Tear Jerker / Battle Ground (2020)

• invoked Early on in the book, Ebenezar admits that he has pushed Harry away the same way he pushed away Margaret, seeing similarities in how they both fell in with a bad crowd. He starts wondering what he could have done differently to save them, and both he and Harry get something in their eyes. Doubles as in-universe Nightmare Fuel for Ebenezar, as he's no doubt terrified that his grandson will end up just like his daughter did.
• invoked The deaths of Wild Bill and Yoshimo, especially due to how jarringly fast they are. And in a mix of this and Fridge Horror, it's implied that they will be turned into Black Court vampires, meaning that Ramirez and Harry won't even have the decency for the bodies of their former friends to not be desecrated by their enemies.
• Murphy's death is guaranteed to tug on your heart-strings, especially given just how realistically stupid and utterly pointless it all is.
  • Harry attempting to soulgaze Murphy as she lays dying. It starts, but as it does, he feels and sees the light inside die as the life leaves the body. He then laments how he had always been too afraid to soulgaze her because he feared whatever she saw inside him would cause her to leave him, and now he'll never have the chance.
  • After her death, Harry goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against Rudolph. It takes two Knights of the Cross to bring him down, and once he's returned to his senses, Harry breaks down crying as Butters gives him a hug.
    Harry: (brokenly sobbing) He took her. He took her from me.
    Butters: (gently) He took her from all of us.
  • Once the battle is over and the dust is settled, Harry goes looking for her body... and finds it already gone. Gard is there, and tells Harry that both Murphy and Gard's own lover, Hendricks, are going to become Einherjaren. Sadly, while this means they will eventually return one day, they can only do so once they have entirely faded from living memory, so Harry will never see Murphy again. He and Gard (who’s just as miserable as he is) immediately start Drowning Their Sorrows.
• Harry's final argument with Ramirez as he tells Harry that he's been kicked out of the White Council. It's very easy to understand both their points of view, and after all they have been through it's incredibly sad to see them part if not as enemies, then definitely no longer as friends.
  • One small detail makes it all the more tragic - Ramirez's voice is mentioned as being very hoarse when he's talking to Harry, implying that Ramirez had been loudly arguing with the Senior Council beforehand over Harry's exile.
• Justine is revealed to have been possessed by Nemesis, AKA He Who Walks Besides, since around the time she started working for Lara. Just imagine how hard learning his friend (and sister-in-law in all but name) was possessed by one of his worst enemies must have hit Harry when he had time to process it. To say nothing of Thomas, who first learned his pregnant girlfriend was possessed when Nemesis controlling her body threatened to kill both Justine and his kid if he didn't do what it demanded. And by the way? Nemesis escaped, still using Justine as its mouthpiece and as a potential hostage - along with Justine and Thomas's still-unborn child.