They park their cars at the back of a muggle apartment building and using a muggle radio, Beckett comes up with a plan with Ryan and Espo sitting in the other car a little ways down the block. When Beckett puts the radio back on the dash of the car Castle reaches for it.
"Don't touch that." Beckett says without even looking over at him. He retracts his hand quickly, not wanting to upset her when she already seemed on edge. She killed the ignition and holding up her wand muttered a few words under her breathe. Castle saw a small light come out of the tip of her wand and then it vanished. She caught him staring at her again.
"It's a shield charm. Only really good for one big blow but it can save a life." She says this while she unbuckles her seat belt. Castle moves to unbuckle his and she throws her arm out at him.
"You stay here." She says. His lower lip protrudes. He's pouting, and she can't believe she has to deal with this right now. "Stay in the car. I've read your record Castle. I don't want to rub it in too much but from what I gather you're not the greatest wizard in the world, one bad defensive spell and we could all be dead." His lips part in protest but she opens her car door before he can say anything. "Stay here." She repeats, as if he didn't hear her the first time.
She was right, he admitted to himself after a few minutes of silence in the car, watching her meet up with the boys on the street corner and round the building out of site. He wasn't that good at magic. Horrible when it came to anything important. He'd done lousy on his exams in school and had even been told by the minister of magic during a poker game and a few too many drinks that he was lucky he had the talent to write because he was rubbish at anything else. He huffed a sigh and sat back in his chair, looking up at the blank expanse of brick wall in front of him, the fire escape for the building ending right above the hood of the car. His fingers danced on his knees, wondering what was going on and wondering how long this could possibly take. A few more minutes passed before he heard a loud noise. He looked up and out through the windshield and saw a man hurrying down the fire escape with one shoe missing. When he looked a little closer, Castle could see he was carrying a wand in his left hand as he jumped from step to step.
Castle didn't know what to do. Beckett would possibly kill him for getting out of the car, but there couldn't possibly be too many wizards living on this block who have decided to take a leisurely stroll out their back window. His train of thought was broken as the man fell hard on the hood of the car, making Castle jump. The man looked up and saw Castle and the only thing Castle could think to do was wave. The man's face scrunched up as he tried to roll off the car and reach for his wand that he had dropped. When the man picked it up, Castle could clearly see that it was in two pieces. Castle couldn't help but smile at the thought but the man didn't wait around long, and took off down the back ally.
Castle instinctively reached for the door handle, and cautiously looking behind him, he didn't see Beckett or her team so he grabbed his wand out of his pocket and took off after the man with one shoe. It didn't take long before he heard a shout behind him that sounded suspiciously like Beckett shouting his name, but he could see the end of the ally and was sure he'd be able to catch up with the guy. He was right, but a little off on who would be doing the catching.
An arm flew out in front of him and grabbed his wrist, trying to make him drop his wand. This sent a wave of red light shooting towards the truck the guy had been hiding behind, but Castle was thankful that nothing caught on fire. He wrestled with the guy for a moment before his wand was knocked out of his grip and flew to the other side of the ally. He heard Beckett approach behind him but when she shouted out, the man wrapped his arm around Castle's neck and pointed the tip of his wand to his head. Castle didn't know what the guy was doing, there was no way his wand would work when it was clearly in two pieces, but from this angle, Beckett wouldn't be able to tell that it was broken. Beckett popped out from behind the large truck, her wand held high and pointed right at them. She lowered it a little when she saw Castle in the way.
"I told you to stay in the car." She bit at him under her breath, all he could do was manage a shrug which just made the man push his wand into his head a little harder.
"Put your wand down Charlie." Beckett's voice was commanding, Castle hadn't heard her talk like this, not even when she was interrogating him. He found it a little hot, but pushed it out of his mind. If only he could signal to her that the wand wasn't going to do much but spit out a few sparks, but he could see her trying to figure out how to make her spell count. "There's no good end in this. We know you killed her, we saw the evidence in your apartment, we've seen that you've been following her for weeks now."
Castle's eyes danced around the ground, looking for something, anything. He saw his wand near Beckett's feet, he hoped she wouldn't step on it. But then he noticed something shiny right near his right food. It looked like a broken bar off a window, and it looked heavy enough to wound someone. Castle looked back up at Beckett who's concentration was on the man gripping Castle's neck and less on Castle's eyes. He was dragged back a little, putting the metal bar in the perfect position and he stood for a moment, waiting for the man to loosen his grip. Castle felt the mans fingers move, his elbow slip, and in one swift moment he reached down, grabbed the piece of metal and swung it backwards. It hit the man upside the head, knocking the broken pieces of wand out of his hand and his whole body to the ground. He saw a red light whiz past his shoulder, hitting the man square in the chest, he went still.
"That was so cool!" Castle shouted as he took a step back running right into Beckett who forcefully smacked him against the head. "Ow." Castle let out, rubbing the back of his head.
"You could have gotten yourself killed!" Beckett was shouting in his face but Castle was having a hard time suppressing his grin.
"Nope." He bent down and picked up the pieces of wood and handed them to Beckett. "His wand snapped in half when he landed on the hood of your car." Beckett took the wand in her hand and glared at him.
"I said stay in the car." That was all Beckett could say before Ryan and Espo finally turned up, confused eyes dancing around the scene.
"What'd we miss?"