The taxi dropped them off in front, just as Harry had asked. If the driver had been at all curious as to why they'd wanted to be left at an abandoned storefront, he didn't show it. Staring the boarded windows and door, Scott re-shouldered his backpack.
"What's this place?"
"This is where it happened," Harry replied. "This was her Laundromat."
Scott lightly kicked the wooden slats that barred the entrance. "It's been condemned."
"It'll be the best place to work," said the wizard. "Let's try around back."
Only one small wooden plank was nailed against the back entrance, which Harry was able to yank off easily enough. Though when he pulled at the door itself, it remained firmly locked. Stepping aside, he watched as Scott gripped the handle and gave it pull, opening it easily.
The inside was a cemetery of broken washing machines. Casting around a beam of light from the flashlight he'd thought to bring, Harry spotted a few rats scurry away as they approached inside. The floor was littered with empty detergent boxes, wires, tubing, light bulbs and half broken chairs. But the structure and layout of the space was identical to the one the wizard remembered back in his own reality.
Scott, who had been studying his book on their way over, shoved aside a few upturned detergent boxes on the folding counter to make room for the large text. He ignored or didn't even notice the layers of dust that clung to his pants as he sat down on one of the few unbroken chairs.
"I don't know if you can do it," said the boy, frowning at the pages. "It says here you have to do an incantation and focus your magic on gripping the Bean Nighe." He looked up at Harry. "You don't have any magic."
"Bob said I should be able to do it. It'd just be harder," said Harry.
"But you can't focus something you don't have," Scott argued. "Maybe I should do it?"
The wizard shook his head. "No, it has to be me." Peering down at the book, he flipped a few pages. "There has to be another way to call her."
"Maybe in the trapping and containing spirits section?" Scott guessed. "I haven't gotten that far. I don't know what any of the symbols mean."
With the advantage of still having some memories of his old educational days, Harry flipped to the appropriate sections and began reading. He tried to ignore the jiggling of Scott's leg as the boy waited impatiently. Reading as fast as he could, the wizard skipped to a transportation section. "Here," he finally said, getting Scott's attention. "We can combine it with this," he pointed. "And this."
Scott studied the make shift spell cobbled that together the incantation for the Bean Nighe with a transportation spell that was better fitted for non-magical humans. Digging into his bag, he pulled out his set of chalk. "Okay, this shouldn't take me too long." He looked at the pages again. "You need something you can break for the final part of the spell."
A few minutes of hunting and Harry turned up with a handful of still intact light bulbs that was as good a conduit as anything. He sat in silence as he watched Scott get on his hands and knees with the flashlight to start drawing out the sigils. The single beam of light illuminated the boy's hands and face, casting a shadow that made the small figure look incredibly solitary and vulnerable. The wizard thought on what he'd learned about Sheryl Sharp. Scott had yet to ask about her, but he knew it was only matter of time before the boy did. A weight settled in Harry's chest as he realized that Scott really was now alone.
As if sensing the intense gaze, Scott paused in his writing to look up.
"What?" he asked, swiveling the flashlight around to point at Harry.
"Nothing, just watching you work," said the wizard, putting up a hand to shield himself from the bright beam.
Scott looked at him with suspicion for a moment longer before carefully putting the flashlight back down and scratching the last of the symbols onto the floor. "Here," he said, getting up. "You have to put the object in the middle there first." Rising to his feet, Harry walked over and gingerly put one dusty light bulb in the middle of the ring of symbols Scott pointed at. A pale, green light slowly lit up the object with sluggish resistance. "Okay, now say the incantation, the person's name and break the object."
The wizard read over the spell, memorizing the few lines and selecting in his mind the name he would utter to personalize the incantation as Bob had instructed. But as he prepared for the conjuring, he paused, glancing over at Scott who was watching him, his small face a study in seriousness.
"Scott," he began. "Listen, I have to-"
"You found her," Scott interrupted, quietly. "She's dead." His expression remained tight as he saw Harry's surprise. "You gave me that look. My mom gave me that look just before she told me Dad had left us."
"Your mom didn't want to give you up to them, Scott," said Harry. "She wanted to keep you. They wouldn't let her."
"Did they kill her?"
For a moment, Harry worried about the smaller wizard suddenly having ideas of revenge. But Scott looked oddly contained as he asked the question, only curious. "I don't know. They might have," he answered, truthfully.
"If this spell works and you go back to where you came from, none of this will happen, right? I'll be home."
