and loved in his life, like Lash, Karrin, Ivy, Susan, Elaine, and Kim Delaney, but notably not Molly and Luccio.
• Gambit Pileup: By the end of the story, we have Harry plotting to betray Nicodemus, Nicodemus planning to betray Harry, both of them having taken steps to carry this out even before the mission began, and on top of that, the entire heist was set up from the very beginning by Queen Mab, John Marcone, and even Hades himself with the intentions of both screwing Nicodemus over and getting the artifacts of the Crucifixion back into play to be used against the Outsiders. Oh, and Uriel's gambit by giving Michael his Grace was also partly meant to help free the Squires from Nicodemus' control & give them the chance to start their lives anew.
• God's Hands Are Tied:
  • When Harry and Karrin are in trouble, Uriel can’t intercede to save them. He can, however, give Michael his Grace, helping him do something Michael had already Chosen to do. This does mean that Michael spends the latter half of the book technically an archangel, but if he does anything untoward with it, Uriel will Fall.
  • During the heist, Hannah is about to be killed by a fire salamander. As she Chose to walk into the fire, Michael has no special protection to give him the ability to save her. Nicodemus, however, is perfectly capable of helping, and does so.
  • Hades declines to give Harry any direct help after their talk because it’s not the Lord of Death's place to affect the fate of the Artifacts of the Crucifixion.
• Good Is Not Soft:
  • Hades. He has a job, and he takes it very seriously: guarding his vault and guarding the souls under his care. All he wants is for people to follow the rules, and is quite pleasant to people like Harry and Socrates. But when Harry asks if Deirdre would get off scot-free for her centuries of evil, he coldly notes that Harry should reread some of the classics as Cerberus gives a warning growl in all three of his throats. Harry immediately thinks of what happened to Tantalus and Sisyphus.
  • For his part, Uriel doesn't hesitate to slit a squire's throat open when they break into the Carpenter's house. He’s Heaven's Black Ops guy, after all.
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: Michael is described as only being able to shake his head in baffled shock after witnessing Nicodemus kill his own daughter Deidre to get past the Gate of Blood. Meanwhile, Harry himself can better understand the concept, but is still horrified and can't even consider ever doing the same to his daughter.
• Good Samaritan: Archangel Uriel has no obligation to help Michael Carpenter when Michael Chooses to walk out and face Nicodemus. Uriel can’t affect anything regarding free will, and either to give outside aide or to answer prayers of granting His help to Michael would be such an action. So Uriel chose to give of himself and loans Michael his Grace to enable Michael to face Nicodemus without his crippling disabilities.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: When Nick and Tessa show up with their human enforcers to torch the Carpenter house, Charity is careful to say "darn" instead of "damn", due to Uriel's presence.
• Greek Mythology: Well, they're burgling one of Hades' vaults in the underworld. And Harry's daughter grows in his head, until she bursts forth, fully-formed, like Athena. Athena is the goddess of wisdom and war, and Harry's second daughter is a spirit of intellect, like Bob, and is all about knowledge and lived inside Harry through some of his worst fights, and so knows of them too.
• Headache of Doom: As previously revealed in Cold Days, Harry's worsening headaches are revealed to be caused by a spirit gestating within his mind, which will kill him when it matures enough to try to escape. He collapses from an especially bad one near the end of the book, but Molly is there to help "deliver" it non-lethally.
• Healing Factor: Grey has such a good one that he takes a gunshot to the heart with only mild disorientation and says he’ll be fine shortly.
• Heist Episode: For The Dresden Files as a whole. Harry is strong-armed into teaming up with Nicodemus to burgle the vault of Hades, god of the underworld. Yes, that Hades. What could he possibly want to steal from Hades so badly? Just THE HOLY GRAIL. Yes, that Holy Grail. However, as it turns out the real live Holy Grail is only a small part of it. Nicodemus is also after the Placard of Christ, the Crown of Thorns, the real Shroud and the Spear of Destiny.
• Hellhound: Cerberus, the three-headed hellhound for Hades. Hades points out that his name roughly translates to English as Spot.
• Heroic BSoD: Harry falls into a pretty severe one following Harvey Morrison's death, with him feeling like an utter failure who's completely doomed to become a horrible monster and that there's nothing worth hoping for. Michael gives him a Rousing Speech and helps inspire him to keep fighting no matter what.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • When Harry tells Michael what happened to Susan, how he killed her to save Maggie, Michael asks how Harry was able to restrain her and Harry says that he didn't. Michael then realizes that what happened to Susan was this trope, not a murder, as Susan had to have had just enough humanity left in her vampire form to be willing for Harry to sacrifice her to save both Maggie and the world from the Red Court.
  • Lash's act back in White Night is called this again. Turns out the love inherent in the act allowed her to conceive a psychic "child" with Dresden — the parasite.
  • Butters fully intends to do this, even giving Bob a final command to return to Andi and tell her he loves her, before going to face Nicodemus, Tessa, and Nick's goons alone. He didn't expect to win, just buy time until someone could get there to save the day. Luckily for him, things don't go according to plan, but in a good way.
• Hero of Another Story:
  • Sanya is not present because he’s in Iran stopping two Denarians from causing nuclear problems.
  • Butters tries being this with Harry and Molly's absences. After becoming Sir Butters, he intends to stay one.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Harry is still scared of becoming this. In a chilling inversion, Michael suggests that what Harry should truly be afraid of isn't what Mab will do with him if she succeeds in turning him into her personal monster, but rather what she'll do with him if she can't.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Harry defeats Lasciel/Hannah by redirecting her own Hellfire into the rock ceiling above her.
  • Nicodemus critically wounds Karrin and takes her out of commission, a would-be Knight who didn't fully understand the purpose or the power of the blades. Harry replaces her with Michael Carpenter, a true Knight, fully empowered by the Grace of Uriel, and someone who knows Nicodemus' tricks and methods better than Karrin.
  • Nicodemus tricks Karrin into destroying the Sword of Faith, but with the base form gone, it allows Butters' different style of Faith to reforge it into his version, a lightsaber far stronger than any blade.
• Holding Hands: Discussed early in the book, when Karrin and Harry are sharing their fears. She's afraid he's going to die, and he's afraid of what the Winter Mantle is doing to him (especially what it would do if he was with her). She takes his hands, and Harry muses on the closeness such a simple act brings.
• Holy Burns Evil: A power of the Knights of the Cross. Acts of evil, especially by the Denarians, can be destroyed by the Knight's blessings. Michael calls out "Lava quod est sordium" and burns away a horde of Tessa's bugs.
• Home Field Advantage:
  • Being Demonreach's Warden and having spent several months becoming very familiar with the island's defenses, Harry gets a big one while on the island. How big? He considers a rematch against the Walker that gave him no end of trouble in the previous book would be a Curb-Stomp Battle in his favor.
  • Harry realizes during his conversation with Hades that the god knew they were coming and is pretty much aware of everything going on in his domain.
• Honor Before Reason: Attempted by Michael and defied by Charity. When Harry offers them their share of the loot, Michael starts to protest before Charity cuts in, points out they have half a dozen kids to put through college, to say nothing of grandchildren, and promptly claims their share.
• Hope Bringer:
  • Butters revealed that Harry is this to him and many others, but his working with Mab and then staying on Demonreach for a year hurt their faith in him quite a bit.
  • Michael is still this to Harry, giving him hope that he can resist becoming a monster, but also, when he accepted Uriel's Grace to walk back into battle, he turned the tides of Nicodemus' darkness.
  • Nicodemus fears Michael's position as this because he knew that if Michael knew Nicodemus planned on sacrificing Dierdre, Michael would have talked with Dierdre and could have gotten her to change her mind in the final moments before the dagger struck.
• Hostage Situation: Grey tries to keep as many of Marcone's guards alive when they take the foyer under the justification the cops and Marcone's own people would likely not be as keen to storm the place under threat of hurting the hostages.
• Huge Schoolgirl: Harry notes that Amanda Carpenter (who is roughly 16 by this point) is slightly taller than her sister Molly. Remember that Molly is close to 6 feet tall herself. Amanda's even wearing her school uniform when Harry notes this, despite being at home.
