Witch's Bell Book One

we do? Where do we concentrate our efforts? The Grimshores or the book? If I attack the Grimshores head on, won't the spell just accelerate? But how do I go about finding the book instead?'
    'Well, doing a location-spell is out,' Harry mumbled. 'If it's a magical creature that has that book, we don't want them sniffing out our spell and knowing we're after them.'
    'Hold on, maybe no one has the book,' Ebony's voice pitched with excitement. 'Maybe it's still at the crypt!'
    'Ha, you think if those bozo police officers had simply failed to retrieve it, that the Grimshores wouldn't have crept back in and grabbed it after all the heat had dissipated? No Ebony, my guess is someone has it. Not the Grimshores, but someone.'
    'Great,' Ebony sighed, 'but who?'
    'Maybe that's the wrong question to ask right now, kid. Let’s start with something easy, something manageable. The Grimshores and the book aren't the only things bothering you, are they? They aren't the only mysteries you want solved.'
    Ebony bit her lip, confused by Harry's words. Right now the Grimshores and their horrendous spell were the only things Ebony could think of.... She stopped. No, that wasn't entirely true, she told herself. She could think of Nate, for one. The way he'd seemed unaffected by the Grimshore spell, but the way he'd still viciously chased her out of the station. It had been him, after all, that had brought her attention to the Grimshore spell in the first place. If he hadn't pointed out to her that she couldn't say a word against the Grimshores, then maybe she wouldn't have gone against the spell and half of Vale wouldn't be after her right now.
    Ebony chewed on the edge of a fingernail, not liking this train of thought. It had been Nate that had saved her from the mugger the other night, just in the nick of time. It had been Nate that had assured her the book had never been recovered....
    'What are you thinking, girl? Fess up.'
    'Nathan,' she used his full name, and it sounded so odd to her. But possibly because she felt so odd about him at the moment. A swirling distrust was growing in her stomach. A distrust that reacted with her feelings like potassium reacting with water. She felt like her heart would just blow up if she didn't do something soon.
    'Ha! I thought so, such a rotter that one.'
    'No,' she protested passionately. 'He's not... he's just.'
    'An enigma. A mystery. A curiosity that must be investigated!' Harry's voice boomed. 'I agree, Ebony, I wholeheartedly agree. That boy of yours must be investigated, there's something very odd about him, indeed.'
    'He's,' she tried to form a thought, but couldn't. What was Nate, really? He'd always seemed to have a secret – something he kept from Ebony and the world, something ensconced behind that mask of his.
    'A target for investigation,' Harry declared. 'And a good one.'
    Ebony shrugged, feeling incredibly conflicted. 'Okay,' she sniffed, 'but how do we do that? I can't very well go back to the police station to face him – they'll likely shoot me, run me over, and then shoot me some more.'
    'Ha, oh, I don't think you should go and find him, Ebony.'
    'What?' she shook her head, confusion peaking her eyebrows. 'But you said-'
    'Oh no, I say we go to his house and look through his stuff. You know, do some detective work on the Detective.'
    'We should go? Harry, you're a building, how are you going to come along? I think the fuzz outside are going to notice if you suddenly pull yourself from your foundations and start walking down the street.'
    'Oh, silly girl, there's so much you don't know about me. Really, you need to get more learning in you – you haven't nearly enough,' a magazine by Ebony's feet suddenly puffed open to reveal a man trundling along with a large travel-case by his side. 'I can travel; in fact, I'm very good at it.'
    'I think you mean you could once travel. You're attached to this building now, Harry. I may no longer have mag- my magic may currently be contained, but even I know that.'
    'You doubt the great Harry Horseshoe? Do you have no sense of mind? I can travel, Ebony Bell, because I have a traveling case.'
    Ebony didn't reply, because that little statement didn't deserve one.
    'It's upstairs,' there was a tremendous thud from the mezzanine level, 'and I'm already packed.'
    'You are a spirit attached to a bookstore, Harry,' she said, voice blank. 'You're a bookstore. It doesn't matter if you have a traveling case, you can't travel!'
    Harry didn't reply, and