Witch's Bell Book One (50 page)

Ebony huffed. She was overwhelmed, she
decided, just snowed-under by all this information. What was she
meant to think, let alone do?

She took a moment to blink. Not that
blinking was going to help her, but that didn't matter.

“
Wait a second,” she looked back
up at him, “if you have the book .... If you have the book from the
crypt, then we can end this spell,” she curled her hands up into
tight fists.

“
Technically,” Nate
conceded.

“
Technically?” Harry roared. “Go
get the book, you rotter, and I'll blow the ruddy thing into a
thousand pieces.”

“
I'd really rather you didn't,”
Nate said evenly. “I need that book, and I need the spell on Ebony,
for now.”

Ebony, despite the situation,
laughed.
“Excuse me?”

“
I've come this far, can't
hardly give up now.” He shrugged his shoulders.

“
You're going to let the spell
complete itself,” her head ticked quickly to the side, “let me be
rewritten, let me die, just so you can catch your little
criminal?”

“
I'm not going to let you die,”
he rolled his eyes. “But yeah, I need to find out who—”

“
You need to go get that book
right now,” Ebony hissed. “Before I get Harry to redesign your
house, and half the block.”

“
Be reasonable, Ebony. The
safety of the whole planet is on the line. If a creature comes
through that Portal, it will—”

But before Nate could finish his
sentence, there came a noise from the front door.

A very specific noise. A
bang.

Chapter 22

Nate didn't say anything, just ducked
down, and grabbed the broadsword from the crumpled suit of
armor.

Ebony's heart began to race as the
sounds from the front of the house only grew louder, and a lot more
destructive.

Nate carefully closed the door to the
room they were in. He turned sharply, teeth set.

“
Ah,” Harry said carefully. “We
have company. Probably more nancy wizards. And they're probably
after the gold.”

“
What?” Nate hissed.

“
Never mind, no time to
explain,” Harry shifted himself around on the ground. “Now, unless
you want those bearded-louts destroying your house, I suggest we
get out of here.”

“
Nice plan,” Nate's teeth were
still clenched. “But I don't exactly have an escape route in
here.”

“
No? You should always pack at
least one escape plan when heading into trouble, I find it always
helps.”

Nate swallowed, but didn't
answer.
“Ebony, you stay in here, I'll go out and—”

“
And what, get a fire-ball to
the face? I'm sure it would improve your visage, Knight, but I
wouldn't suggest it. No, I say we high-tail it out of here, and aim
for the Grimshores.” Harry was rocketing around on the floor with
obvious anticipation.

“
How?” Nate snapped, clutching
the heavy sword easily.

More bangs and crashes filtered in
through the closed door, and Ebony fancied they now only had
seconds to spare.

“
Time to open up a crack in the
space-time continuum. Temporarily, of course,” Harry assured them.
Then he settled down onto the floor-boards and proceeded to open
up. The traveling case clicked open, the mouth of the bag revealing
a swirling, twisting vortex.

Nate shot Ebony a quick glance, just
as the sound of shouts filtered in from the kitchen
beyond.

“
Geth insthide, now,” Harry
said, as if speaking around a mouthful.

The vortex crackled, sparked, and
danced. It looked like a living puff of black smoke, studded with
the glints of stars and snaking twirls of energy.

Nate raised his sword, and grabbed
ahold of the door handle, trying to stop it from being wrenched
open from beyond.

Something thudded into the
door.

Ebony looked at the door, looked at
Nate, then looked at Harry.

Then she made a decision.

She pelted over to Nate, grabbed his
arm, and pulled him towards the vortex.

“
Come on!” she screamed, just as
the door cracked under the weight of some terrible
force.

As shards of wood splintered this way
and that, Ebony tugged Nate towards the portal. Then, with a final
wrench, she jumped towards it, pulling the erstwhile Detective in
tow.

The vortex swirled out to meet them,
like a hand clutching from beyond. As soon as they were inside, the
view of the room vanished, replaced by a tornado of colors and
sounds.

All around Ebony it appeared as if
reality were decaying, twisting, unfurling. It was like being
placed inside a blender, while every color of the rainbow, and
every sound of the scale, was dumped in with her. Everything
swirled before her, through her, and over her. She felt immersed,
subsumed, and integrated.

She felt like space itself, like time,
like movement, like matter. For a brief moment, Ebony felt reality,
and felt like reality.

She felt at one.

But just as soon as the moment began,
it ended. And Ebony found herself lying face first on an
expensive-looking Persian rug. She also found Detective Nate was
lying on top of her.

“
Get off,” she said, just as he
was standing up.

He leaned down and instantly offered
her a hand, pulling her to her feet with ease. Then he looked
around him, then back to her, then down at the rug. His eyes were
wide, but that was the only sign that jumping through a
bookstore-vortex had frazzled him.

“
Wow,” he intoned quietly, “what
just happened? Where are we, and where's Harry?”

Ebony took a shaky breath,
trying to clear her mind. She'd never traveled like this
before
–
whatever this had actually been. The taste of the vortex still
remained in her mouth, and it tasted like eternity. “Ah ... where
are we? She took a look around the room. It was incredibly
luxurious, with a soft Persian-rug, beautiful antique furniture,
and stylish pictures on the wall. There was also a fireplace, and a
coat-of-arms sitting just above the mantel piece. A very familiar
coat-of-arms.

Two lions and an upright
sword.

“
Grimshores,” she said quietly,
“my guess is we are in the house of the Grimshores. Or at least one
of their houses, considering how rich they are.”