• Humanity Ensues: Uriel transubstantiates to help Michael. He spends the rest of the book helping Charity with domestic chores.
• Humans Are Flawed: While Butters is having trouble with the new Harry, Murphy's counter is this. Yes, Harry has some issues now, but by not trusting in him and shunning him in fear of what he might become, Butters' lack of Faith will only serve to push him down that path. In other words, he has to have Faith in Harry and help Harry have Faith in himself.
• Human Sacrifice: The only way to pass the Gate of Blood is by this — specifically, by sacrificing someone loyal and trusting enough to pull the lever, as only a ghost can do so. Nicodemus sacrificed Deirdre.
• Humiliation Conga: By the end of the book, Nicodemus suffers one. The resolution of the plot leaves him with almost nothing. His daughter is dead, his squires have defected, any reputation he had as a fair dealer is ruined, and he is responsible for improving a Sword of the Cross... Mab and Marcone were thorough in taking vengeance on him. And yeah, he has the Holy Grail, but Harry thinks he was actually after one of the other treasures related to Christ — and they're all in Harry's possession.
• Hypocritical Humor: When Michael notes Harry calling out "parkour" every time he jumps, Harry points out the hypocrisy as Harry never called Michael out on his Latin phrases.
• Idiot Ball:
  • And a bit of Villain Ball: Harry considers anyone who’s stupid enough to draw a weapon on Hades during the heist to be a complete and utter idiot who deserves any retribution the god chooses to dish out.
  • The Winter Knight Mantle grabs this at times for its "act first, think about consequences never" attitude. Take when Harry sees Binder and it angered him. The Mantle wants Harry to storm out and kill the man. Harry has to rationally dissuade this desire until the Mantle relents.
  • Michael chides Harry for his arrogance and self-destructive guilt complex. He tells Harry that he needs to accept his imperfections and own flaws and stop mentally flagellating himself over his mistakes, especially the ones that weren't his fault.
  • Harry's subconscious is flabbergasted that Harry completely fails to recognise that Hannah has Lasciel's coin. He grumbles that they'll likely be dead within 48 hours. Of course, Id-Harry then takes a minor grab of it himself when he bemoans Harry not taking up on Hannah's flirting despite suspecting she has taken up a Coin.
  • Butters grabs it due to a combination of paranoia and his Broken Pedestal for Harry. Not only does he think that his listening device will somehow go unnoticed by a group operating on Harry's level, but he actually follows Harry to the evil hideout, thinking that his collection of makeshift weapons and tools thrown together under Bob's tutelage will be enough to let him get away.
  • Murphy picks it up again due to panic for Harry by bringing the Sword of Faith into the fight, despite her previous reluctance to put the Swords in danger — which, as it turns out, was for a good reason.
  • Harry nearly grabs it when he makes judgement against Hades' kin in his presence. Hades is kind enough to warn him against further comments.
• I Gave My Word: As always, Mab is bound by this, and by extension, Harry is too. Nicodemus is inevitably going to betray them both, so Mab requires Harry to be a better traitor while keeping his word. She thinks it's a fascinating "game".
• Ignore the Fanservice:
  • Harry chooses to ignore the advances of a very beautiful woman, both because of the job and because he's been propositioned by quite a few beautiful women in the past who wanted nothing more than to eat him alive. Literally.
  • Binder refuses Hannah's advances because his first rule is no personal attachments.
• Ignored Epiphany: After having killed his own daughter and being given an incredibly passionate Patrick Stewart Speech by Michael, there is seriously a brief moment where it honestly looks like Nicodemus might give up his coin. However, after Anduriel whispers in his ear, Nicodemus literally laughs in Michael's face, arrogantly boasting about his own power and how he will never turn away from his path.
• Inevitable Mutual Betrayal: The plot revolves around Harry being forced into working for Nicodemus, a member of The Dresden Files' Big Bad Ensemble. Harry fully expects that Nicodemus, being Nicodemus, will turn on him the moment that their task is complete, while Nicodemus expects that Harry, being Harry, will do the same as soon as his obligation ends. The person who got Harry into this mess is also fully aware of this, and expects "superior, more creative treachery" on Harry's part.
• Irony:
  • Harry had several opportunities to ruin the mission before it even got started, all of which would have left him without blame and would have satisfied Mab's debt to Nicodemus. The only reason he didn't take any of those chances is because they would have required him to allow at least one innocent person to be killed, which he obviously wasn't willing to do. He even says on one occasion that "Mab would have applauded that solution". Had Harry done the "smart" thing, he would have unknowingly screwed over Mab and Marcone's master plan due to never even making it to the vault.
  • The Cosmic kind. In the books thus far, each time Nicodemus faced against the Sword of Faith, he lost. He lost in Death Masks because of Shiro's Heroic Sacrifice. His coveting the idea of destroying the blade in Small Favor led to his defeat once more. In this book, even when he shatters the blade, the Sword still beats him. By his own actions, Nicodemus allows for the Sword to gain an even more powerful physical form. Simply put, a simple Faith in a power greater than the self overcomes dark Pride each time.
• Ironic Echo: When Fidelacchius is destroyed due to being misused by Murphy, Nicodemus says "Ah," with an air of complete satisfaction. Later, when the Sword is recreated by Butters, Uriel does the exact same thing.
• Ironic Hell: Given the kinds of punishments classical mythology shows being handed out in the Greek underworld, this is likely to be Deirdre's, Hannah’s, and The Genoskwa's final fates.
• I Surrender, Suckers: Facing Murphy and Fidelacchius, Nicodemus surrenders and lets go of both his Coin and the noose of Judas — and orders The Genoskwa to kill Harry, deliberately goading Murphy into attacking him. When she does, it causes Fidelacchius to lose its power, giving Nicodemus the opportunity to destroy one of the three Swords of the Cross. Which of course he promptly takes.
• It's Personal:
  • Harry and Murphy know that while Marcone doesn't take intrusions into his mortal territories very well, Mab takes people fucking with her even less well. Both tend to be very methodical and exact in their vengeance.
  • Hannah hates Harry Dresden for eliminating the Red Court, as it also killed the Fellowship of Saint Giles, who were both her friends and her financial support. This made it easy for Lasciel, who hates Harry for rejecting her and subverting her shadow, to work with her as they plan his downfall.

J-O

• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • When Harry tells Murphy his new job and the expectations Mab has for him, Murphy notes Mab does have a point that Harry is good at outwitting people more powerful than him.
  • Butters is rather cold to Harry because, from both his own perspective and that of the other members of the Chicago Alliance, Harry has basically thrown them to the wolves while consorting with Mab and refusing to communicate what's going on.
  • Grey may not like Harry's quirks, but when the man makes a good point, he does agree with it. Though whether or not Grey's dislike of Harry was an act is unknown, as he was secretly working for Harry the whole time and on orders to not become Harry's friend.
• Just Following Orders: When Harry learns the crew is going to rob Hades' vault, he’s worried about the repercussions, as he’s a signatory of the Accords, twice (both as a Wizard of the White Council and as a Knight of the Winter Court of Sidhe). Nicodemus counters that, in regards to Mab's potential violation, she’s loaning Harry to Nicodemus like one loans a hammer; What Nicodemus does with the hammer is his fault, not the hammer's. Nicodemus will take the blame there. Nicodemus doesn't say he would take any blame if the White Council is angry at Harry making another violation of the Accords.
• Just in Time: Played with as Harry is reminded that the Knights of the Cross will be there if one is meant to be there. Sanya is prevented from showing up, but when all hope seems lost, Waldo Butters finds Faith in his limited skills and seeks to delay Nicodemus' assault, even knowing he will likely die. So he found the Courage of his convictions in time to help save many people.
