Witch's Bell Book One

pulled up before the Round Table while you're fighting for your life against a rewriting spell? You really that masochistic?'
    Ebony pressed her teeth together and just stared at him. 'How do you know about the spell?' she asked after a moment. 'In fact, it was you that drew my attention to the fact I couldn't act-out against the Grimshores. If you hadn't shown me, I probably would never have found out, and I'd probably still have friends, a job, and a hope!'
    'Ah, well. I haven't been completely honest with you there,' he was unusually sheepish, considering his forthright nature.
    She simply kept her arms crossed.
    He patted a hand along his neck. He was having great difficulty saying whatever was on his mind.
    'Oh no,' Harry suddenly growled, 'you didn't, did you? You didn't use Ebony as bait?'
    Nate clenched his jaw and sucked his lips in. 'Yeah, I did.'
    'What?' Ebony snapped.
    Nate put up a hand. 'Okay, I used you as bait. I knew that spell was on you... because I was the one that found the book in the crypt.'
    'But you... you said no one had found it!' Ebony's voice was tight and high.
    'I lied. I found it, and took it home,' he shrugged. 'And you're lucky I did. Otherwise whoever is working for the Grimshores – whoever is manipulating the Portal – they would have grabbed that book instead. And if they'd gotten it, Ebony,' he looked directly at her, 'you wouldn't be here anymore.'
    'Hardly an excuse,' Harry roared, 'taking the book for protection was one thing, but you haven't broken the spell! You've just left it there, letting it run its course, letting it sap at Ebony's life while you just stand around and straighten your tie.'
    Ebony's skin began to prickle and she took an enormous sniff. 'Why?' was all she could manage to ask.
    Nate, for perhaps the first time in his life, looked truly ashamed. 'I had to,' he tried to explain. 'Ebony, you don't understand how important this is. What's happening with the Portal-'
    She put up a hand. 'You think the Grimshores are somehow manipulating the Portal-'
    'No, I think whoever is helping the Grimshores is manipulating the Portal. You don't get to be where the Grimshores are, without having connections, magical connections. And I'd say that whoever is helping them, is probably the person I'm looking for-'
    'Probably? You're not even sure, are you? This is all speculation,' Ebony's voice was getting louder. 'You think that someone magical is helping the Grimshores. You think that someone is manipulating the Portal. You think that the two are connected. And based on all those thoughts, you put me in danger,' she nodded her head slowly, even though she wasn't agreeing with anything.
    'You rotter,' Harry concluded.
    Nate pinched his nose again. 'Look. You don't understand. I wasn't going to let anything happen to you. I saved you from the mugging, remember? I had my eye on you, Ebony; I wasn't going to let any real harm happen to you. I just had to find out-'
    She stared at him. 'No harm? Everyone has turned against me. I've lost my job. I've had my magic taken away-'
    Nate clicked his fingers. 'Exactly. You were punished for the slightest of crimes, before the Grimshore spell could really take effect. That's why I acted in the way I did, Ebony, I swear. It doesn't make sense that you were punished the way you were unless the Coven, or one of the Coven Witches, had something to gain.'
    'But why?' Ebony's voice peaked with desperation. 'None of this fits together!' she put her hands on her neck, trying to alleviate the growing tension. 'In the crypt, in the cemetery – there was something gathering,' she suddenly remembered the eyeless birds, and gave a shiver. 'It was all too easy. Something had come before me and sapped the magic out of the protection spells.... And that man in the crypt, he didn't have a clue what he was wearing, what he was saying – he was setting himself up to be attacked, to be absorbed, to be consumed by a greater magical-force....' Ebony tipped her head back and took a deep breath. 'If you're right, if a witch was working for the Grimshores, then why on Earth was it so easy for me to stop the spell? Why was the magic so weak to begin with? Any witch worth her money would have known that other creatures would be flocking to that cemetery-'
    'That's the point,' Nate kept trying to straighten his tie.
    'Oh, I hope not,' Harry muttered from the floor, 'because that is a terrible point.'
    'What?' Ebony sighed desperately. 'You all seem to know