Summer Knight (The Dresden Files #4) - Jim Butcher Page 0,39

of modest breasts, and it gleamed in the light from my readied blasting rod. Her skin was pale, like the inner bark of an oak, the living part of the tree, her hair the brown-gold of ripe wheat, her eyes the grey of storm clouds. Her fine mouth twitched, first into a smile and then into a frown, and she lifted elegant, long-fingered hands to show me empty palms.

"I let myself in," she murmured. "I hope you dont mind. You should change your wards more often."

I lowered the blasting rod, too stunned to speak, my heart lurching in my chest. She lowered her hands and closed the distance between us. She lifted herself onto her toes, but she was tall enough that it wasnt much of an effort for her to kiss my cheek. She smelled like wildflowers and sun-drenched summer afternoons. She drew back enough to focus on my face and my eyes, her own expression gentle and concerned. "Hello, Harry."

And I said, in a bare whisper, fighting through the shock, "Hello, Elaine."

Chapter Eight

Elaine walked past me, making a circuit around my apartment. It wasnt much of a tour. The place consists of a living room and a tiny bedroom. The kitchen is pretty much just an alcove with a sink and a fridge. The floor is smooth grey stone, but Id covered a lot of it with a few dozen rugs. My furniture is all secondhand and comfortable. It doesnt even come close to matching. Bookshelves fill up most of the wall space, and where they dont, I have several tapestries, plus a Star Wars movie poster Billy gave me for Christmas. Its the old poster, the one with Princess Leia clinging to Lukes leg.

Anyway, that was my apartment on a normal day. Lately it had suffered from disrepair. It didnt smell so great, and pizza boxes and empty Coke cans had overflowed the trash can and spilled over a significant portion of the kitchen floor. You could barely walk without stepping on clothing that needed to be washed. My furniture was covered with scribbled-on papers and discarded pens and pencils.

Elaine walked through it all like a Red Cross worker through a war zone and shook her head. "I know you werent expecting me, Harry, but I didnt think Id be overdressed. You live in this?"

"Elaine," I choked out. "Youre alive."

"A little less of a compliment than I would have hoped for, but I guess it could have been worse." She regarded me from near the kitchen. "Im alive, Harry." Her face flickered with a trace of apprehension. "How are you feeling?"

I lowered myself onto the couch, papers crunching beneath me. I released the power held ready to strike, and the glowing tip of the blasting rod went out, leaving the apartment in darkness. I kept staring at her afterimage on my vision. "Shocked," I said finally. "This isnt happening. Hells bells, this has got to be some sort of trick."

"No. Its me. If I was something out of the Nevernever, could I have crossed your threshold uninvited? Do you know anyone else who knows how you set up your wards?"

"Anyone could figure it out eventually," I said.

"All right. Does anyone else know that you failed your drivers test five times in one week? Or that you sprained your shoulder trying to impress me going out for football our freshman year? That we soulgazed on our first night together? I think I can still remember our locker combination, if you like."

"My God, Elaine." I shook my head. Elaine, alive. My brain could not wrap itself around the idea. "Why didnt you contact me?"

I saw her, dimly, lean against the wall. She was quiet for a while, as though she had to shape her words carefully. "At first because I didnt even know if you had survived. And after that " She shook her head. "I wasnt sure I wanted to. Wasnt sure youd want me to. So much happened."

My shock and disbelief faded before a sudden aching pain, and an old, old anger. "Thats putting it mildly," I said. "You tried to destroy me."

"No," she said. "God, no, Harry. You dont understand. I never wanted that."

My voice gained a hard edge. "Which is why you hit me with that binding. Why you held me down while Justin tried to destroy me."

"He never wanted you dead"

"No, he just wanted to break into my head. Wanted to control me. Make me into some kind of of " Words failed, me