• Kansas City Shuffle: Both Harry and Nicodemus figure the other is going to betray him after Nicodemus gets his hands on the Grail, but before they make good their escape. Bearing that in mind, they both try to come up with creative ways to stick the knife in the other man first. Nicodemus hires a crew of independent contractors to help with the job and secretly gives Coins to Hannah Ascher and The Genoskwa, with orders for them along with Goodman Grey to kill Harry after they retrieve the Grail. It fails, mostly due to Harry figuring it out upon visiting Kringle. Harry's much more successful attempt at this involves hiring Grey, the only person Nicodemus could hire to get to where the Way into Hades' vault had to be opened, before Nicodemus did. He hires Grey to help him roll over on Nicodemus, knowing that once hired, Grey won't be bought out by anybody else. Nicodemus never sees it coming.
• Karma Houdini: Looks like it's going to happen with Deirdre. However, Hades tells Harry to "consider [the] classics". Harry then realizes that if anything, Deirdre only ensured that she'll now face the most horrific and appropriate punishment possible for all of her crimes.
• Kill It with Fire:
  • Hannah Ascher has killed several people with her fire magic (but she claims that the first murders, at least, were in self-defense).
  • The first Gate to Hades' vault is the Gate of Fire, a small cavern filled with huge roaring fires coming from every direction. As a large portion of the supernatural world are at least weakened by fire, it is the ideal first defense.
  • Nicodemus plans on burning down Michael's home with the children inside.
• Kiss of Distraction: Harry gives one to Karrin so she doesn't notice him slipping her a sock filled with half his payment of diamonds.
• The Lancer: Murphy has become this for Harry, arguing his case and situation to Butters and others when they have issue with something Harry has done, but also giving it straight to Harry when he’s making a bad move.
• Laser Blade: Fidelacchius becomes one in Butters' hands.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • The entire plot was set up by Mab and Marcone to destroy everything Nicodemus had, in punishment for him having tortured Marcone and delegitimized Mab's Accords in Small Favor.
  • A positive one: After years of serving the Lord with no monetary reward for their work, the Carpenters get one-fifth of the diamonds stolen from Hades' vault. Charity insists to Michael (who is still hesitant to take several million dollars in diamonds) that it's a divine gift. After all, they have children to put through college, and grandchildren will be coming soon.
    • A subtle, related bit of this for Harry, as sharp-eyed fans noted that the number of years of college Charity plans to pay for only adds up if you include Harry's daughter Maggie in the total.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The huge twist of Goodman Grey being The Mole for Harry is just as much of a surprise for the first-time reader as it is for Nicodemus, as it's not until literally the chapter following Nicodemus's betrayal of Harry and Michael that Harry gives a flashback showing him talking things over with Kringle and deciding to hire Grey.
• Loophole Abuse:
  • Uriel can’t act in mortal affairs when no free will has been affected save for choosing to answer the prayer of Michael Carpenter directly. Michael wished to be able to walk into battle once more to save his friends and Uriel gave him that chance... by giving Michael his Grace, God's Power in Uriel, to heal Michael for a short time.
  • The Carpenter house is protected from supernatural attacks. So, Nicodemus plans on attacking with guns and his men. After this, Molly plans on closing the loophole by buying a house down the street and having some Sidhe Knights standing watch over her family's house 24/7 without their knowledge.
  • The entire plot is based on Loophole Abuse. Specifically, Harry and Nicodemus are obligated to work together "until such time as they have accomplished their mission". Naturally, they betray each other the moment that Harry gives Nick the Holy Grail.
  • You'd think that declaring one's surrender while still ordering his minion to murder someone wouldn't truly qualify as surrendering. However, you'd be wrong.
    • it is noted the use of "Damn You" directed at Nick as Murphy tries to kill him may have changed the situation. Murphy may have lacked the intent required for the sword, as she was pursuing personal vengeance at the moment of truth.
• Loved I Not Honor More:
  • Once more, Michael dons the armor of the Knight and leaves his wife and children behind to do battle against a great evil.
  • Waldo Butters, as he prepares himself to make a Heroic Sacrifice, tells Bob to flee after giving him some magical help, and when he reaches the first skull, which is in Andi's care, to tell her he loves her.
• MacGuffin: The Holy Grail. Harry even refers to it by the trope name on one occasion.
• Magic Feather:
  • Harry recalls when he was sixteen and needed the strength to kill his Evil Mentor, his godmother didn't magically grant him the strength, she just tortured him until he found the strength within himself.
  • Butters theorizes that the Winter Mantle doesn't actually provide that much power to its bearer, it just allows the bearer to ignore the instinctive limits humans place on their own strength at will, which is very bad for one's health if one does it for too long or too often, as those instinctive limits are there for a reason.
• Magitek: With Bob's help, Butters creates several magical devices from ordinary muggle things, including a listening device covered in runes that could be put into Harry's bandages and not break in a half a second.
• Makes Us Even:
  • The cause of the plot: Mab owes Nicodemus a favor, so she lends him her Knight for a single job. Of course, she actually hates him, so she fully expects Harry to find a way to screw Nick over the second the job is done.
  • Nicodemus noted that in Mab's eyes, Harry's inept attempt to capture Butters and take him safely away from Nicodemus was paid back by Nicodemus nearly killing Harry in a ploy to destroy one of his greatest enemies. As Harry was in no real danger from Nicodemus, he was just playing the part up for the ploy, and he didn't violate the agreement.
  • Harry paid Marcone weregild for the murdered guard and not seeking retribution against the thieves for robbing his place. Harry and Marcone think this finally covers Harry saving Marcone's life back in Small Favor.
• Mama Bear:
  • The reason Tessa fights so ferociously to try to sabotage the heist is to protect her daughter from sacrificing herself.
  • When her kids are threatened, Charity takes up arms again.
• Man of Wealth and Taste: Hades, as befitting the god of wealth, has a large collection of priceless things. And all Harry saw is one vault of at least seven.
• The Masquerade: Discussed when Anna reveals she has been a data thief for the past few years getting stuff from or for the Fomor, White Court, Venatori, Svartalves, and several other supernatural powers. She noted it wasn't that hard to find information about them. Harry notes there isn't a need to since humans generally ignore the truth when it hits them in the face.
• Meaningful Echo: A subtle one. Nicodemus gives a satisfied sigh when Fidelacchius breaks. Uriel makes the same sound when it's restored.
• Meaningful Name:
  • The crew is set up to rob the Lord of the "Underworld". To get there quickly through Chicago Nicodemus intends to break into the vault of another type of "Underworld", aka Marcone's bank.
  • Kringle refers to Anduriel, Nicodemus' partner, as the "Master of Shadows". Harry realizes that title is an archaic term for spymaster, referencing the Fallen's preference to spying over actual combat.
  • Hannah Ascher, a warlock with a major affinity with fire.
  • Binder for his ability to bind a demon clan to his will.
  • Goodman Grey, who is trying to be a good man while still being generally gray in the morality area.
• Megaton Punch:
  • Mab responds with a massive slap when Harry calls her a bitch. It slams his head into an elevator door hard enough to leave a head-shaped dent in it and make it difficult for the doors to open.
  • Averted with Harry as he still doesn't have his force rings. He does, however, have a staff built along the same principles that packs a wallop equal to 77 of the original. When Harry fires it as Hannah-Lasciel in the Vault, the Denarian is described as getting hit with the force equivalent to that of a garbage truck.
• The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: If Grey's not careful, he can become too much like the person he's imitating. For instance, when Grey became Harvey during the heist, he dipped into Harvey's mind a bit too much, feeling and saying things Harvey likely did just before his death.
• Mister Seahorse: Turns out Harry's "parasite" is actually his daughter, growing in his head. The daughter of a spiritual entity, not a physical one. Yes, it is exceptionally weird, even for this series.
• The Mole:
  • Michael and Harry fear that someone inside the Church is helping Nicodemus get his coins back. There’s also three in the hired gang — Ascher and (to a lesser extent since it's not as much of a shock) The Genoskwa, and Grey.
  • Goodman Grey is actually Harry's man, as Harry hired him first. He just pretends to be with Nicodemus for much of the heist.
• Multitasked Conversation:
  • Watch for any time Goodman Grey uses the word wizard. Whatever comes next is a sincere question to Harry; the first word(s) of Harry's reply are his sincere response.
