Witch's Bell Book One

them go, considering how darn pretty they were, but she quickly realized that trotting over sloping metal in heels afforded about as much traction as detergent against ice.
    So she left them there, her beautiful lavender heels, just sitting on the roof of the Turkish Takeaway. Maybe one day she'd be able to go back and get them. Or, more likely, Mohammad would go outside to find it raining shoes.
    Ebony continued along barefoot, her toes and heels practically digging into the metal like hands into dirt. She tried to grip the old metal as best she could, while trying to keep low and crouched. So far it seemed to be working, but it was also giving her a perfect little backache.
    By the time Ebony had made it to the far side of Mohammad's roof, she'd started to get the hang of her awkward roof-gait. She even managed to leap the small distance between his roof and the next with relative ease, even though she did give out a little grunt worthy of a gymnast – a very quiet gymnast who was doing her very best to hide from the judges with guns and wands.
    With tremendous care, patience, and the agility that no amount of magical punishment could take away – Ebony actually made it. Though the last leg of her journey was dire indeed – with the risk that any sound she made would carry easily down to the police below – she finally, painfully, and carefully made it onto the roof of her own shop.
    She could feel it move ever so subtly underneath her feet too. Harry seemed to give this sigh, that brought a rising, but pleasant, heat to the roofing tin.
    'I'm glad to be back too,' she mouthed. Not wanting to even let a whisper escape her lips.
    But now she was on his roof, Harry was going to protect her. She found herself walking with relative comfort and ease until she made it onto the nook of flat concrete, and finally to the door.
    The door swung open without her having to say a word. And finally, finally, Ebony Bell walked back into Harry's Second-Hand Bookstore.
    But she wasn't going to be able to mooch around with her music on full-bore, eating candy and dancing like a loon. No. There was a gaggle of cops and wizards trying to break-in, and she doubted they were after something cheap to read.
    Ebony steeled herself with a breath, and tried to think of a what to do next.

Chapter Nineteen
    E bony needed a plan, and she needed one right now. About twenty cops and wizards were about to burst through her door, if they could get past Harry, and... and likely do something.
    That was the thing; she had no idea what they wanted. She could guess though, considering the general lamentable theme of her day, that they didn't want to invite her out to tea. Likely the Grimshores had ramped up their curse, and were getting ready to punish Ebony further.
    All she hoped, all she could possibly wish for right now, was that Harry's magic would hold. She wasn't kidding when she said that he'd been a powerful wizard, and that he still retained the majority of that power. In his day, Harry Horseshoe had been a force to reckon with. And he still was; he just had more heavy books and sharp bits of wood to do the reckoning with.
    It was a very good sign that they hadn't broken in yet, it meant that Harry could handle them. But get a gaggle of wizards on her doorstep, all casting fire-spells at the shop, and even Harry might start to sweat.
    'Harry,' Ebony said in a full voice, knowing that Harry wouldn't let the sounds carry outside to alert the police that she was actually in, 'what are we meant to do now?'
    'Blast the trumps off the blasted pavement,' Harry boomed in his crackly voice.
    Ebony, once again, blinked, shocked by his sudden use of his voice. He hardly ever talked to her. Really, in the several years that she'd owned this store, Harry had only mumbled at her a hand-full of times, and only ever when there was some pressing maintenance issue.
    But now his voice was as loud, present, and dusty, as the rest of the store. 'Ebony, there's powerful magic in the air – clinging to you like a cloud.'
    Ebony nodded, taking an automatic, deep breath. Really, it seemed the only two bodily movements she was capable of at the moment were deep breaths and blinks. Her body was obviously reverting to its primal state. Her hind brain taking over the majority of her processing power, just to keep her upright. 'I know Harry, I know,' she brushed at her arms compulsively.
    'Then lets blast it away,' he said, voice as gruff and grating as wood