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910a3fc
|
Gard. "Marcone"
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Jim Butcher |
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ab2f07f
|
It's tough for magic to argue with physics, most of the time.
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time
physics
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Jim Butcher |
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9a60dca
|
But even the tough, capable centurions gave Marcus speculative glances, as if seeking out his thoughts on their predicament. Marcus returned the glances with nothing but crisp salutes, letting them see the First Spear proceeding with business as usual.
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Jim Butcher |
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90d76a7
|
The soreness lifted out of my muscles, and my cloudy, cloggy thought processes cleared as though someone had flushed my synapses with jalapeno.
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Jim Butcher |
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92d12b2
|
Don't be a moron, Harry," I said. "You came for the kid. He's safe. That's all you were obligated to do. Let it g--oh who am I kidding. There's a girl."
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Jim Butcher |
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d2db700
|
Then I drew in a breath, and my renewed will with it, lifted the rod in my right hand, murmured a phrase in a language I didn't know, and blew the tires off his fucking truck.
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Jim Butcher |
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3478880
|
Something was trying to dig its way beneath the wall and into the garage, practically right underneath my butt. I felt a chill of fear, followed swiftly by anger at the thing that had added to already overabundant flow of adrenaline. I clutched my make-shift weapon in hand and moved to crouch over the source of the disturbance, lifting in preparation to strike at whatever came through. I saw it in the dimness, and there was no mistaking the..
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Jim Butcher |
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4bf1ceb
|
bullies either. He'd be glad to have
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Jim Butcher |
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f3121be
|
I gritted my teeth and got out of Butters's car,
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Jim Butcher |
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7db32cb
|
All hospital emergency rooms have the same feel to them. They're all decorated in the same dull, muted tones and softened edges, which are meant to be comforting and aren't. They all have the same smell too: one part tangy antiseptics, one part cool dispassion, one part anxiety, and one part naked fear. They
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Jim Butcher |
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d79c56f
|
a door standing open that shouldn't be; a shadow on the floor with no source to cast it; a cat purring and rubbing up against a favorite person--who isn't there.
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Jim Butcher |
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ce16d46
|
Mort looked at the cat and sighed. "Oh, sure. Professional ectomancer with a national reputation as a medium tells you what's going on, and nobody believes him. But let a stump-tailed, furry critter come in and everyone goes all Lifetime." "Heh," said Sir Stuart, quietly amused. "What did I tell you? Cats."
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Jim Butcher |
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f831b11
|
He sauntered over to me and rammed one shoulder playfully against my knee. I wavered, recovered my balance, and unlocked the door. Mister, as was his just due, entered before I did.
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Jim Butcher |
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a6f22c0
|
Anything with that much power and that little control, that utter lack of concern for anything but self is evil in the most effective sense of the word.
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Jim Butcher |
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d7080ba
|
That was me on the staircase to Chicago-Over-Chicago. Yes, I was standing on nothing but congealed starlight. Yes, I was walking up through a savage storm, the wind threatening to tear me off and throw me into the freezing waters of Lake Michigan far below. Yes, I was using a legendary and enchanted means of travel to transcend the border between one dimension and the next, and on my way to an epic struggle between ancient and elemental for..
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Jim Butcher |
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9f3094f
|
So," Murphy said. "All we need to do is get you up to the top of the pit, and then you're going to go one-on-four with a bunch of armed FBI agents-cum-werewolves and beat them in time to go up against the loup-garou that we couldn't stop before with all of your magical gizmos and a building full of police officers." "Essentially," I answered. Murphy"
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Jim Butcher |
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99468fd
|
Okay," I said, fear making my voice weak. "This is bad. This is very, very bad." "Wish"
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Jim Butcher |
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d891648
|
Entirely confidential, check," Bob said. "And it would take a lot more than one night working with you to build up enough momentum to spin off a whole new me. I have to actually learn things to make that happen."
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Jim Butcher |
|
cde4e81
|
I would have to call a cab. It wasn't the most heroic way to ride to the rescue, but walkers can't be choosers.
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Jim Butcher |
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daddc3a
|
I blinked at that, confused. I'm not supposed to be the guy who doesn't get the reference joke, dammit.
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Jim Butcher |
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b2558b5
|
I stared at MacFinn for a long moment. I believed that he was telling me the truth. That he didn't have much control, if any, over his actions when he transformed. Though it occurred to me that if he wanted someone dead, he could probably point his monster-self in the right direction before he lost control. Note to self: Do not cut MacFinn off in traffic.
|
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funny
|
Jim Butcher |
|
64fd72a
|
It never rains," I moaned. Tera frowned at me. "It is raining now." She turned to Susan. "I do not think he is coherent." I snorted and looked around blearily. "It's a figure of speech."
