Blood Rites (The Dresden Files, #6)

by Jim Butcher

what I believed in. The five-pointed star of the pentacle represented the five forces of the universe, those of air, fire, water, earth, and of spiritual energy, laid into patterns of order and life and bound within a circle of human thought, human will. I believed that magic was fundamentally a force of life, of good, something meant to protect and preserve. I believed that those who wielded it therefore had a responsibility to use that power in the way it was meant to be used—and that was belief enough to tap into the vast power of faith, and to direct it against One-ear.

That’s why I felt such anger and shame when I looked at Thomas. I was staring into a mirror, and I didn’t like what I saw there.

“Right isn’t the same thing as cruel. I’m sorry.”

“Supply and demand,” I said. “There are limits to what outside forces can deliver to the mortal world. Think of the incoming power as water flowing through a pipeline. If a couple of people are using a rite once every couple of weeks, or every few years, there’s no problem pumping in enough magic to make it work. But if fifty thousand people are trying to use the rite all at once, there isn’t enough power in any one place to make it happen. It just comes out as a little dribble that tastes bad and smells funny.”