Bob said. “But . . . you’re still pretty cherry, so let’s keep it simple. A few minutes, speaking linearly—but I can stretch it out for a while, subjectively.”
“Huh,” I said. “Neat.”
“Nah, just sort of the way we roll on this side of the street,” he said. “What do you want to know?”
“Who killed me?” I replied.
“Oooh, sorry. Can’t help you with that, except as a sounding board.”
“Okay,” I said. “Lemme catch you up on what I know.”
I filled Bob in on everything since the train tunnel. I didn’t hold back much of anything. Bob was smart enough to fill in the vast majority of gaps if I left anything out anyway, and he could compile information and deduce coherent facts as well as any mind I had ever known.
And besides . . . he was my oldest friend.
He listened, his gold brown eyes intent, completely focused on me.
“Wow,” he said when I’d finished. “You are so completely fucked.”
I arched an eyebrow at him and said, “How do you figure?”
He rolled his eyes. “Oh, where do I start? How about with the obvious? Uriel.”
“Uriel,” I said. “What?”
“A wizard tied in with a bunch of really elemental sources of power dies, right after signing off on some deals that guarantee he’s about to become a whole Hell of a lot darker—capital letter intended—and there’s this sudden”—he made air quotes with his fingers—“ ‘irregularity’ about his death. He gets sent back to the mortal coil to get involved again. And you think an angel isn’t involved somewhere? Remember. Uriel is the black-ops guy of the archangels. He’s conned the Father of Lies, for crying out loud. You think he wouldn’t scam you?”
“Uh,” I said.
I felt a little thick.
“See?” Bob said. “Your first tiny piece of flesh-free existence, and already you’re lost without me.”
I shook my head. “Look, man, I’m just . . . just a spirit now. This is just, like, paperwork I’m getting filled out before I catch the train to Wherever.”
Bob rolled his eyes again and snorted. “Oh, sure it is. You get sent back here just as the freaking Corpsetaker is setting herself up as Queen of Chicago, getting ready to wipe out the defenders of humanity—such as they are—here in town, and it’s just a coincidence, business as usual.” He sniffed. “They’re totally playing you.”
“They?” I said.
“Think about it,” Bob said. “I mean, stop for a minute and actually think. I know it’s been a while.”
“Winter,” I said. “Snow a foot deep at the end of spring. Queen Mab.”
“Obviously,” Bob said. “She’s here. In Chicago. Somewhere. And because, duh, she’s the Winter Queen, she brought winter with her.” He pursed his lips. “For a few more days anyway.”
Bob was right. Mab might flaunt her power in the face of the oncoming season, but if she didn’t back down, her opposite number, Titania, would come for her—at the height of summer’s power, the solstice, if previous patterns held true.
“Harry, I don’t want to comment about your new girlfriend, but she’s still here six months after you got shot? Seems kind of clingy.”
“Wait,” I said. “You’re saying that Mab and Uriel are in on something. Together. The Queen of Air and Darkness, and a flipping archangel.”
“We live in strange times,” Bob said philosophically. “They’re peers, of a sort, Harry. Hey, word is that even the Almighty and Lucifer worked a deal on Job. Spider-Man has teamed up with the Sandman before. Luke and Vader did the Emperor. It happens.”
“Spider-Man is pretend and doesn’t count,” I said.
“You start drawing distinctions like this now?” Bob asked. “Besides, he’s real. Like, somewhere.”
I blinked. “Um. What?”
“You think your universe is the only universe? Harry, come on. Creation, totally freaking huge. Room enough for you and Spider-Man both.” He spread his hands. “Look, I’m not a faith guy. I don’t know what happens on the other side, or if you wind up going to a Heaven or Hell or something reasonably close to them. That isn’t my bag. But I know a shell game when I see one.”
I swallowed and pushed a hand back through my hair. “The Fomor’s servitors. Corpsetaker and her gang. Even Aristedes and his little crew. They’re pieces on the board.”
“Just like you,” Bob agreed cheerfully. “Notice anyone else who pushed you a space or two recently? By which I mean that you only recently noticed.”
I scowled. “Other than everyone around me?”
“I was sort of thinking about the one behind you,” Bob said. His expression grew suddenly serious. “The Walker.”
I took