Death Masks recap

Harry is hired to recover the stolen Shroud of Turin just as the Red Court warlord Ortega arrives to challenge him to a formal duel to end the vampire war. Susan returns, half-turned but trained by the Fellowship of St. Giles; the three Knights of the Cross - Michael, the old swordsman Shiro, and the cheerful Russian Sanya - arrive hunting the Order of the Blackened Denarius, fallen angels in silver coins led by the two-thousand-year-old Nicodemus, who wants the Shroud to power a plague curse. Nicodemus captures and nearly kills Harry; Shiro trades himself for Harry's life and dies under torture. The duel with Ortega ends when the losing vampire breaks its terms, and the war continues. Harry stops the plague and reclaims the Shroud - which ends up in Marcone's hands - while Susan leaves again for the Fellowship's fight. At the last, to keep a planted coin from Michael's young son, Harry covers it with his bare hand and takes the shadow of the fallen angel Lasciel into his own mind - and tells no one.

Previously: Harry Dresden, Chicago's professional wizard, ignited a war between the wizards' White Council and the Red Court of vampires when he burned the vampire Bianca's court to save Susan Rodriguez - his girlfriend, who was left half-turned by the Red Court's bite and fled the city rather than risk the people she loves. The Council kept Harry under its protection after he cleared the Winter Queen Mab of murdering the Summer Knight, a case that ended with the Summer Lady Aurora dead and Harry owing Mab two more tasks. Detective Karrin Murphy now knows the whole truth of his world; Michael Carpenter, a Knight of the Cross, is his most trusted ally; and the war with the Red Court grinds on, with Harry a marked man.

Two jobs land on Harry at once. A priest, Father Vincent, hires him to recover the Shroud of Turin, stolen from its cathedral by a crew of professional thieves called the Churchmice. And Paolo Ortega, a courtly warlord of the Red Court, arrives with a formal challenge under the Accords: a duel to the death with Harry, offered as a way to end the war between the vampires and the White Council - if Harry dies, the Council is spared; if he refuses, the war consumes everyone around him. Harry accepts. Susan Rodriguez returns to Chicago after more than a year away, changed - stronger, faster, and in control of her half-vampire thirst, thanks to the Fellowship of St. Giles, an order of the half-turned who war against the Red Court. And bodies begin turning up around the stolen Shroud, killed in ways that point to something far worse than thieves.

The Knights of the Cross converge on Chicago: Michael, the elderly Japanese swordsman Shiro, and Sanya, a towering Russian who used to carry one of the enemy's coins. Their quarry is the Order of the Blackened Denarius - fallen angels bound in ancient silver coins, each riding and consuming a mortal host - led by Nicodemus Archleone, who has kept his own will through two thousand years with his coin and wants the Shroud for a purpose of his own. The Denarians butcher their way through the Churchmice; the thief Anna Valmont survives, and Harry's attempt to intercept the Shroud's sale goes violently wrong. Marcone, too, is maneuvering for the relic, his reasons unexplained. The Knights warn Harry to stay out of the Denarians' path; Harry, being Harry, does not.

Nicodemus captures Harry, entertains him with urbane menace at his own table, and, when Harry refuses a place in his order, has him bled and left to die - and Harry learns the Denarians' plan: the Shroud will anchor a plague curse designed to kill on a massive scale. Shiro trades himself to Nicodemus in exchange for Harry's freedom, knowing exactly what will be done to him. Battered and running out of time, Harry still has the duel to fight: with the Archive - a solemn little girl who is the living record of all written knowledge - as arbiter and her mercenary Kincaid keeping order, Harry meets Ortega in a duel of wills. Harry wins, and spares him; Ortega answers by breaking the duel's terms, and the formal contest collapses into open bloodshed from which both sides pull back wounded. The war is not over, and the plague is still coming.

Harry, Michael, Sanya and Susan run the Denarians down before the plague curse can be unleashed. Shiro, tortured past what any man should bear, is recovered dying; he passes his sword Fidelacchius to Harry, to hold in trust for the bearer who will come for it, and dies. In the final fight aboard Nicodemus's escaping train, Harry seizes the ancient noose the Denarian wears - one of the few things that can harm him - reclaims the Shroud, and breaks the curse; Nicodemus survives and escapes, minus his prize. The Shroud finishes the affair in Marcone's possession. Susan leaves Chicago again for the Fellowship's war against the Red Court, and she and Harry part still in love and still impossible. Then, at the Carpenter home, a silver coin - planted in a farewell trap - rolls toward Michael's youngest son. Harry covers it with his bare hand before the boy can touch it. He buries the coin beneath his lab, but the contact has already done its work: the shadow of the fallen angel Lasciel has taken up residence in his mind, and Harry tells no one.

Harry recovers the Shroud of Turin and stops Nicodemus from unleashing the plague curse he had bound to it, holding the Denarian off in a fight aboard his escaping train - Nicodemus, nearly unkillable, is driven off rather than destroyed, and remains at large. The victory is bought with Shiro's life: the old Knight traded himself to Nicodemus for Harry's freedom, endured torture without breaking, and dies of it, leaving his sword Fidelacchius in Harry's keeping until its next bearer appears. The duel with Ortega ends in treachery - Ortega breaks the terms when he loses, the duel collapses into open violence, and he fails to kill Harry; the war goes on. Susan, whose control and new strength with the Fellowship of St. Giles carried Harry through the worst of the fight, leaves Chicago again for the Fellowship's war, and she and Harry part as lovers who cannot have a life together. Marcone ends the affair in possession of the Shroud, his reasons still his own. In the final scene, at the Carpenter home, one of the Denarians' coins - Lasciel's, planted deliberately - rolls toward Michael's youngest son, and Harry slaps his bare hand over it to save the boy. He buries the coin under his lab, but the touch was enough: the fallen angel's shadow now lives in his mind, a secret he tells no one.