Butcher seems to be foreshadowing Mab's death and with it Molly becoming overwhelmed.  Combine that with Harry saying he's not trying to get out of the Winter Knight mantle without freeing Molly from hers (and hopefully an answer to his own paralysis) and I wonder if the answer isn't Mab gets killed either as the spark for the BAT or in the first book. Molly goes nuts over the course of a book or so. Harry then uses the Crown of Thorns* to remove the Winter Queen mantle from Molly (and later the Winter Knight mantle from himself). Seems most likely that Lara becomes Winter Queen with maybe Elaine (who was Sidhe trained while with Aurora for years) becoming Winter Lady during the BAT.

*The hypothesis being that thorn manacles were created as a pale imitation of the power of the Crown of Thorns whose power strips immortality and/or a mantle from the wearer.

Cowl has no need to lie in his mind, Harry (and everyone else) are beneath him, and he has completely obscured his identity. However I wonder if Mouse could identify him by scent?

Everybody mortal is beneath a Walker, too, but still He Who Walks Beside works through deceit and manipulation while possessing Justine. Heck, obscuring one's identity is lying to others about who you are. If he has no need to lie he has no need to hide his face.

Listening to Battleground this week I was struck by a "how twisty a twist can Jim twist" thought:  What if the White Council isn't afraid of Harry? What if the Senior Council has been trying to manipulate him via the series of threats they've posed toward him all these years. This would be a more extended version of what He Who Walks Behind did when Harry ran away from Justin. He pretended to be there to kill Harry, but only went at it with a fraction of effort. The Walker's purpose was to scare Harry, test him, and evaluate whether he had what it took for the contest to come in the BAT. Similarly, elements of the Council have been trying to keep Harry off balance with the Doom of Damocles, the threat to hand him over to the Red Court for execution, drafting him into the wardens against his will, placing him again under the Doom of Damocles with Molly, threatening to expel him, and finally expelling him right after he binds a Titan. They've been trying to forge him into their weapon/champion in an abusive manner reminiscent of Justin. The question then becomes how successful they'll be seen to have been at that.

Just a thought.

Here's the references to Toot's height I can find in all the novels:

Stormfront	6"
Summer Knight	About 6"
Small Favor	"About twice as tall"
Turn Coat	12"
Changes	15"
Cold Days	18"
Battleground	30"

Toot's growth in stature both from what he and the Za Guard do themselves combined with his small share of reflected glory from what Harry does, he was five times his original size even before the "Legion of Za" provided air defense for the defenders of Chicago and Harry bound a Titan. How tall will he be next time we see him and will he be as tall as Harry by the end of the BAT?

I have trouble making sense of the exchanges between Sarissa and Harry early in CD when she admits that Mab is making her available as a sexual partner for Harry if virginity is required to be a Lady.

Unless Mab was counting on Harry's Dresdensity, that by having Sarissa tell him that she was there to be available that Harry would ensure she stayed virginal. That seems Mab somehow.

Molly's Mantle reacted violently to Carlos because her physical virginity was being compromised.  Now eventually she might find a way around that or to control that as Harry did the sexual urges of the Winter Knight's Mantle, but at the time she was too new, and it sounds from the story that that was one aspect of being Winter Lady that Mab neglected to explain to her.  Who knows what Mab's motives were, maybe thinking the best way to learn is the hard way...

Much like the way the Raiths don't tell Inari (or Barrowills Carol) about the Hunger that will kill their first sexual partner initiating them into full White Court vampirism.

Oh and one more thing, there is a sexual  double standard in the Winter Court, while the Winter Lady is supposed to remain a virgin, her mantle reacts violently to a sexual encounter.. The Winter Knight sees women as an object to dominate, thus the violent almost overpowering urge to rape.

The Winter Lady's mantle amps up her libido as much as the Winter Knight's thereby making the double standard starker.

Mab refers to a "fusion of bloodlines" in announcing her decision to marry Harry to Lara. This seems strange considering that the Raith and McCoy bloodlines are already fused in the persons of Thomas and his unborn child. In fact, they were the topic of conversation that Mab changes with her declaration. But with Thomas imprisoned in Demonreach and the pregnant Justine in the wind, if Mab needs to have a backup entity with that genetic mix on hand for her designs she might think it be best to get started as soon as possible. Therefore, Mab would ideally want them consummating a marriage. I understand Jim says Harry will have no more children, but Mab doesn't know that.

The other element of timing is that the announcement comes while Harry and Lara are still shaking on a deal, or given the spark Harry feels, perhaps it was a Deal. Could the spark have constituted a magical binding and Mab recognized it for what it was when Harry and Lara didn't? Maybe that's why Mab chides Harry about selling pieces of his soul willy nilly for other people's benefit. And maybe, Mab sees making Lara a member of the Winter court, consort of the Winter Knight, as being a way to short circuit what Harry had accidentally done. Harry felt a strong fae generated compulsion to do things he'd rather not do in order to satisfy the favor Mab granted Lara. Perhaps Mab fears that the committment to save Justine (and/or the unborn child) will override some future order she gave and by subsuming that Deal into a larger formal alliance via marriage her wishes would regain priority of place.