Witch's Bell Book One

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 a hold 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 seemed to swirl 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 seemed 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-or-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