  • This is inverted by Harry once (though with the same setup as usual), asking Grey if he's really killed Anna Valmont. Grey replies "No particular reason not to."
• Mundane Solution: Harry's first job when the heist officially starts is to make a distraction. As Marcone is savvy enough to have a magic detecting system, Harry uses Roman Candles.
• Mundane Utility: Deirdre's hair can also be used to squeegee water off a floor, and she can lift Harry up with her hair without hurting him.
• My Beloved Smother: Hades reveals Demeter was this to her daughter when Persephone and Hades fell in love. She refused to let her little girl go, so Hecate, goddess of crossroads, was kind enough to help her look, and led her around and around in circles for months. Hecate's wedding gift was a Demeter-free honeymoon.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Harry's guilt over his past choices rings up once again causing him to think he’s an irredeemable monster. Michael, however, tells him the true monsters are people who don't have this guilt, who don't torture themselves with guilt. The fact he does, even to a prideful level, means he’s a better man than he gives himself credit to be.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much:
  • Goodman Grey turns out to be a naagloshii, or (to be more accurate) the scion of one. He explains to Harry that he’s no more bound by his species' tendency towards sadistic torture than Harry’s bound to his mother's acts as a warlock. And on top of that, after risking his life multiple times in Harry's employ, he bills Harry the outrageous sum of one dollar.
  • Things go very badly for Harry when the inverse of this trope occurs with The Genoskwa. Unlike other Forest People, who Harry associates him with at a glance, he is not mild-mannered, nor in any way "an easy-going sort who abhors violence". He will rip you apart if it amuses him and then feast on your bones.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • If Nicodemus hadn't crippled Karrin Murphy after shattering Fidelacchius, there would have been no reason to substitute Karrin with Michael as Harry's second.
  • If Nicodemus hadn't attacked the Carpenter house a second time to get at Maggie, there would have been no opportunity for the Sword of Faith to be restored and for his squires to defect.
  • If Nicodemus hadn't done the heist in the first place, both of the above would be averted. In addition, he would still have his daughter, and the coins of Ursiel and Lasciel, now presumably safely locked away in Hades' vault.
• Nightmare Fuel: invoked In-Universe; Michael outright calls Demonreach the thing of his nightmares. He was on the island once, and after the trauma he suffered there, and the darkness he encountered, he’s more terrified of the island itself than anything that happened there. He then tells Harry that Murphy and Thomas would feel the same thing (Harry, because of his link to it, doesn't) but they still come to see him out there.
• Noble Demon:
  • Nicodemus notes that while he's done some horrible things in the past few millennia, he always pays those he hires well. The basic pay rate for this job? $2,000,000 per person, plus whatever they can carry out of the vault. All subverted, though; he still fully intends to kill Harry and Valmont once the job is complete.
  • Goodman Grey, who helps Harry against Nicodemus despite being the son of a naagloshii.
• No-Sell: In Harry's first altercation with The Genoskwa, he hurls his most potent Winter magic at it, who grounds it with about as much effort as if he'd thrown a balled-up tissue.
• Not Hyperbole: Several times throughout the book, Harry considers screwing over Nicodemus early, before realizing that Mab would crucify him if he did. Then on second thought, he realizes that not only is she quite likely to stick him up on a cross, it would be a mercy compared to what she did to Lloyd Slate.
• Not Quite Dead: A variant with Fidelacchius: Murphy appears to have depowered it, thus letting Nicodemus destroy it, but Butters' Faith rekindles its power.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • Nicodemus compares his slaying of Deirdre to what God allowed Lucifer to do to Job.
  • Between Harry and Nicodemus. When he briefly considers how Nicodemus slaying Deirdre isn't that different from him killing Susan, he internally counters that Susan ultimately made her choice willingly and died to save both their child and the billions of people who would be victim to the Reds if they had failed that day.
• Now, Let Me Carry You: During the climax when Harry is down from pregnancy pains, Charity is held hostage by Nicodemus and Tessa, and Butters is the last mortal standing, he decides to be a hero. He turns to Harry and says, "Don't worry, Harry. You've done enough. I got this." He then proceeds to face Nicodemus and Tessa and the cult.
• The Oath-Breaker: Still not a good position to be in in the supernatural world.
  • In general, since supernatural beings live such a long time, you will never get away from your reputation as one of these, and that's aside from whatever creative revenge the one you betrayed has thought up for you. Part of Mab's plan is to pressure Nicodemus into breaking his word, irrevocably trashing his reputation for fair dealing.
  • Taking up a Sword of the Cross into combat means one is bound by God's Laws on the matter, including not killing innocents and aiming to help those who fell into the Denarian's lies a chance of redemption. Karrin violates the latter when put into a gambit by Nicodemus with Harry's life on the line. She aims to strike Nicodemus down after he took off his noose and coin. However, in doing so the Blade's glowing power vanished from within.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Harry once again plays to his strengths. He spends a majority of the book playing dumb about knowing Nicodemus can hear his conversations because of Anduriel's power. He has to keep up the ruse and say things he would even in the privacy of Karrin's home, like planning to stab Nicodemus in the back.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: Mab acknowledges Harry is capable of refusing her request and staying on Demonreach, but then he would face the consequences: he would die, and then the Parasite would emerge and hunt down his friends and family. Once he’s off the island, she makes it clear she wouldn't permit him to go back there, so if he still refuses he would still die. So while Harry can choose to refuse, Mab (being Mab) makes sure the worst possible outcomes would result should Harry attempt such a choice.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Sanya is in Iran, facing off against two of Tessa's associates alone. Considering there is no word in the news about a nuclear incident in Iran the morning after the heist, it seems he won.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • For the heroes, when Fidelacchius breaks.
  • Harry has one when he finally sees The Genowska. Later when he realises the Forest Person is the host of Ursiel
  • Nicodemus has one when Karrin threatens to blow everyone up when The Genowska has Harry hostage. And again a few minutes later, when Michael is restored to full health.
  • Binder has one when he first recognizes Michael Carpenter as a Knight of the Cross and another when he realizes Harry is bringing Michael along on the heist that's organized by one of the Denarians.
  • For the entire heist team, when they realise they’re being magically eavesdropped on, and again when they see that The Gate Of Fire has a guardian
  • When he realises he's been caught, Butters has one.
  • Harry when Hades appears in his vault in the middle of the heist. Luckily for him, he is there to offer Harry Sanctuary and speak with him.
  • On the flip side, when Fidelacchius is reforged, Nicodemus freaks out.
  • Harry gets a downplayed one when Molly casually uses a cell phone, something human wizards can't do without frying it.
  • When she realises that Harry plans to leave her Buried Alive, Lasciel has one.
• One-Man Army: Binder, in his own way, is this because of his ability to summon an army worth of minions who are very deadly and dangerous.
• Only in It for the Money:
  • Grey makes it a point to mention several times over that he's a mercenary who's completely loyal to whoever his employer is. Once he's hired, that's it. No chance of being suborned. Fortunately for the Good Guys, Harry got to him before Nicodemus for the whopping price of $1.00.
  • Uncle Binder's Rule Number One: money or nothing.
• The Only One I Trust:
  • Molly is the only one Harry trusts to get the "parasite" out of his head safely.
  • Nicodemus tells Deirdre that she’s the only one he has complete and absolute trust in. He needed someone who would allow themselves to be killed so that after, their shade would still be willing to open the Gate of Blood.
• Only the Chosen May Wield: Any Sword of the Cross can only be used at full power by the right person with the right intent. Nicodemus even notes that there are many knights who take up the Sword for one job and leave it once their work is done. He claims Murphy was this after she breaks the Sword of Faith, as she was the right person in the right time to use it when she went with Harry to save his daughter, but not any more.
• Only Smart People May Pass: The Gates to Hades' vault are formidable, but not insurmountable with the proper planning and resources. This is because Hades actually wants people with those traits to get ahold of what's inside.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Harry sees Mab in black clothing. Since the last time that she was wearing black, two Faerie Queens died (Lily and Maeve), he immediately thinks that someone is going to die.