"Yeah," replied Harry. "You'll be home."
Scott nodded. "Good." The small hand tightened around the chalk, his eyes boring into Harry's. "I hate it here. I don't want it to exist. You'll fix everything?" As hard as Scott tried, the tears rising up in the young eyes and the waver in his voice as he asked the last question were apparent.
Harry put a hand to the boy's thin shoulder. It was less a gesture of pity and one of assurance. "I'll fix it," he promised. "Everything will be okay."
The silence around them was broken as in the distance, a car alarm blared in the distance. While Scott only started at the unexpected noise, Harry tightened his grip on the boy as he narrowed his eyes in suspicion.
"Scott, you gotta go," he commanded. "She's coming."
"What? No! What if the spell doesn't work? You need me," he protested.
"If this spell doesn't work then I'm going to need one of us to escape," Harry countered. The chill from the outside seemed to sharpen and a feeling of desolation began to permeate around them.
"She's bringing the skull," gasped Scott.
Hastily, the wizard pulled off the shield bracelet and fitted it onto Scott's wrist. "Here. If anyone takes a shot at you, this'll help." The boy stared at the band for a moment before diving to his knees and scribbling quickly a set of symbols around Harry and the spell he'd written out earlier. The combination looked strangely foreign. "What are you doing?"
"It'll buy you time," Scott stated through clenched teeth as the chalk flew across the floor. "As long as you're inside, it'll hold her off." Once the circle was complete, he got to his feet.
Seeing his hesitation, Harry urged him, "Run, Scott. Go." Leaving the flashlight with the wizard, the boy only gave a last look before turning and exiting where he came. Harry waited for a moment, listening to the light footsteps disappear. "Thanks," he whispered after him.
The air of despair was only getting stronger and Harry knew he was nearly out of time. Closing his eyes, the wizard clearly recited the incantation he'd read. The green light bulb continued to shine. Finally, Harry quietly spoke his father's name and slammed his foot down on the glass. It satisfying shattered, crunching into the ground.
Nothing happened.
Desperately, he put another bulb amidst the sigils and tried again, this time speaking his mother's name. The bulb shattered and nothing appeared. Before Harry had a chance to try again, the front of the store that had been boarded up exploded inward from a powerful blast. Wooden splinters flew toward the standing wizard and would have most likely impaled him except for Scott's protection ring that flared up, causing the wood to bounce harmlessly off.
From the gaping hole left over from the explosion, stepped in Elena Ellery.
In her right hand she held an impressively heavy-looking staff that seemed ancient, nearly taller than herself. In her other hand, she carried a cage. The aged skull rattled against the bars as she calmly walked across the store.
"Mr. Dresden," she shook her head. "How foolish can you be?"
"I'm trying to figure it out," said Harry. Kicking aside the broken bulbs, the wizard hoped to bluff that he had a working spell on his hands.
"You are testing my patience with this stubbornness," snapped the sorceress, slamming the cage down on the counter. "Why can you not leave things alone? They are better as they are now!"
"For who?" he countered. "You let Caryn Harris and Matthew Jacobs die. Or were they too little to get on your radar?"
Elena sighed impatiently. "Mr. Jacobs was a hellion. And as for Miss Harris, that was unfortunate. But thanks to her murder, the Council had more than enough cause to destroy the demon Sorota for the death of a human, saving hundreds of souls he would have taken. Or did you not know THAT?" she asked, smirking at Harry's expression. "I work for the greater good, Mr. Dresden. You saved two lives in your world. I have saved thousands by sacrificing one."
"And Sheryl Sharp? Was killing her for a greater good?"
"Undoubtedly," answered Elena. "That woman was impossible. As you are being. Now I am asking you for the last time, to please just stop. Your life will be easier for it."
Harry shook his head. "Sorry, lady. This is the wrong life. And to quote an 80's classic: you can't live in the wrong life."
"How unfortunate."
Without another word, Elena pushed her staff forward. A blast of light shot out from the top toward Harry. It was quickly dissipated by Scott's barrier. "Really, Mr. Dresden? A simple barrier is going to stop me?" she smirked. "It will only be a matter of time before it breaks." She let loose another charge that once again got swallowed up by the invisible walls, but instead of shuddering under the attack, the shield only seemed to grow stronger.
Harry looked around him as the protective walls hummed lightly. Instead of deflecting, it was absorbing Elena's attacks to constantly recharge itself somehow. Nice, Scott, thought Harry with a smile.
