I voted "no freak'n clue".

There just isn't enough information in the book to have any idea what happened.

Oh, I agree. But (as you point out with the hairdressing) Thomas can feed without much impact "as is". So while Thomas *could* change to a different emotion, I'm not sure there would be any point.

The point would be that he could touch the woman he loves. Their True Love wouldn't burn him, apparently, if he turned his Hunger to feeding on something other than lust.

Yes, Sue is still in residence but this would take a diversion to the Field Museum when time is of the essence, and it fits the circumstances given all modern vehicles are kaput, and the city is dark very like Dead Beat which it should remind him of.

Maybe not much of a diversion. If I'm reading the map correctly, the Field Museum is right on the waterfront, right next to the Shedd Aquarium -- which has some metaphysical weight after Lucifer's massive infusion of hellfire there in Small Favor, so it's a reasonable place to expect Ethniu to make landfall.

And both are right next to Burnham Harbor piers are also right there. That's where the boat is moored. So... really... the Field Museum is *right there* when they get back to Chicago.

My guess is that it would be hard to find a living human who isn't descended from royalty, if you go back far enough. So, odds are Dr. Helena Pounder is, even if River Shoulders doesn't count.

Re: Thomas taking up the Sword of Love...

Notice that the Swords and meant to balance the Coins.

Notice that in Skin Game, Nic changed the game by recruiting powerful demi-humans to take up coins -- Blood-on-His-Soul successfully and Goodman Grey unsuccessfully.

The logical result should be Heaven powering up the Knights of the Sword to keep the balance -- which makes it more likely that we'll see a supernatural demi-human recruited to take up a Sword.

Of course, a more explicit balance to Blood-on-His-Soul would be the scion of Strength-of-a-River-in-His-Shoulders... who coincidentally is moving to Chicago...

During Changes?

But, yes. She wants him to share her Purpose. What's frustrating is that since Cold Days, when Mother Summer took him on a field trip to see the Gates, he's been ready to do that. It's just a failure to communicate -- like so many of Harry's problems.

All the head-explodey manipulation of Skin Game was mostly unnecessary. (Although he probably wouldn't have accepted "Get the weapons from the vault, don't betray Nicodemus until he betrays you first." as good enough. Being Harry, he'd have dug in his heels and wanted to know more -- and then tried to fight to save Deirdre, putting the whole enterprise at risk.)

With everything we've learned in Cold Days, Skin Game and Peace Talks... there's a lot of good stuff in that first conversation he had with Mab, Knight to Queen. Almost every line drips with relevant portent or irony.

The portent: "Were you not strong enough to cast such defiance into my teeth, you would be useless to my purposes. To our purposes now."

The irony: "I can be a trusted enemy. I can work with you." -- Mab's pale white eyebrows lifted and her eyes gleamed. "I will never trust you, wizard."

The awesome: "I will be the Winter Knight. I will be the most terrifying Knight the Sidhe Courts have ever known. I will send your enemies down in defeat and make your power grow. But I do it my way."

The ominous: "Go on. Try to change me. The second you do, the second I think you've played with my head or altered my memory, the first time you compel me to do something, I'll do the one thing you can't have in your new knight... mediocrity..."

Gulp. It really does look like someone's messed with Harry's head in Peace Talks. We all seem to think it's Mab. Is it? And how will Harry react when he finds out??

I really, really want to see a conversation in Battle Ground where Harry asks Mab to just tell him the end goal and trust him to push in the same direction without all the added effort of trying to manipulate him into doing something helpful. He knows the score now -- he knows Winter's Purpose and agrees with it.

Metaphysical status in the Dresdenverse can be conveyed by the belief of mortals (see: fake Shroud of Turin).

The Hallmark Card image of baby cupid and its association with Valentine's Day is pretty strong these days.

It would be pretty cool if Thomas and Justine gave birth to Cupid. (A WCV with a redeemed/transformed Hunger that "feeds" on True Love. I'm imagining a future as a matchmaker or wedding planner or the like.)