  • Molly can use a cell phone now. Harry finds this very disturbing, because human wizards can't.
• Orphaned Punchline: Harry keeps missing the setups or punch lines of Binder's off-color stories.
• Our Phlebotinum Child:
  • Apparently, if a Shadow of a Fallen Angel possessing a person loves its host enough to sacrifice itself for said host, a spirit of intellect is born.
  • It's stated that when any shade and a mortal share an act of love, it's possible for a Spirit of Intellect to be created. That Lash was the shade of a Fallen just makes "the Parasite" all the more dangerous.
• Out-Gambitted: Mab and Marcone play Nicodemus like a violin, with some help from Hades. The punch line is brutal.
• Out-of-Character Moment: Played for Laughs; Michael and Charity seem awfully comfortable with participating in burglary and fencing of stolen goods considering their moral uprightness at virtually every other moment of the series, but it can be Hand Waved as them both being Not So Above It All and taking The Needs of the Many into account.^Also...The diamonds aren't actually stolen property— the entire heist was done with Hades' full knowledge and approval; if he hadn't wanted the diamonds to leave his realm, he could have prevented it with trivial ease.

P-Z

• Papa Wolf: Id-Harry is this all the way. As the basic animal drives of Harry Dresden, he believes firmly in protecting the offspring of Harry, whether they be blood like Maggie or spirits like what came from him and Lash.
  Id-Harry: Protect the offspring.
• Parental Incest: Yep, Nicodemus and Deirdre are still getting it on and are still thoroughly squicking Harry out. Deirdre claims that they've been together for so long that mortal words cannot be used to describe their relationship.
• Parental Substitute: While Michael and Charity love Maggie as if she was their own, they are well aware that they aren't her biological parents. They both encourage Harry to take over the role, both for Maggie's sake and his own. When Charity mentions paying for her kids' college, if you do the math you'll notice she's including Maggie in that count.
• Le Parkour: Harry seems to have been practicing. Though he can't seem to do it without yelling "Parkour!"
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: invoked After being Deconstructed in Small Favor, it's Reconstructed here when Harry is fighting The Genoskwa-Ursiel. Harry notes that sheer size is a great defensive adaption... but it's not actually optimal for hunting, since it's more difficult for really large creatures to maneuver. Grey's actions previously forced The Genoswka to stay in Ursiel-form (giant demon bear) in order to see, which saved Harry's life since he was better able to dodge. In The Genoswka's normal, smaller form, he's much more dangerous.
• Place of Protection: Thanks to the angel contingent, Michael's house is still a secure place from any supernatural threat seeking vengeance against him or the family. Normal humans, however, can bypass this as they have free will and the angels cannot stop them from doing evil. Molly, seeking to close this loophole, plans on putting some Sidhe guards in a house close by to take care of Muggle threats.
• Playing Possum: Harry does this quickly as a distraction for Hannah-Lasciel. Their seething hatred for him keeps them focused on him and not where he has redirected their hellfire, especially when Harry drops to one knee, as though injured.
• Playing with Fire: Harry (natch) and Hannah Ascher. The latter is especially noted as being a goddamn prodigy at pyromancy, to the level where Harry sees her do things with fire magic that he didn't even think were possible. Or, to put it in other words, while Harry's "reasonably good" with fire, Hannah is good with fire.
• Poor Communication Kills: Harry not telling Butters what's going on nearly gets Butters killed and Bob captured, and thus controlled, by Nicodemus. It also results in Murphy getting severely injured and Fidelacchius getting temporarily shattered as well as Butters and a lot of his other friends having gained a hefty Broken Pedestal for him as a result.
• Power Glows:
  • The Swords of the Cross glow when being used according to their purpose.
  • Mouse's fur, mane, and jaws glow with silver-blue light when he lunges at Nicodemus and his shadow.
• Pregnant Badass: invoked Hilariously enough, Harry himself. His response is absolutely epic. Not to mention Murphy's when he tells her....
• Pride:
  • Harry has learned to not defy Mab in front of others, knowing she'd have no choice but to kill him or otherwise fuck him up.
  • Harry has this as well, but it isn't about how great he is, his pride is in his failing to make a better outcome happen. He has so much power, but in his words, he failed Michael because Michael is now crippled. He failed Susan because his actions led to her death. If he was all that great, why couldn't he save them?
  • Nicodemus insists that he leads the Fallen, not the other way around. Harry specifically mentions that he seems a lot like Lucifer was said to have been during his War against Him.
• Properly Paranoid: Where to begin...
  • Harry turns down Hannah's advances because, according to him, "You would not believe how many times I've had pretty girls who would have eaten me alive, literally, make a pass at me. Makes a guy a little tense about it." Naturally, he’s proven completely correct when, near the end of the book, Hannah’s revealed to be sharing her body with Lasciel, who is not happy about the fact that Harry refused to take up her coin.
  • Murphy has apparently obtained an AT4 rocket launcher. Harry is incredulous of the idea that they'll ever need a weapon that powerful. He shuts up when they run into The Genoskwa.
• Protectorate: In regards to Harry's relationship to Maggie, Michael puts it as follows:
  Michael: Things did not turn out well for the last monster who raised his hand against your child. Or any of his friends. Or associates. Or anyone who worked for him. Or for most of the people he knew.
  Michael: Whether or not that was your intention, you did establish a rather effective precedental message to the various predators should they ever learn of her relationship with you.
• Psycho for Hire: The Genoskwa. Additionally, Goodman Grey outright states that he himself is "a monster for hire".
• Public Domain Artifact:
  • Nicodemus wants Mab's (and by extension, Harry's) help to swipe the Holy Grail from Hades' Vault.
  • When they do reach Hades' vault, Harry recovers four other relics of the Crucifixion: the Crown of Thorns, the (true) Shroud and what are likely the Placard from the Cross and the head of The Spear of Destiny.
• Punch-Clock Hero: Marcone is more than willing to have his men protect people from the Fomor or other supernatural threats, if they’re paid up on their protection bills.
• Punny Name: To get into the party, Nicodemus' alias for Harry is a "Mr. Oberheit".
• Pyrrhic Victory:
  • For Nicodemus. Sure, he got the Holy Grail, but he lost pretty much everything in the process. His attack on Harry means that his word and good name are now precisely worthless. The most loyal Fallen among his followers, Ursiel, is irretrievably trapped in Hades' vault, along with his best Wild Card "ace in the hole" Fallen in the form of Lasciel. A good deal of his henchmen might very well undergo a Heel–Face Turn. And he not only killed his own second-in-command and daughter — who was the only being he really loved, and thus really pissed off his wife in the process — but he condemned her to the mercy of Hades, who will deal with her... appropriately. And all exactly according to Mab and Marcone's plan....Except for the bit where he inadvertently helped to create a brand new Knight of the Cross, as well as temporarily Michael back into action, as he blundered into those two messes all by himself.
  • Harry and Michael are of the opinion that Nicodemus was actually after the head of The Spear of Destiny, and was lying to the crew the entire time over which artifact he was going for. Making the Grail more of a Consolation Prize.
• Raging Stiffie: Harry, after one particularly fantastic sex dream about Murphy while sleeping in her bed. It's so prominent Murphy notices it underneath the covers from the other side of the bedroom.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Hades. Harry notes in ancient times that while many of his siblings and family were shirking their duties, Hades never did. Even now, he knows the powerful items he keeps in his vault will need to leave when the time has come for them. His only requirement is that the person who takes them proves that he is capable of handling them.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Id-Harry notes that Karrin has been getting a non-verbal one frequently from her ex-husband Rick because he married her less successful, less ambitious younger sister.
  • Michael, acting as a proxy for an angel or Him, calls the thieves and villains out on their choices, saying they don't understand that true power comes from one's own choices and their false power can’t protect them from the consequences of their choices. There is a "Judge" and "Justice" and they "will receive what [they] have earned."