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Jim Butcher |
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489cf5c
|
So really, it was just as well that Godmother had caught up to me, in spite of my best efforts to avoid her. I'd hate to find out that the universe really wasn't conspiring against me. It would jerk the rug out from under my persecution complex.
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Jim Butcher |
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1e1fd39
|
Do you know my dog's name?" "Cerberus," I said promptly. "But everyone knows that." "Do you know what it means?" I opened my mouth and closed it again. I shook my head. "It is from an ancient word, kerberos. It means 'spotted.'" I blinked. "You're a genuine Greek god. You're the Lord of the Underworld. And . . . you named your dog Spot?" "Who's a good dog?" Hades said, scratching the third head behind the ears, and making the beast's mouth ..
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Jim Butcher |
|
05107bf
|
More trouble in Faerie. Bigger trouble in Faerie. And I'd be willing to bet dollars to navel lint that I knew exactly which stupid son of a bitch the Council would expect to start poking his nose around in it.
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Jim Butcher |
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f4137b7
|
That things will unfold as they are meant to," Forthill said. "That even in the face of an immediate ugliness, the greater picture will resolve into something all the more beautiful."
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Jim Butcher |
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b5f29a1
|
You're unconscious, moron," my double said to me. "We can finally talk to one another."
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Jim Butcher |
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3d5856b
|
My double snorted. "That's good. That really is, the banter thing. I can't do the banter very well. Maybe that's why you're in charge. Of course, if I was in charge more often, you'd get laid a lot more--but no, that's not it, either."
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Jim Butcher |
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a586e46
|
I let out a battle cry. Sure, a lot of people might have mistaken it for a sudden yelp of unmanly fear, but trust me: It was a battle cry.
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Jim Butcher |
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949b38d
|
Harry. That's not how one talks to young ladies in the South.
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Jim Butcher |
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86b5bcf
|
They were huge, six feet long not including the tail, and as high as my belly at their shoulders. Their entirely human eyes shone, as did their bared fangs.
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Jim Butcher |
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b0057f7
|
You are the only man I ever met," Tera growled, "who would smash the paws that are trying to free you from certain death."
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|
Jim Butcher |
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4f8c8db
|
You can't," Grimm said simply. "You've seen the mistmaw. They haven't."
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Jim Butcher |
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02d81dc
|
There is but one reality, that is true -- but the two of you experience it in slightly different ways. The older you get, I should think, the more you will come to understand that the universe is very much a looking glass, Miss Lancaster.
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reality
multiple-realities
perception
perception-of-reality
|
Jim Butcher |
|
596be29
|
It was why no sane cat allowed kits to come anywhere near human beings. Humans seemed to feel that it was perfectly acceptable to teach kits to accept food from their hands as a matter of course, rather than teaching them the importance of hunting skill and self-reliance.
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tamingmusicians
humans-and-animals
self-reliance
|
Jim Butcher |
|
80c88bb
|
Fear was wisdom in a situation like this, and he was pleased that Folly was obviously intelligent enough to know it. He hoped that she would use the fear to make her cleverer, rather than more foolish, but that was asking much of a human, relatively odd or not.
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wisdom
humans-and-animals
foolishness
|
Jim Butcher |
|
89e64f9
|
Handy, humans, Rowl thought. Clumsy, slow, and not always terribly bright, but they were very strong, through sheer, inarguable mass. He now saw his father's wisdom in desiring to keep a few of them around the home tunnels. They could manage annoying problems that might prove awkward and time-consuming for cats.
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strength
humans-and-animals
mass
|
Jim Butcher |
|
b631206
|
The very best wizards don't need much more than chalk, table salt, and a wooden spoon to pull off some remarkable stuff.
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|
Jim Butcher |
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f047b48
|
So I, uh, sort of threw myself out of the passenger seat of a moving car. Don't look at me like that. I'm telling you, it made sense at the time.
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|
Jim Butcher |
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ba668f5
|
Freaking manipulative faeries," I"
|
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|
Jim Butcher |
|
d92857f
|
Matson threw up his skinny arms to protect himself as something huge and quick shoved its way between the bars, like a big dog going through a rotten picket fence, and engulfed him.
|
|
|
Jim Butcher |
|
96ec031
|
There was a horrible, wrenching sound, a screech of protesting metal, and one of the screams peaked at a shivering, violent point--then dissolved into a strangled mishmash of sounds, of tearing and snapping and popping, of gurgling and thudding. And when they were finished, something, something big, with a cavernous, resonating chest, snarled from not ten feet beyond the security door.
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|
Jim Butcher |
|
3a2cede
|
The belts do more than make you fuzzy, Denton. They change the way you think. The way you act.
|
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|
Jim Butcher |
|
79ea348
|
Ah, yes. 'And I'll huff. And I'll puff. And I'll blow your house down.' Good-bye, wizard." Death by nursery tale. Hell's bells."
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|
Jim Butcher |