Ace is a changeling. He first appears in Summer Knight.
Description[]
Ace has dark curly hair and a goatee. He is under the Winter Court's rule,[1] his father being the Redcap, notoriously incapable of affection for any offspring.[2] He leads a contingent of mercenary small folk working for him similarly to the Za-Lord's Guard, led by Lacuna.[3] Ace is one of Winter Lady Maeve's minions.[4]
In the series[]
Summer Knight[]
- Main article: Summer Knight (novel)
In Summer Knight, while Listening, Harry Dresden hears Ace tell his friends that he searched for Lily all day, that he believes Dresden is in Mab's pocket, that Dresden kills people who get in his way. Dresden followed the three changlings out to alley where Ace pulled a gun on him. Meryl told him not to be stupid.[1]
Later, Ace confessed that killing Dresden was the price Red Court vampires demanded in exchange for protection from the Winter Lady, Maeve and Winter Knight Lloyd Slate. To this end, he hired the Tigress, a ghoul assassin, and also tried to shoot Dresden himself, but missed and hit Meryl instead. Ace said the Reds told him where Dresden would show up. He hears Mab's Call to all of Winter's blood (for the Faerie War), so does Meryl. Ace told Meryl that if they just chose, they'd be protected from Maeve and Slate. Meryl called him worthless trash and yelled at him to run from her sight before she killed him. Dresden let him go.[4]
Cold Days[]
- Main article: Cold Days
Like every other kind of pain, beatings are educational.— Dresden[5]
In Cold Days, Ace is the mastermind behind several of the most successful attempts on Harry Dresden's life. One: Ace throws a bomb in front Dresden's Munstermobile causing it to crash. Then he sent Captain Hook and his troop of Wee Folk to attack Dresden with nails almost defeating him. Toot-Toot is badly wounded defending Dresden. Molly Carpenter scared them off with illusions of cats.[6]
Outside the Chicago Botanic Gardens, Ace laid a terrible beating on Dresden,[3] after setting up Captain Hook as a distraction; Karrin Murphy then stopped him. Redcap arrived with his Sidhe gang; he turns out to be Ace's faerie parent. Cat Sith started to eliminate the Sidhe thugs one at a time. Ace points a gun at Murphy's back, Dresden thwarted him. Hook defends Ace, cutting Dresden.[5]
Redcap abducted Butters, Andi Macklin, Justine and McAnally.[7] Molly, Mouse and Dresden went to rescue them. Ace set off charges that collapsed the building into the lake with Dresden, Mouse, Molly, Justine, Andi, Butters and Mouse inside.[8]
Ace, working with the Outsiders, is shot with a borrowed Winchester, and perhaps killed, by Dresden, while attempting to board a tugboat from a barge off Demonreach. Dresden saw his face only afterwards.[9]