• Red Herring: Jim Butcher sets up a couple as to who might be Lasciel's new host. Harry has a sex dream where Murphy seduces him and then turns into Lasciel. Mister won't stay in the same room with Andi (though that one makes sense if you've read the short story "Day Off"). And Anna Valmont wants to work The Caper to give her a chance to double-cross Nicodemus, whom Lasciel also had a rivalry with.
• Relationship Upgrade: Harry and Murphy. Possibly. Maybe. The book ends with them (finally) making out, anyway.
• Remember When You Blew Up a Sun?:
  • When they find out that the door Anna is meant to unlock isn’t the one she had practiced for, Anna is worried, but Harry gives her a pep talk reminding her how she robbed Harry, swiped his car, and stole the Shroud of Turin from the Vatican. If she can do that she can handle the surprise door of some Chicago gangster.
  • Add Goodman Grey to the list of characters who've recognized Murphy from Susan's old loup-garou footage.
  • When Harry shares his fears with Michael of what would happen if getting too close to Maggie made someone find out she's his daughter, and they tried to get to Harry through her, Michael patiently reminds Harry that they'd probably be too scared shitless of what Harry did to the last person to try that.
• The Reveal:
  • Respectively, Hannah and The Genoskwa are the bearers of Lasciel and Ursiel, Hades and Marcone are in on the plot with the express intention of screwing over Nicodemus, Butters is the new Knight of Faith, Goodman Grey is part naagloshii.
  • Answering a question that's been lurking since Ghost Story regarding an event that happened in Changes, Lasciel refers to a whisper in Harry's ear that should have gotten him killed, which either means that she was the one who said the seven words that provoked him into his suicidal course in Changes, or she was aware of the gambit made to kill Harry.
  • Harry tells Michael everything about Maggie's kidnapping and Susan's last moments.
  • Harry hired Goodman Grey. And used him to run a long con against Nicodemus.
• Rewatch Bonus: Once you know about Goodman Grey's real allegiance, revealed near the end, the whole book is seen in a new light.
• Rhetorical Question Blunder: Michael, trying to pound an argument into Harry's skull, asks some standard rhetorical questions: "Are you perfect?" "Are you omniscient?" "Can you go back in time and change the past?" The last one is a bit of a sticking point for a minute, because wizards can theoretically do that (otherwise there wouldn't be a Law of Magic forbidding it), but Harry doesn't have any idea how to go about it anyway.
• Rule #1: Uncle Binder's Rule Number One and Rule Number Two.
• Rules Lawyer:
  • Mab expects Harry to be this; fulfill the terms of her agreement with Nicodemus while finding exploitable loopholes to screw him over with.
  • Uriel isn't allowed to interfere with mortal free will, but technically handing his power over to Michael so the latter can fight again is enabling free will, not interfering with it.
• Running Gag:
  • "PARKOUR!" Literally a running gag!
  • Harry calling people who annoy him jerks.
  • Binder keeps telling off-color stories, but Harry's never in the room to hear the whole joke.
  • Harry simply using the word "wizard" to explain something.
• Sacred Hospitality:
  • Mab gives Mac a deep nod of the head and a compliment for allowing her use of his bar for a meeting. Mac, in turn, compliments her with, "May your scales always return to balance." Mab gave him a smile, and called him a flatterer.
  • Hades offers this to Harry upon catching him and taking him to his private study.
  • Harry teeters close to violating it when Mab, and by extension him, were granted it inside Marcone's castle.
• Sadistic Choice: Nicodemus organizes a Xanatos Gambit around this and the fact that Karrin is a Violently Protective Girlfriend to Harry. He surrenders to her when she wields the Sword of Faith, but not before ordering The Genowska to kill Harry. The Genowska slowly starts crushing Harry's skull, while Karrin is helpless to stop it. In a rage, she strikes at Nicodemus with the Sword, breaking her word and unmaking the Sword. Nicodemus is a real bastard.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: When Nicodemus tells him if the job goes well, Michael could be twenty million richer, Michael's response is this.
  Michael: I have a family. I am already rich beyond measure.
  • Hilariously (or sadly, depending on your point of view), Ascher and Binder both look at him like he's speaking a language they've never heard before.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Demonreach is still holding some nasty prisoners and when Harry walks by, they either threaten him or try to seduce him into freeing them. Or they threaten him and then try to seduce him. Except for the prisoner that "just sounded... British", who tells Harry to "piss off" and insults him for not understanding what "stasis" means.
• Secret-Keeper: Harry and Karrin have kept Molly's transformation secret from her family. Harry's reasoning is it is her secret to tell.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: Charity figured out Molly was involved in Harry's attempted suicide and doesn't like Harry for it, but at the same time hasn't told Michael either. Michael has figured out something is up, but has come to the extremely incorrect conclusion that Harry and Molly slept together at some point. Harry only realizes what Michael's concluded after the conversation's over and he can't explain.
• Senseless Sacrifice: Hades admits his role as judge and lord kept him from being swayed by mortal offerings of any value. He would judge them with the same neutrality. Thus making any attempt of sacrifice or worship senseless.
• Sequel Hook: Nicodemus got away with the Holy Grail.
• Series Continuity Error: When Harry is talking about his history with Anna Valmont, he says Nicodemus hired her and her partners to steal the Shroud of Turin and killed her partners when the deal soured, when it was actually Marcone who hired them and the Denarians killed her partners when they tried to hijack the theft. Jim Butcher has admitted this was written in error, and not a valid or intentional change.
• Sink or Swim Mentor: Mab is described as such. In this case, she found a nice shark to swim with Harry just for the added challenge.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Dropped twice from poor, exasperated Harry in regards to Murphy. No one listens.
• Slashed Throat:
  • The fate of "poor Harvey", despite Harry's best efforts.
  • Archangel Uriel also kills one of Nicodemus' squires this way.
• Someone to Remember Him By: As it turns out, the parasite is this, born from the ultimate sacrifice Lash made for Harry out of her unconditional love. In a reverse of the typical case, Harry is the one carrying the child.
• Spanner in the Works: In the match of gambits between Nicodemus and Mab and her partners, one figure was a spanner in both sides: Waldo Butters. His distrust of Harry leads him to try and spy on Harry during a meeting with Nicodemus and crew, which leads to the Sword of Faith being weakened and shattered, but also Michael being in a position to regain his strength and position as Knight of the Cross. His returning to the Carpenters after dropping off the wounded Murphy at a hospital allows him to be the right man in the right place when Harry and Charity are taken out of the fight during Nicodemus' final assault on the Carpenter house, to buy others a precious few seconds, which allows for the Sword of Faith to be reborn.
• Speak of the Devil: Because they are going to burgle Hades' vault, Nick tells the crew to not speak the Lord of the Underworld's name, for fear that he might hear it and start observing them. In fact, such entities always know when they're being discussed. Harry surmises that this lowers the danger level; Hades probably doesn't take much notice of any individual who uses his name, as many do every day. But there's a chance that he just might take notice of them, so he goes along with not mentioning him by name.
• Spell My Name with a "The": It's The Genoskwa.
• Spirit World: The Nevernever's portal relationship to Earth is explained a bit more. Making a portal into the Nevernever and reaching the same location every time requires the Earth side to remain relatively unchanged — in fact, it must be both physically and metaphysically unchanged. For example, a place being altered by fire or natural events would change the physical aspects. On the metaphysical level, if the location was altered in a certain way, like being the site of a murder or like opening a previously-secret area to the public, this would probably cause that secret area it connected to in the Nevernever to then be unreachable from that location on Earth. In this case, the problem is that in order to create a Way into the secure vault of the Lord of the Underworld, the crew has to first break into a secure vault of a lord of the underworld in the physical realm (being Chicago, they go with the vault of a criminal lord, aka Marcone), without compromising the integrity of the vault in anyway that would make it insecure.
• Spot the Imposter: Deirdre notes that while her mother may buy Grey's disguise as Nicodemus for a few minutes, her Fallen companion, Imariel, will notice Anduriel's lack of presence far more easily.