After the third blast, Elena swiped at her hair that fell across her brow in an increasingly frustrated gesture. "Come out this instant, Mr. Dresden!" she barked.
"What? Can't hear you," Harry called. "I'm too well protected by this barrier."
"Enough of this," she growled. The sorceress hit the floor with her staff once and the door to the cage that held the skull snapped open. "Outside now, ghost!" she commanded.
From the bones, a spark of gold shot forward. As it trailed upward, a line of black smoke shaped and formed until the ghost stood beside the counter. The pale eyes uneasily glanced at where Harry stood. Even if Elena had not yet noticed, Harry saw the spirit notice the broken remnants of the failed spell.
"Tell me how to break this barrier," ordered Elena.
Stepping forward, the ghost crouched down to get a better look at the sigils Scott had drawn out on the floor. "How very clever," he murmured. "It fuels itself with each attack."
"I didn't ask your opinion on it!" snapped the woman. "Tell me how to break it."
The ghost looked at Harry who tried his best not to look stricken. The skull belonged to Elena and by that right, she could force the spirit to obey her. If he knew how to break Scott's barrier, he would have to tell her.
Raising himself back up to his full height, the ghost looked at his keeper. "No."
"What?" demanded Elena. Harry gave him a surprised stare of his own.
"I refuse."
"You cannot refuse me, ghost!" Elena shouted. "I own your skull!"
"I am aware of that. And I still refuse," replied the ghost. And while his voice remained even, Harry could see the strain on the pale face as he spoke.
Livid, Elena gripped her staff. "I am your rightful owner and I command you by those rights to tell me how to break this barrier," she snarled.
At the repeated order, the grimace on the ghost's face intensified as an iron fist clench around his soul, squeezing it painfully at the insubordinate behavior. "No," he only repeated.
"Do you know what I can do to you for disobeying me?" Elena hissed.
"I'd imagine I'm giving you an early birthday present," replied the ghost, giving her an exaggerated grin.
"I can destroy you for disobeying!" Elena shouted. At her words, the skull in the cage glowed a dark red and the ghost's image blurred slightly as the figure fell to his knees.
"Wait!" Harry exclaimed. "Stop. You don't have to," he said, though it was uncertain whether he was speaking to Elena or the ghost.
Elena turned her attention back to the wizard. "Come out," she ordered.
"Look, the spell doesn't even work," Harry stated, gesturing to the pile of broken glass. "I tried and it doesn't work. I can't call her. I can't do it." The last of it he spoke to the ghost, who remained kneeling on the ground. Seeing the apology at his failure in the dark eyes, the necromancer shook his head, dismissively.
"How defeatist of you, Mr. Dresden," he scolded. "You are not concentrating."
"I am!" Harry defended hotly. And despite the immediate danger, the familiar reprimand took him back to the library in his uncle's house when he'd been only 11.
"You are not focusing. Hasn't my counterpart taught you any better?" the ghost asked.
"Silence!" Elena screamed.
"No," the spirit replied and despite the agony it caused, he seemed to get some perverse enjoyment out of refusing. "Try again," he said to Harry.
Slamming her staff on the floor, Elena summoned the skull that came to a flying stop at her feet. "This ghost," she declared maliciously, pointing a thin figure at the crouching figure. "Has disobeyed his rightful keeper. He has refused my command. By that act, I can do with it what I wish." The ghost's image blurred further as the skull glowed a red so bright, it looked nearly on fire. The sound of something cracking filled the area.
"Wait, stop!" Harry shouted, nearly stepping over the barrier's lines. "Don't! I'll come out. Just stop."
Even as his image was nearly gone, the ghost's eyes remained readable as he gave the wizard a look that Harry recognized with great clarity as being the "don't be stupid" expression he had seen Bob wear a thousand times.
"Try again," the ghost repeated. "Concentrate."
There was a loud blast that seemed to nearly break Harry's eardrums. He wondered for a dazed second if the building had been struck by lightening, but then the ghost's outline shuddered and dissolved into a cloud of smoke that disappeared into the air.
"Bob!"
By Elena Ellery's staff lay the shattered remains of the skull.
Without thinking, Harry rushed forward in a fit of rage at the woman. As his foot crossed the circle, the barrier around him collapsed. Harry got as far as getting a grip on Elena's shoulders before the woman slammed the end of her staff against the wizard's chest. A brilliant light filled Harry's sight before it darkened to complete black.
