I think you got that backwards. Thomas's protection doesn't need to be broken for him to feed. Justine's does for him to feed on Justine.

I think Thomas cheating breaks the protection on Justine, because it's no longer requited True Love, in some sense. It doesn't quite fit with the mechanical soul-energy version of things Bob describes, but it seems to work. (Mechanical version: Their souls rub together in an intimate, unselfish expression of TrueLove and the mixture in each soul makes the soul-energy poison to WCVs if they try to consume it -- Nothing in that explains mechanistically how one party cheating could "unpoison" the other's soul energy...)

And Thomas having sex with other women means he can eat less of Justine's soul, which is a win for both of them.

Sue 2.0 -- now with a Soulfire skeleton.

Mouse -- he's a guardian foo dog, taking his strength from the Wards of the home he guards. When Harry moves into the BFS castle with the impressive wards carved into every stone... his power jumps to an entirely new level. (And he gains a love interest -- Childs' bomb-sniffing german shepherd! But will she turn out to be a chienne fatale, or is it true love? Are there half-foo scion puppies in our future?)

Tilly -- head of an entirely new federal law enforcement agency.

Rudolph -- wins election as Chicago's District Attorney on an anti-supernatural platform

Mac -- with the Paranetters livestream reporting on the Chicago Incident going international (Live from MacAnally's Pub) his ale gains worldwide distribution.

Maggie -- discovers she has not one, not two, but three Fairy Godmothers -- just like Cinderella! And Santa is Real!!

Gedwig -- after mass casualties, after the inevitable Nemesis-induced betrayal, Gedwig is left as head of the Svartalves in Chicago, much to Harry's displeasure

Hendricks + Chandler both defend their Dissertations and start insisting that everyone call them Dr. -- Harry makes lame Dr. Who jokes until they stop.

As a side-note, why is someone of Ferro's scale attending Bianca's ball at all?  If I send a birthday party invitation to the queen of England, I don't expect her to actually show up.  Does he just like gold that much?

He probably had a feeling something important was going to happen and he wanted to see it.

This. My current hunch is that Ferrovax's presence can be taken as a harbinger of doom.

In Grave Peril, he watched the corruption of Winter, which started with Lea accepting the athame; he watched the onset of a war that would decimate the White Council of Wizards and end the Red Court of Vampires; he almost got to see a Sword of the Cross "unmade"; and he almost got to see Mavra sacrifice of a practitioner with Cassandra's Tears after weeks of preparatory work weakening the Veil.

We still have no idea what that was supposed to accomplish, when it was the whole point of 90% of the work the bad guys did in the book. Bianca and/or Mavra got greedy and tried to introduce the Sword to the ritual, at the last minute, and turned the whole thing into a debacle. (Was that *why* Lea brought the Sword? She made a bargain that got her more power (unfortunately, tainted power) and ended up wrecking Mavra's little ritual at the same time -- how very like a fairy bargain!)

Theory: Mavra and Cowl were doing necromancy experiments, trying to redevelop Kemmler's breakthrough. If Harry hadn't been there to disrupt things, they would have pulled Lydia's ghost through the veil and eaten it -- and perhaps managed to siphon through the ghosts of the human victims of the vampire feast as well. It was a test of the soul-siphon effect that goes critical in a darkhallow. Dead Beat was the result when Grevane almost got his hands on the Word and Cowl had to move up his timeline.

Sure, but is Ethniu's goal to accomplish something on Earth while Mab is distracted by the attack at the Gates? Or is her goal to distract Mab so that the Outsiders can breach the Gates and end reality?

I'm assuming it's the former, but then it's unclear what she actually wants to accomplish.

But I guess what I'm wondering is... if they've got someone as powerful as Ethniu on their side, why weren't the Fomor always a major political power?

Perhaps the mass-kidnapped minor talents were sacrifices to wake Ethniu up?

Eb was a bit sketchy all around in Blood Rites.

I mean, why the heck do you put the White Council's heaviest hitter on wheelman duty?

And in Battle Ground, Ethniu will learn that she's been handily outmaneuvered.

Lots of wild speculation:

• Mab is at the Outer Gates. Lea is "standing in" for Mab at the Peace Talks, in disguise. (I didn't notice a single mention of Chicago having unseasonably cold weather -- which we've always gotten before, when Mab's in town.)
• Similarly, the Gatekeeper is at the Outer Gates, while someone pretends to be him at the White Council meeting that Harry is missing.
• Molly's brought a small army of Leshiye (shapeshifting wood fae) into Chicago disguised as mortals and using mortal transport, so as not to alert the fomor.
• Vadderung has a much larger force in reserve than he's letting on.
• The Svartalves brought in a bunch of reinforcement from other enclaves, in reaction to the assassination attempt.
• Lara's new magical security is hiding a much larger force than she's letting on -- both vampires and mercenaries (Monoc or mortal or both).
• The Archive is ready to give Harry Ethniu's true name, as a part of her Oblivion War Purpose.
• Harry's got access to Weapons that the fomor have no way of realizing he has, thanks to Mab's last big scheme.

Unfortunately, a bunch of heavyweights are going to come in on the other side, too -- Drakul, Mavra, Cowl, Evil Bob, the Genoskwa, Shagnasty...

And I've got no idea which side Titania and the Erlking will be on. If Titania is compromised or just still angry at Harry and Mab, who knows what she might do.

Of course, we've learned that the soul is actually just a chunk of magical energy, too. So, perhaps wizards who cast death curses are actually consuming their own souls to cast the spell and ending up in oblivion, rather than moving on to the afterlife.

(We know that oblivion is possible, because in Ghost Story that was the risk Harry was facing.)

Not sure what to make of Eb's comment that Mavra might be able to throw one... No idea how BCVs work.