We all knew that this was coming.  Whether it be asking advice from Bob or gleaning vague knowledge from faeries, Harry always consults some magical being when a case is this tough to crack.

Let’s just hope it doesn’t cause him more problems.

Last time,  Harry took Mouse to go talk to Leanansidhe to get some more information on Erlking.  We all know how wonderful his godmother is and how she never would do anything shady.  She can’t lie, after all.  She’s a faerie.

Yeah, well, let’s hope this goes well.

Harry and Mouse drove to the outskirts of the city, and Harry called for her.  Just when he thought she wasn’t coming, a female figure began to materialize in the water.  Instead of his godmother though, it was Queen Mab.

Well, this looks promising… Not.

As it turns out, Leanansidhe was a bit tied up at the moment.  Mab was displeased with Leanansidhe’s insubordination and was reeducating her at the moment.  Therefore, Mab answered Harry’s summons, so as not to break a promise.

Oh, did I mention that Harry still owes her not one but two favors? Yeah. This was a great idea. Good job, Harry.

Luckily, he did manage to get some information from the Queen of Winter.  Erlking was basically the king of Goblins.  He ran the Hunt, which was a gathering of the ghosts of hunters long since passed.   He would call them up, and the Hunt would begin.  It stood to reason that the instructions for that call were in the book.

Now it made sense why everyone and their brother was after this book.  Since Kemmler had found a way to use the ghosts as fuel for his magic, his followers wanted the same power.  The Darkhallow, this Halloween, was the target date for such a doomsday.

Sadly, if Harry asked any more specific questions, he’d have to accept knighthood under Mab, so that was about all the information he could safely get.

After Mab faded back into the water, Harry regrouped with Mouse and they returned home.

And were greeted by characters from The Walking Dead.

Yup. Grevane was there with his loyal horde.

Mouse sprang into action and jumped one of the shamblers.  Thomas was right there with the shotgun.  He emptied three rounds into the terrible beasties and managed to drag Harry into the apartment before slamming the door shut.

Now to hatch an escape plan.

They couldn’t wait in the apartment because the wards wouldn’t last against a horde of zombies.  If Harry did use his super wards, nothing could get in, but nothing could get out either, so that was a bad idea.  It was time to go.

All they had to do was get to the Beetle and drive off.

After they got past the zombies….

Without using Harry’s fire magic…

And with Butters (who’s still mid-existential crisis)…

Well, at least Thomas is too pretty to die, Harry’s too stubborn to die, and polka will never die, right? Right.

Well, until a zed crashed in through the window and absconded with Butters…

Crap.

Grevane interrogated Butters about the numbers he pulled from the computer system.  Of course, Butters didn’t know them, but Harry did.

Naturally, this sparked a crazy idea.  Harry made a deal.  In exchange for Butters, Harry would give Grevane the numbers that were on Tony’s usb.

Though Liver Spots (who looked oddly familiar to Harry) did not approve of this plan, Grevane agreed.  Everything was going smoothly until ghosts showed up.  Corpsetaker had apparently done her homework.

A crazy battle ensued, the like of which only Peter Jackson could depict (original trilogy, not Hobbit).  A battle that Harry, Butters and Thomas noped out of ASAP.

They sped off to Murphy’s place to hunker down and recover.  Thomas suggested that Butters look at Harry’s leg so that he could do something useful.  That way he could process all the crazy stuff better and at least feel like he could contribute.  Butters and Harry started talking about near death experiences while Thomas raided the fridge for food.  Butters had apparently enlisted, but didn’t make it past boot camp, so his experiences were limited at best.  Harry told him about the necessity of facing fears instead of merely reacting to them, and called him friend.

This moment was interrupted by Butters’ deduction that Harry was gay.  Needless to say, Thomas found that one hilarious (so did I).  Harry, not so much.

Thomas gave Harry some “antibiotics” for his leg that were actually painkillers.  Thanks to the drugs, Harry drifted off to sleep.

He dreamed of Lasciel, the demon in the coin.  She tried to entice Harry into using some of her power to defeat this evil that was rising.  The way she did it was textbook demon too, littered with compliments and a few good ego-strokes as she tried to worm her way past Harry’s no.

He fought her back this time, but she still left the offer on the table.

Will Harry stick to his guns, or will desperate times call for desperate measures?  Find out next time!