• The Spymaster: It’s noted that Nicodemus is very good at gathering information. Any shadow cast by a living being can be possessed by his Fallen and used to listen to everything being said. Sometimes he can even see through them. He can only be repelled when a being of sufficient power (such as Mab) is shielding the area, or at safe places like the Carpenters' or Demonreach. The shortcomings of this trope are also explored: Nicodemus is excellent at being The Man Behind The Man or planning things out to have others act, but he is very much not a leader, and Anduriel is not the strongest of the Fallen in combat. He is manipulative and deceitful, but cannot win in a stand-up fight. Unfortunately, he knows it, and acts accordingly.
• Supernatural Aid: Kringle gives Harry a gift of knowledge to help him prepare against Nicodemus. Harry is worried about the price (as Kringle is a Fae), but Kringle calls it a belated Christmas present.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: After Harry said he dealt with Butter's eavesdropping and his escape so the matter wouldn't be spoken of, and met Nicodemus' standards, Binder assumes that Harry Mind Raped Butters into not talking. Harry doesn't correct him on this.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Michael feels sorry for "the Squires" (the men and women who serve Nicodemus), as they are raised from birth thinking that he’s their Lord and Saviour, or else taken in when they have nothing left. They follow him and though some may question him, often they are pushed by the pressures around them into toeing the line. Then there’s the removal of their tongues, rendering them incapable of even the slightest speech to communicate, unable to eat for pleasure's sake, and effectively isolating them completely, so all they have left is Nicodemus. For that matter, Uriel feels sympathy for them as well, with it being revealed that the entire book was actually a massive gambit by Uriel to free the Squires from Nicodemus' control so they could have the option to start their lives anew elsewhere.
  Michael: Some men fall from grace, Harry. Others are pushed.
• Talking in Your Dreams: Harry and Molly's first conversation is in their dreams, when he reveals his condition and she reveals why she hasn't been able to even see him.
• Taught by Experience: Harry brings up the importance of this trope when seeing Hannah Ascher fighting. Despite real skill and power that Harry is impressed by, the person turns out to be nowhere close to his skill level in a fight. He realizes that the person has never fought in a real battle and so is only able to throw powerful attacks, but never learned the importance of proper defense or to adjust tactics on the fly. Ultimately raw skill can't make up for lack of real life experience that Harry has.
• Telepathic Sprinklers: The smoke from a bundle of roman candles Harry was using as a distraction sets off at least two floors of sprinklers in Marcone's bank, even though the fireworks are spent and no longer producing heat. Harry planned this as a side benefit, as the flowing water suppresses magic that might trigger security systems.
• Tell Me About My Father: Molly has taken to telling Maggie stories about Harry but hasn't mentioned he’s her father.
• Tempting Fate: Harry makes a comment that one of Nick's cult members still has a tongue, and jokingly recommends that Nick should cut it out so the others don't get jealous. Nick then removes said tongue.
• There Are No Coincidences: Michael Carpenter honestly believes that when it comes to the Swords everything happens for a reason. God's plan takes every human choice into consideration.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill:
  • To get to Hades' vault, the crew needs to open a Way from a corresponding point in Chicago. They pick a powerful bank vault. However, the owner of the bank knows about the supernatural world. So, as a deterrent, the midway room between the outer door and inner door to the vault is guarded by claymore mines. One mine is capable of carrying around three hundred or so metal pellets, making it a giant shotgun. Harry guesses that there could be one mine every square-foot or so, walls and ceiling included.
  • Uriel loans Michael his archangelic power so that Michael can fight as a Knight of the Cross again. Harry points out that this is like loaning somebody a passenger jet because they needed a reading light, though admittedly it's all he can do.
• Thicker Than Water: Referenced by Hades — while he acknowledges that nothing Harry says about his brothers being foolish and irresponsible is untrue, he warns Harry that they are his family and he should have a care how he speaks about them. Harry wisely shuts up.
• This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: After narrowly escaping the Ice Gate trap, yet leading The Genoskwa to be crushed by it instead, Harry turns around and quips: "Parkour, bitch!"
• Threshold Guardians: The three gates of Hades' vault.
  • The Gate of Fire tests skill, with an entire hallway filled with flames hot enough to incinerate nearly anything. Only an extremely skilled fire mage can pass. Oh, and there's also a hidden Salamander, so it's testing courage in the face of unexpected adversity as well.
  • The Gate of Ice tests speed and intelligence, with giant cubes of ice with spiked sides rotating at high speeds. Harry wisely takes the time to look for a pattern, instead of just blasting his way through.
  • The Gate of Blood makes it impossible for one person to reach the vault. Only a shade can open the Gate, so it has to be opened by someone willing to die for the sole purpose of aiding the rest of the party.
  • In fact, the purpose of the Gates is to weed out anyone without the skill or intelligence to get inside, and reach the incredibly powerful weapons Hades keeps stored in his vault. And even if they do, Hades himself is there.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Nicodemus wounds the Salamander by tossing his sword at it. Lampshaded by Harry's musings that, while swords aren't designed to be used that way at all, Nick's had two thousand years to practice doing so.
• Time Master: When he appears, Uriel can stop the events around him, including the falling of sleet and the barking of a dog. Hades does the same later.
• Tongue Trauma: We see the exact method by which Nicodemus' cultists get formally inducted into the order. It's not pleasant.
• Too Dumb to Live: Harry defeats Hannah and Lasciel (relatively) easily since they're so filled with Unstoppable Rage that they never think to stop and consider where exactly he's redirecting their torrent of Hellfire to.
• Took a Level in Badass: Butters. Lampshaded by Murphy. He went from being a scared, quivering little blob of mortician to being a badass expy of Batman capable of outrunning a crew of supernatural baddies quite handily, having harnessed Bob more effectively than Harry ever dared. And then he takes up the Lightsaber of Faith and runs off Nicodemus and Tessa.
• Tough Love: Molly reveals that the Winter Sidhe have been showing their love and concern for Molly the best way they can: By attacking her in her dreams to help toughen her up and make sure she’s ready for the tasks ahead of her.
• Tranquil Fury:
  • After Nicodemus brutally beats down Karrin, Harry enters into this mode. Michael was expecting his unstoppable rage. Harry replies that he needs a clear head for the trials ahead.
  • According to Deirdre, Nicodemus just glowers silently when he's really pissed off (which she recommends Gray do when impersonating him).
• Twitchy Eye: Nicodemus develops one after about two days' exposure to Harry "First-Person Smartass" Dresden.
• Undying Loyalty:
  • Murphy makes it clear she’s loyal to Harry and will trust him.
  • Deidre is absolutely loyal to her father. She’s so loyal she will allow him to kill her so her soul can open the Gate of Blood.
• Unperson: Nicodemus performed a deliberate version on himself. He spent years eliminating his enemy's records of him and the atrocities he committed, leaving behind an unquestionably malevolent but still Noble Demon persona. This has helped him keep up the façade that he pays his people well and doesn't betray them.
• The Un-Smile: On the way to the aforementioned party, Ascher suggests Harry smile. He does so. She then asks for a more natural one and not this type.
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee: As befits a heist story, we don't see Harry's true plan until he lays it out in a flashback. Justified, as Kringle warned Harry that Anduriel can listen in on anyone who casts a shadow, outside of a few secure locations or in the presence of another being who’s strong enough to block him. Anything he said was at risk of making it back to Nicodemus, so he had to keep his plans in his mind until they were ready to be put into motion. Also the reason for the Poor Communication Kills between him and Butters.
• Use Your Head: Butters headbutts Tessa while stalling for time in his attempt at a Heroic Sacrifice.
• Villain Ball:
  • Harry worries what will happen if he officially takes custody of Maggie, as he has a lot of enemies who may try to hurt her. Michael notes that the last time someone tried to hurt her, Harry destroyed the entire Red Court, one of the most powerful organizations in the supernatural world, so no one is going to be stupid enough to do that again. However, after Nicodemus kills his own daughter, he’s in a damaged enough mental state to think that this is a good idea. It doesn't work, though.
  • Played with. Initially, it seems like Nicodemus is going to ignore everything Harry says, even when he brings up good points about the problems with the operation. He decides to take them seriously after all, and even mentions that it would be foolish to hire experts and not take their advice into consideration.
