Witch's Bell Book One

herself as small a target as possible, or as if she was receding from the scene like a flower closing before the night.
    Perhaps she sensed Ebony, or perhaps the flash of light awoke her, but at that exact moment, the woman looked up and straight at Ebony. Even from a distance, Ebony could see the woman's eyes alight, widen at the sight of someone unexpected in this terrible crypt. Her lip dropped open too, a tiny gasp managing to escape.
    The man suddenly paused in his mutterings, dipping his head to the side to stare at the woman, and then over to whatever she must be staring at – Ebony.
    Ebony's stomach tightened. She had barely a moment to think about how bad this was. This maniac had gone and done precisely what Ebony had assured Nate wouldn't happen – he'd kidnapped a near-and-dear from the ghost's life, in order to keep it in check. Whoever this woman was, she would be so important to the recently deceased, that its ghost wouldn't dare risk attacking the crypt. It was a classic hostage situation, in a way. Well, a classic magical hostage situation.
    The man had an ashen face, with sallow skin that seemed to drip from his bones like rubber that has melted in the sun. His eyes were large, too large, and had the blue-gray tint of pale storm clouds. He was young, maybe late thirties or early forties. But whatever life he'd led, whatever horrors he'd subjected his body to, they'd aged him decades. He had short, cropped, black hair, and wore a black robe to match it, the hems embroidered with silver symbols. He wore a medallion too, which hung low on a gold chain, till it rested against his solar plexus. Ebony wasn't close enough to see what the medallion was made off, or what symbols he'd managed to scratch over it, but whatever it was it would be there for one purpose.
    'What?' Ebony let the word slip from her mouth. 'You idiot,' she said, the word as vicious and sudden as a blow from a whip. The medallion would be acting as a beacon – a gathering point for magical forces to be channeled through the man, and into the rite he was performing. But just like any beacon, the thing would be broadcasting on all ranges. Attracting to it, not just the magic of the void, but the magic of any creature nearby that could pick up the signal. It was the equivalent of painting a target on your head, in witch-terms, and walking up to a hardened criminal, handing him a gun and then insulting his wife. There was only one way this could end.
    The man's face suddenly soured. Maybe he wasn't expecting a woman to walk in wearing a sodden white dress and a police vest, and maybe he wasn't expecting she'd have just enough reverence for his magical rite to call him an idiot – but the man's expression only grew into a deeper, stranger mix of anger, frustration, and hatred.
    'Who,' he said the word with a sharp exhalation of air, 'are you?'
    'You don't get to know that,' Ebony leveled the gun, 'all you have to know is, I'm here to stop you.'
    The man didn't snap back his head and laugh, like the maniacs always did in the movies. He just watched Ebony for a moment, his eyes fixed on her with such concentration it appeared as if he'd never look at another thing ever again. 'You can't do that,' he eventually offered. 'This is a magical rite. You cannot disturb the forces I have summoned.'
    She smiled, showing her teeth. 'I'm a trained witch, Mr. I think I know a little bit more about magic than you do.'
    The man snarled at her, yellow, irregular teeth jutting out between his thin lips. 'A witch? A child of Hecate? A child of the moon? You are nothing-'
    Ebony responded by firing off a round right into the ground by his feet. 'I got through your protection spell, son, and now I'm going to cut through your lies too. Let the girl go, and we'll have a talk about magic and cemetery etiquette.'
    The man slowly shifted his gaze from Ebony, turning and gazing down at the woman by the wall. He simply smiled. ‘What interests me,’ his eyes suddenly widened till they were totally rimmed with white, 'is how you got in here.'
    'Your spell was pathetic,' Ebony said, voice quick. 'It was easy, too easy to break th-'
    Ebony suddenly frowned as the man simply reeled back with anger. It was too easy to get through, she completed the sentence in her mind. Way to easy. 'You've done it, haven't you?' she said, voice a hiss. 'You've gone and got the attention of something horrible.'
    The man, whether he understood or not, simply laughed. 'I will complete