“You think that place is here?” she asked.

I opened the car door and got out, drawing her with me. She murmured something to the driver and then followed me into the early Sunday afternoon sunshine, behind clouds that promised more rain before too much longer.

We walked up to the porch and I knocked on the door.

Somewhere in the house, Mouse let out a single basso woof, and then heavy paw steps sounded on the stairs.

“I don’t know of many more solid places,” I said.

The door opened, and Michael smiled out at us. His smile became radiant when he saw Molly. “Oh, oh my goodness, you look so . . .” He huffed out a quick breath of laughter and nodded. “Perfect.”

“Dad,” Molly stammered. She glanced up at me for a second and then plowed doggedly ahead. “There’s something I have to tell you.”

“Molly,” Michael said.

“Dad, this is important,” she said. “I haven’t been saying much about my new job, because I knew you wouldn’t like what you heard.”

“Molly, we know that—”

“No, wait,” she said. “Because I have to make sure that we are absolutely clear.”

“That you’re the Winter Lady now,” Michael said. “Yes, obviously. You think your mother and I are blind as well as old?” He kissed her hair, turned to me, and said, “Hello, Harry.”

Molly blinked.

“Now, we’ve checked all the glassware and we’ve gotten out your grandmother’s silverware,” Michael said. “I had no idea how much the tradition of silverware for guests is bound up with the idea of being able to prepare a proper dinner for the Fair Folk, should they come to visit, and I suppose this is technically the same thing. The silver shouldn’t be a problem for you, should it?”

Molly blinked several more times, then smiled slowly and carefully at her father and said, “That will be fine, Dad.”

“Good, because your mother says you’re not getting out of helping in the kitchen just because you’re a faerie princess now. She got you those long kitchen gloves so that you can still wash dishes.”

Molly blinked several more times.

I just sort of drank it in.

Michael saw the expression on his daughter’s face. He put his hand on her shoulder. Then he enfolded her in a slow, gentle hug.

“Don’t think that you’re getting out of a talking-to, either, young lady,” he said, his big voice gentle and deep. “Your mother and I have concerns, and we’re going to address them with you because we love you and we know what happened to the last young woman with your job. But that’s for later. For now, I’m just glad that you’re home to see us. And you still eat meat, don’t you? Your mother found this fancy flavored salt for the roast and it really is quite good.”

“Oh, very meat-friendly, is Winter,” Molly stammered. She looked at Michael, her expression faintly baffled and very much full of affection, and said, “I love you, Dad.”

Michael smiled and kissed her hair again.

Then there was a high-pitched shriek and Maggie came flying over the doorway and into my arms. I caught her without too much trouble. She was such a little thing.

She hugged me with improbable strength. I think she cheated, by using her legs as much as her arms. I hugged her back, as gently as I knew how. She always laid her head against my arm and closed her eyes for a moment when she greeted me like that.

I would close my eyes with her when she did.

Because that was my solid place.

I’d taken a horrible loss.

But I’d lost before, and survived it.

And it wasn’t just me, now.

I felt a gentle bump and looked down to see Mouse leaning sleepily against my leg, his great tail wagging gently. My little family.

Michael and Molly went into the house arm in arm. From within, Charity and Sanya exclaimed their enthusiastic greetings.

I held on to Maggie for a moment more.

Michael stuck his head back out, saw me, smiled, and went inside.

Michael knows about taking a moment.

Life in the supernatural world was about to get a lot more complicated, for everyone. Every bad guy I’d ever angered out there was going to reevaluate whether or not they could take me down, now that I was out of the White Council. Mab planned to marry me off to the nice vampire queen next door. And I had a whole castle to furnish on a limited budget.

Because we were going to need the castle. There was more than one kind of threat to Chicago, and I was going to be ready for the next one.

Thunder rumbled on the horizon.

“More rain coming,” Maggie said.

“When it gets here, we’ll run out and dance in it,” I said.

“Why?” Maggie asked.

“If we don’t, life has just as much rain,” I said, “but way less dancing.”

“You’re silly, Dad.”

“I’m hungry,” I complained.

“I stole us both rolls!” Maggie said. “If we hurry, they’re still warm!”

“Stole?”

“Well,” she hedged. “I sort of helped make them. They’re kind of like commission.”

“Hmm. I can work with that. Let’s ask for some jelly for them.”

“Okay.”

At that moment, Marcone was probably plotting his next cache of emergency weapons. My enemies within the White Council were probably getting their next scheme together. Nemesis was still out there, running around with my brother’s girlfriend and their baby, trying to literally end the world. Mab and Lara had schemes in motion. And a planet of consequence was about to fall on all of us, no matter how the exposure of the danger of the supernatural world got spun to the mortals.

Trouble was coming.

Murphy was gone.

And I had a hole in my chest that was going to take time to heal.

But after a lot of time, and hurt, it would heal.

And right now, I was about to have a nice meal with people who cared about me, and about one another.

There are a lot of ways to get ready for trouble.

You get ready to fight. That’s one of them.

But it’s even more important that you build something worth fighting for.

For my readers who, for whatever reason, aren’t sleeping tonight. Merry Christmas, you magnificent weirdos.