  • Upon discovering that Harvey's office is in the same building as a bank, Deirdre tries to continue with the original smash-and-grab plan. Harry and Grey both stop her, noting that it would cause far too much trouble, and opt for a stakeout instead. Harry notes that the problem could have been avoided if Nicodemus had grabbed Harvey's schedule earlier.
  • Part of the Breaking Speech includes Harry telling Nicodemus that his killing Deirdre in Hades' realm won't make her safe and protected, because instead, she'll be enduring a special hell made just for her.
  • Hannah Ascher and Lasciel grab this by just focusing on trying to roast Harry's hide with Hellfire, not considering where he is redirecting the fire to. Note that Ascher had Lasciel riding shotgun in her head and Lasciel knew everything Lash said and did to tempt Harry and knew what that Lash learned about Harry. She was just so consumed by anger, it blinded her to Harry's simple counter.
• Villainous Breakdown: Harry pushes Nicodemus about his daughter's death to the point he EXPLODES. This costs the latter everything.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Murphy is still very protective of Harry. So much, she doesn't consider the consequences when she tried to kill a defenseless Nicodemus who had surrendered to her with Fidelacchius. It caused the Sword to lose its Holy Powers.
• Walking Spoiler: Lasciel, and to a lesser extent Ursiel and Magog, both of whom were believed to be contained.
• Weapon for Intimidation: Twice in a few minutes.
  • Upon escaping from Hades, Binder has his mooks hold guns on the surviving team members as Nicodemus claims they betrayed him and the others. Harry explains the situation and Binder notes he ran out of bullets holding off the cops who had arrived while the team was in Hades.
  • Harry then has Binder use the bullet-less guns and disposable mooks to scare and distract the police while they sneak everyone out under a veil.
• We Need a Distraction:
  • This is Harry's first job as part of the crew. If he can’t find a significant enough distraction without setting off any magical security devices, The Genoskwa will take the spot and Harry knows bodies will drop quickly.
  • Nicodemus knows there’s only one active Knight of the Cross and if he doesn't have another scheme dangerous enough to warrant his presence, Sanya will come along and mess things up with the heist. So, he decides to have Tessa's crew mess with nuclear reactors in Iran. It works.
  • To escape from the bank, Harry has Binder send his mooks out of every entrance and window, waving empty guns at the cops but not hurting anyone, and being riddled with bullets. All the while, Harry works to walk Binder, Anna, Michael, and Grey out under a veil.
• Wham Line: The below line signifies the exact moment in which Harry reveals the con he has been running on Nicodemus for the entire book.
  And I stopped being able to fight back the maniac’s grin that had been struggling to get loose as I played my hole card and said, “Game over, man. Game over.”
• Wham Shot:
  • The shattering (and reforging) of Fidelacchius.
  • Michael Carpenter coming out and standing at the front door of his house as Nicodemus hunts down Harry, Butters, and Murphy.
  • The Archangel Uriel getting a nosebleed, revealing that he's been Brought Down to Normal.
  • Nicodemus slitting Deidre's throat.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Butters brings up to Harry his change in attitude and how things are still getting worse while he was on the island. And with Molly gone, few can pick up the slack. And what is the first thing Harry thinks about when he sees Butters? Giving him a new vessel for Bob to repay a debt, exactly like a fae, which Butters also calls him out on. Though Butters' objections are somewhat blunted by the fact that the first thing Harry actually does is ask him about his relationship with Andi, it's still perfectly understandable that he would forget that from all the stress he's been experiencing recently and virtually every other point he raises is completely valid.
  • At least one person brings up the point that Harry took out most of the Fellowship of St. Giles along with the Red Court. Of course, given the society in question existed to fight the Red Court, its members were most likely fine with that.
  • Murphy gives a gentle one to Butters for mistrusting Harry.
• When You Coming Home, Dad?: The beginning of Harry's first conversation with Maggie has shades of this. Justified, as Maggie is ten, and this is the first time she's spoken to her biological father ever.
• Why Didn't I Think of That?: This is Harry's reaction when he sees Butters' magic-powered skateboard in action. Years ago, he'd tried a similar concept with flying brooms or carpets, but it honestly never occurred to him to try it on something that didn't fly.
• Will Not Tell a Lie: Michael Carpenter, even retired, doesn't like to tell lies. He’s an honest man. Knowing this about him, Binder looks to Michael to confirm whether Nicodemus or Harry is the one telling truth about the other's supposed betrayal. Even at this point, with everything else that had gone on to complicate matters, everything Michael says is factually true.
• Woman Scorned:
  • When Harry is almost finished in his dream about Karrin and him having sex, she puts a gun to his head, says "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned", and Harry wakes just as she pulls the trigger.
  • Hannah Ascher turns out to have been on good terms with the Fellowship of St. Giles, and had to watch as several of her closest friends turned to dust in front of her when Harry killed the Red Court in Changes. Worse, they were also her financial support, and as a result, she ended up on the streets. Which is why it was so easy for Lasciel, furious with Harry for being the first to turn down her coin, to corrupt her.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • The Fomor are still going after children. Some were even taken off the streets last Halloween. After Harry hears this, he swallows his complaint about his friends not believing him as he realizes that his friends are perfectly right to be so angry/resentful about his absence.
  • The parasite's first target would be Maggie. Unlike other versions of this trope, this isn't out of malice, but out of fear and a desire for help. But the parasite is still a dangerous entity who wouldn't have anywhere to go except inside Maggie's head.
    Harry: Maggie was about to get a very dangerous invisible friend.
  • Nicodemus tries to kill the Carpenter children and Maggie in the climax.
• Wrecked Weapon:
  • Murphy using the Sword of Faith in anger to kill an unarmed, de-Coined Nicodemus causes the sword to be vulnerable, allowing Nicodemus to shatter it.
  • Nicodemus' sword gets damaged when he throws it at the Salamander and one of its edges melts from the creature's incandescent body heat.
  • Butters' Lightsaber of Faith, formed from the broken hilt of the Sword, cuts through Nicodemus' blade with ease.
• Xanatos Gambit: Dresden suspects that Mab is running a very simple one. If Harry succeeds in out-maneuvering Nicodemeus, she gets what she wants. If he fails, he was unworthy to be her knight, and she gets rid of him while setting his friends against Nicodemeus, rather than her.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Michael to Harry. He notes that Harry isn't omniscient, all-powerful, and cannot change the past. He’s a flawed person. But then, so’s everyone else. He may be far from perfect, but he’s a lot better off than he gives himself credit for.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: As part of his deal with Mab, Harry is forbidden from even trying to keep Nicodemus from robbing the vault. And once that's done, then Harry can thwart Nick to his heart's content.
• You Did Everything You Could: Murphy reminds Butters that while he did fail to save most of the children from the Fomor, he was able to save some of them.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
  • Harry fears that once he gets Nicodemus past the Ice Gate, he would be killed by Nicodemus, as they’re so deep in Hades' turf it’s unlikely Mab can see what’s happening. So Harry keeps himself useful by closing the exit back to Earth before he even tries the gate.
  • Inverted. As part of the argument by Molly to Marcone in not hunting down Harry, Anna, Binder, Grey, and possibly Michael, in addition to the weregild is that the people targeted have many skills which could still be useful in the future operations.
• You Need to Get Laid: Id-Harry's major complaint about Dresden is that he really needs to have some sex. Even if it’s with some Sidhe women, which is generally regarded to be a bad idea.
• You Owe Me: From Micheal of all people surprsingly. He’s much to nice to say it, but when Harry shows up on his door step acting distraught and tries to leave without explaining himself Micheal oh so kindly reminds Dresden about all the things he’s done for him over the years and never asking for anything in return.
• You Shall Not Pass!: In the climax Butters pulls this off when Harry is down from labor pains, Uriel is out of action, and Charity is captured by the Denarians. He doesn't plan to survive, but hold them back long enough for help to arrive.
• Zip Me Up: Hannah does this with Harry as part of her seduction play. Harry even notes that she could almost certainly reach the zipper herself, and is likely doing this just to needle him.

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