Witch's Bell Book One

serious problem here, and-'
    'Yes there is,' he agreed firmly, 'and it's you. Now leave,' Nate's expression was as stony as a quarry, and just as hard.
    Ebony's eyebrows practically crossed. 'No-'
    Nate pushed her back now. 'Would you rather be escorted out?' there wasn't an inch of warmth left anywhere on his expression, in his voice, or in those blazing eyes. But there wasn't confusion either, there was-
    She backed off, not sure of what to do.
    Chalcedony shook her head slightly. 'Ebony, you never knew when to quit. Even when we were kids, you'd always blaze ahead like an uncontrollable idiot. I was done with you long before you stole my lucky charm.'
    Ebony blinked back, still trying to duck out of the looming shadow of Nate, but confused by Chalcedony's claim. 'Sorry, what? Who stole who's lucky charm?'
    'My little plastic knight,' Chalcedony uncrossed her arms with a smile, and stared blatantly at Nate. 'Didn't count for much though, did it Ebony? Your uncontrollable, foolish ways have just led you happily into your current plight. You have no one else to blame, Ebony, no one else to blame,' she repeated the saying as if it were a prayer.
    'You stole my lucky charm!' Ebony blustered. Her lucky charm – her little plastic knight.
    It was a little plastic knight, in white and gray armor, with a little plastic, silver sword. She'd found it in the attic one-day when she was a child, and had carried it around with her like a teddy bear. She'd talked to it, confided in it, trusted it, and cherished it. And, being a witch, her adoration had imbued it with the kind of magic that solidified it as the luckiest of charms. Then, one day, it was gone.
    As the memory welled within her, Ebony, just for a second, realized how dumb it all sounded. Ending a friendship over something as silly as a little plastic toy?
    But now the course of history had changed, or memory at least, and Ebony was the one who had stolen, or lost, that little lucky charm. Another turn in her rapidly disintegrating wheel-of-fortune.
    She opened her mouth to reply, not really knowing what to say, but now Nate descended on her like a strike from the heavens above. He latched a hand over her elbow and twisted her to the side. For just the briefest of seconds, his expression seemed to change – to soften, to crinkle, to shiver. Then that rock of an expression was back. 'You were asked to leave; now I'm passed asking.' He twisted her arm until she couldn't help but follow the direction of the force, and he tugged her down the corridor.
    Though the various detectives and uniformed-officers around her looked on with interest, there was still the hint of that mild confusion over their faces. It sat above them like low-level cloud blocking out the vast sky above – befuddling and with the hint of rain.
    No one moved or said anything, not even Ben. Though his expression was far more pained than the rest. His eyes seemed to flicker, like a fire fighting to stay alight. But that was all.
    Ebony was being manhandled down the corridor, past her co-workers, and not one of them had a thing to say about it.
    'Let me go!' she protested vainly, putting up a fair fight, but stopping herself from actually reversing the Detective's grip and trying to flip him onto the floor. She still had the training of her father. And even though she was now a jobless, hated, magic less witch, she fancied she could still throw a man twice her size.
    By the time they'd reached the stairwell, and they were mostly alone, save the occasional suited-up detective - Ebony was pretty ready to fight back. 'Get your hands off me,' she warned, 'or so help me, I'm going to flip you. You're all under some stupid spell from the Grimsh-'
    'Ebony,' he hissed in her ear, not releasing his grip for a second, 'you say their name again, and I'll gag you.'
    She started to push against him, twisting her arm in his hand, till her wrist jammed against the gap in his thumbs, and she could finally tug herself free.
    She stepped quickly away from him, descending three or four of the stairs, pressing her back into the railing as she went, not wanting to take her eyes off him for a second.
    He didn't dive after her and latch onto her arm like a hook onto a fish, but he did walk after her. He sucked in his lips, his chin jutting out way more than usual, and his eyes blazing like a fire in a gas plant.
    If Ebony had ever seen Nate angry, she was wrong, dead wrong.
    Detective Nathan Wall was livid, and marching after