Chapter Forty

On the castle battlements, Harry and Molly watch increasingly organized protesters. Molly’s protectiveness surfaces as she warns she will respond if they escalate. Harry confronts her about Mab’s manipulation binding Lara to Winter. Molly admits she deduced it, was forbidden to warn him, and argues the strategy protects the mortal world, though she disapproves of Mab’s secrecy. They debate ethics and the White Council’s laws, and Molly predicts Lara’s anger may not last.

Carlos Ramirez arrives to warn Harry that an anonymous tip has sent Ilyana and Wardens to raid Bock Ordered Books for black magic. Unable to intervene openly, Carlos departs. Harry orders Bear to alert Fitz to stay hidden and prepares to confront the Wardens; Molly insists on coming, fully aware of her fraught history with them.

At Bock’s, Ilyana leads a squad toward the shop. Old trauma spikes Harry’s anger, but he reins it in and tries to de-escalate. When Ilyana asserts Council authority, Molly counters that Chicago is an independent Accorded barony and demands a letter of permission. Bear deters a hidden move by an older Warden. Molly raises the stakes, implying an unseen Winter escort, and snaps, prompting goblin laughter from the shadows—whether illusion or real. Faced with public risk and possible Winter forces, Ilyana withdraws through a Way, promising to report to the Senior Council.

Artemis Bock and his group emerge, shaken. Harry tells them to continue purification rituals and keep clean; he defended them today, but consequences loom. Molly pointedly places Bock in Winter’s debt for aiding those who harmed her brother Daniel, warning that Winter will watch them. Harry tempers her threat, but both acknowledge they helped warlocks avoid Warden justice to prevent greater harm.

They leave Bock’s closed and cowed, recognizing the moral compromise: shielding damaged practitioners while staking Winter’s claim in Chicago, and further straining relations with the White Council.