out, when the trench coat fell to the floor, that was the extent of her wardrobe.
“This is Mara,” Justine said, extending a hand, and the girl crossed the room to slide her arms around Justine. Justine gave Mara’s lips an almost sisterly kiss and then turned to Thomas, her eyes smoldering. “Now, love. I’m going to have her—without deeply committed love, perhaps, but with considerable affection and healthy desire. And after that, you’re going to be able to have me. And you will. And things will be much better.”
My brother’s eyes gleamed bright silver.
“Repeat,” Justine murmured, her lips caressing the words, “as necessary.”
I felt my cheeks heat up and coughed. Then I turned to Uriel and said, “Under the circumstances . . .”
The archangel looked amused at my discomfort. “Yes?”
I glanced at the girls, who were kissing again, and sighed. “Yeah, uh. I think my brother’s going to be fine.”
“Then you’re ready?” Uriel asked.
I looked at him and smiled faintly.
“I wondered when we’d get around to that,” he said, and once more extended his hand.
This time, we appeared in front of a Chicago home. There were a couple of ancient oak trees in the yard. The house was a white Colonial number with a white picket fence out front, and evidence of children in the form of several snowmen that were slowly sagging to their deaths in the warm evening air.
There were silent forms standing outside the house, men in dark suits and long coats. One stood beside the front door. One stood at each corner of the house, on the roof, as calmly as if they hadn’t had their feet planted on an icy surface inches from a potentially fatal fall. Two more stood at the corners of the property in the front yard, and a couple of steps and a lean to one side showed me at least one more in the backyard, at the back corner of the property.
“More guardian angels,” I said.
“Michael Carpenter has more than earned them,” Uriel said, his voice warm. “As has his family.”
I looked sharply at Uriel. “She’s . . . she’s here?”
“Forthill wanted to find the safest home in which he could possibly place your daughter, Dresden,” Uriel said. “All in all, I don’t think he could have done much better.”
I swallowed. “She’s . . . I mean, she’s . . . ?”
“Cared for,” Uriel said. “Loved, of course. Do you think Michael and Charity would do less for your child, when you have so often saved their children?”
I blinked some tears out of my eyes. Stupid eyes. “No. No, of course not.” I swallowed and tried to make my voice sound normal. “I want to see her.”
“This isn’t a hostage negotiation, Dresden,” Uriel murmured, but he was smiling. He walked up to the house and exchanged nods with the guardian angel at the door. We passed through it, ghost style, though it wouldn’t have been possible for actual ghosts. The Carpenters had a threshold more solid and extensive than the Great Wall of China. I would not be in the least surprised if you could see it from space.
We walked through my friend’s silent, sleeping house. The Carpenters were early to bed, early to rise types. Inexplicable, but I suppose nobody’s perfect. Uriel led me upstairs, past two more guardian angels, and into one of the upstairs bedrooms—one that had, once upon a time, been Charity’s sewing room and spare bedroom. Hapless wizards had been known to find rest there once in a while.
We went through the door and were greeted by a low, warning rumble. A great mound of shaggy fur, lying beside the room’s single, twin bed, rose to its feet.
“Mouse,” I said, and dropped to my knees.
I wept openly as my dog all but bounced at me. He was obviously joyous and just as obviously trying to mute his delight—but his tail thumped loudly against everything in the room, and puppyish sounds of pleasure came from his throat as he slobbered on my face, giving me kisses.
I sank my fingers into his fur and found it warm and solid and real, and I scratched him and hugged him and told him what a good dog he was.
Uriel stood over us, smiling down, but said nothing.
“Missed you, too, boy,” I said. “Just . . . kind of stopping by to say good-bye.”
Mouse’s tail stopped wagging. His big, doggy eyes regarded me very seriously, and then glanced at Uriel.
“What has begun must finish, little brother,” Uriel said. “Your task