Nate looked around carefully,
expression growing less alarmed, but still with an edge of extreme
caution.
“But how did we get here? I've experienced my fair share of
magical transport – but that was—”

“
Harry,” she finished off his
sentence. “Harry Horseshoe was an incredible wizard in his day,
Nate, and I fancy he still is. The old guy has read more books and
seen more stuff than you or I could hope to imagine. I'm sure he
probably learned that vortex trick off a dragon in Nepal, or
something.”

Nate just shrugged his
shoulders, keeping a wary eye on the closed door behind
them.
“Where
is he then?”

“
I imagine he's still back at
your house ...” her voice trailed off.

“
You think he's
okay?”

She took a moment and then
nodded concertedly.
“If anyone can fight off those wizards, it's
Harry.”

“
But why send us here?” Nate
kept looking around, probably taking in every detail he
could.

“
To finish this story,” Ebony
realized with a blink, “and quickly.”

“
But if we'd stayed at the
house, we could have fought, we could have—”

Ebony put up a hand.
“Listen to me,
Nate. You say you need to find out who is behind the Grimshores,
who is manipulating the Portal. Well maybe Harry is giving you your
chance.”

“
But, Ebony, you can't be here,”
he said quickly, gaze flickering for a second. “The closer you come
to the Grimshores, the more you act-out against them – the more you
feed the spell.”

Ebony's lips gave a little tremble.
She hadn't thought of that.

“
You have to get away from here,
I'll see to the Grimshores.”

She paused and then shook her
head.
“No.
I'm not leaving.”

“
Ebony, plea—”

“
No. This is my story, Nate,
mine. I need to finish it. Or I need to die trying. That's why
Harry sent me here,” she took a rattling breath, “to give me the
opportunity to finish this how I want to.”

“
This is madness. Let
me—”

“
I don't think so. I'm done
playing. I'm done running. I'm done thinking. It's my turn to act,”
as she spoke her skin became hot. She felt as if she were amassing
some great energy within her, as if someone had just kindled a fire
deep inside her heart.

Nate licked his lips and just
stared at her for a second. Then he gave a quiet laugh.
“Now you get
involved? Now you become brave. Now you get forthright? You've been
running confused for several weeks now—”

“
And now I'm turning around to
face the devil, as it were,” she put her hands on her hips. She was
strangely aware of herself, she realized, strangely aware of how it
felt to be Ebony Bell.

She could feel her skin, feel her
hands, feel her feet, feel her heart. She was aware of her
thoughts, of the determination rising in her like steam off boiling
water.

Ebony felt like Ebony Bell. Witch,
woman, human.

She sniffed.

Nate looked at her, slightly
awed.
“You
look ... determined.”

“
That's because I am determined.
No,” she suddenly corrected herself with a sharp smile, “I'm not
determined. My destiny, my life, is no longer going to be
determined by anyone else – not the Grimshores, not my mother, not
the Coven, not even you.”

Nate's gaze shifted, but he didn't say
anything.

“
I'm not determined by
anything,” she repeated, “I am determination instead.”

Then Nate laughed.
“That sounds like
Will Magic, Ebony. You sure you've never heard of
Knights.”

“
No, this is my magic. And it's
time for me to use it.”

Just as Ebony finished her sentence,
something happened.

There were two soft, barely-audible
thuds as two bracelets hit the carpet.

Ebony slowly brought her wrists up and
stared at them. The bracelets were gone.

Then there was a click, and her choker
fell from her neck, like a dead petal from a rose.

“
Ebony,” Nate moved forward,
clearly surprised, “your bracelets—”

A smile started to grow on her lips.
She slowly ran her hands over her wrists. She felt the flesh, felt
the warmth, and she felt the magic. In fact, she realized that she
had never stopped feeling the magic. It had always been there,
Harry had been right. Her only mistake had been in believing that
someone could take it away from her.

Nate leaned down and picked up
one of the bracelets and then he looked at Ebony. His gaze was
different now. For the very first time, Nathan Wall looked
impressed by Ebony Bell. It wasn't her looks, her personality, her
humor
– it
wasn't anything about her. It wasn't a feature, a facet, a face. It
was the whole gem that had caught his eye.

People can become impressed by an
aspect of something, but very rarely do they allow themselves to be
impressed upon by something in its whole.

She smiled.
“Shocked? Because I am,” she
kept the smile on her lips and then started to laugh easily. “I
really didn't think it would be this easy.”

Nate shared her smile, though
he still kept an eye on the door.
“What are you talking about? What about
this entire situation is easy?”

“
All you have to do,” she said
mostly for her own benefit, “is decide what you want. And then all
you have to do is go after it. Direct yourself towards it; heading
set, course locked in.”

“
Ebony,” Nate began.

It was just so simple, it really was!
Ebony kept the smile on her face, and felt the electric-warmth of
the realization flood through her, like hot water through cracks in
the ice. All she'd ever needed was to decide what she
wanted.

Her whole life. That's all she'd
needed.

She'd looked this way and that,
for distraction, for entertainment, for meaning. But she hadn't
realized that the true reality had always resided within. Her
wants, her desires
– she was what gave her life meaning. Not the other way
round.

Don't look outside for what lies
within. Ebony closed her eyes for a brief moment. All these years
she'd failed to realize that. You don't wait for life to give you
meaning, you give life meaning.

Nate walked up to her, placed a
hand gently on her shoulder.
“What's going on?”