Dresden Files Reread - Fool Moon Chapter 33

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 Harry steps over the dead bodies of the Hexenwulfen as he makes his way back through the woods. Benn's belt has dissolved into inexplicably greenish ectoplasm, apparently having released the spirit it carried, or otherwise failed, when she died. This can't be a question of the item being bonded to its original owner, or Harry would have had an unpleasant surprise upon Harris's death. It's possible that the belts die when their most recent wearer does, but were that the case, Wilson would have had his own puddle of goo, and there's no mention of any such thing. Presumably, then, the belts only dissolve if the wearer actually dies when transformed. Which means that Harry left Harris's, Wilson's, and Denton's belts just lying around loose on Marcone's estate. I'd have assumed Marcone would have the sense to dispose of them properly, but obviously in light of the events of Battle Ground, we can no longer assume any such thing. 

Marcone is still dangling where Harry left him, and Harry notes that his position has to be extremely painful. He finds the far end of the rope holding Marcone up, where it's tied around another tree, and starts letting it out slowly, lowering him to where he should be able to swing over the pit and get his feet on the ground. He considers grabbing Marcone, finding Murphy, and just getting out of there, but that would leave MacFinn on the loose for the rest of the night, and he's not prepared to risk the loss of life that could entail. While he doesn't come out and say it, I suspect he's also unwilling to leave MacFinn with the guilt of the people he might kill, the taste of blood in his mouth, after his own experience with the belt. 

He lets the rope out enough, ties it to the tree again, and goes to help Marcone get his balance on the edge and untie him. Unfortunately, the Loup Garou has once again used that distressingly human-like intelligence, and is hiding in the pit, waiting for them. As soon as it sees Harry, or at least as soon as Harry sees it, it starts just fuckin' climbing out of the pit, straight up the side. Harry attempts to fuego it, and gets a puff of hot air and a splitting headache for his trouble. So he runs, as far as he can before his body physically refuses to continue and slows him to a walk. Which isn't very far. Harry is just, absolutely out of resources, mentally, physically, emotionally, and magically. He stops, turns to face the Loup Garou, and readies his death curse, hoping to break the curse on MacFinn, or maybe put an end to Marcone's criminal empire. He pulls out his pentacle...and realizes that it's inherited silver. He isn't out of options yet after all. I think this is also the first mention of death curses in the series. 

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He takes the necklace off and starts spinning it above his head, calling up a small circle to contain the  magic he's trying to use until he's ready to release it. But he will need some magic to make this work, and he's mostly out. Harry is at this point under the impression that the reason dark magic is easier is that it comes from "negative" emotions like anger, lust, and greed. I'm assuming that this is an instance of Harry being young, and not as well-versed in magical theory as he thinks he is, because in later books he uses both anger and lust to power constructive magic. But just at present, he thinks he needs some purer emotion to use "good" magic, which makes it as good as true. Eventually, after reflecting on where his magic does come from, the emotions and convictions that fuel it, he finds "something" that isn't completely exhausted. We're not told what it is - I don't know if that's another editing error, or if we're meant to be able to intuit it, but if it's the latter, I, at least, can't figure it out. Whatever it is, though, he pours it into the magic, readying a wind spell to launch the pentacle at MacFinn. 

So naturally, this is when Murphy shows up, stepping between Harry and the Loup Garou, and telling him to - actually, I think we need the quote here. She says, "Harry, get down on the ground. Right now." she says it in a "very calm tone" while pointing a gun at Harry. This is obviously calculated to make it seem like she'd decided, once again, to arrest him right this very second, despite how wildly inappropriate that is under the circumstances. Like, it's unambiguous, and she has zero reason to expect that Harry will find another way to interpret her words and actions here. 

And indeed, he takes it at face value, although it wouldn't necessarily have mattered if he didn't. He can't speak or otherwise interrupt what he's doing, or the energy for the spell will be lost, and he has neither the time nor the wherewithal to try again. So he keeps on with it, hoping he'll be able to finish before Murphy shoots him. She tries to couple more times to convince him to get down, and then everyone's out of time. The Loup Garou charches, Murphy fires, and Harry launches the amulet. 

The spell, inherited silver empowered by his magic and his will, tears the Loup Garou's wolf form apart, leaving only MacFinn, with Harry's pentacle still embedded in his chest. He smiles at Harry, and then he dies. Harry himself loses consciousness a moment later. 

This was the second to last chapter of Fool Moon - after the next post, we'll be done with this one, and ready to move on to Grave Peril. (Although we'll probably have a retrospective about this one first.) I'll try not to keep you waiting too long. Until next time, be gay, do crimes, and read All The Things!