"Okay," he said. "You won't. But a guy can hope. I just don't like the idea of sitting on the sidelines when you might need my help." He frowned. "Hey. You're doing this on purpose. You're trying to keep me out of it to protect me, you… sneaky little bitch."

"It works out that way," I said. "Think of it as payback for those painkillers."

He grimaced at me, then nodded.

"And thank you," I said quietly. "You were right. I needed the rest."

"Of course I was right," Thomas said. "You looked like you were about to pass out. You still don't look great."

"I'm hungry. Did you make those pancakes for breakfast, or are they only decorative?"

"Go ahead and mock," Thomas said. He slapped a bunch of pancakes onto a plate and brought it over to the table along with a plastic bottle of maple syrup. "Here. Happy birthday."

I blinked at the pancakes and then up at him.

"I'd have gotten you a present, but…" He shrugged.

"No," I said. "I mean, no, that's okay. I'm surprised you remembered at all. No one has remembered my birthday since Susan left town."

Thomas got himself a plate and left the rest on a third plate for Butters. He sat down at the table and started eating them without syrup. "Don't make a big thing of it. I'm sort of surprised I remembered it myself." He nodded at the world in general. "So you think Grevane and the Corpsetaker are the ones who turned the lights out?"

I shook my head. "They were both stretching themselves by keeping so many undead under their control. That's why the Corpsetaker went after Grevane with a sword, and why he defended himself physically."

"Then who did it?"

"Cowl," I said. "He made himself scarce last night. My guess is that he was too busy setting it up to take a swing at Grevane or the Corpsetaker."

"Why Cowl?"

"Because this is a major hex, man. If you'd have asked me yesterday, I wouldn't have thought this was possible. I don't know how he did it, but…" I shivered. "His magic is stronger than mine. And from what I saw of his technique, he's a hell of a lot more skilled, too. If he's as good at thaumaturgy as he is at evocation, he's the most dangerous wizard I've ever seen."

"I'm not sure how he did it matters as much as why," Thomas said.

I nodded. "He gets a lot of advantages. Paralyzes human power structures. Keeps cops and so on too busy to interfere with whatever they're doing."

"But that's not the only reason. You said something about preparing the way?"