Witch's Bell Book One

managed to look like Ebony. How did that work?
    'We got to go now,' Ben motioned to Nate. 'We've got something come up down-town, another bust up between the Maldini brothers.'
    Nate unfolded his arms and nodded automatically.
    'As for you, Eb,' Ben's usual smile was now back in force, 'I want you to promise me two things. Number one: don't check yourself out of hospital until you're allowed to leave. If you do, I'm going to send Nate here to track you down and drag you back. Even if he has to arrest you.'
    This brought an enormous grin to Nate's face; one Ebony couldn't share for a moment. 'What-' she began to protest.
    'Two,' Ben rolled on, 'I want you at work on Monday, nine a.m. sharp.'
    'Nine in the morning,' she repeated, incredulous at the very suggestion.
    'Yeah, regular hours for you now. And you have to stay at work till five-thirty. No ducking off because you'd rather have a nap.'
    Nate gave a chuckle. Once again, Ebony didn't join in. 'But-' she began.
    'No buts, Eb, you're human now – and this is how we do it. Now we've got to go. You know what you've got to do, and you know what will happen if you don't do it.' With that Ben waved a short goodbye, and ducked out of the room.
    Nate followed, but not before peaking his eyebrows at Ebony and smiling sardonically.
    Just as Ebony was looking around for something to throw at the departing detectives, Ben ducked his head back around the door. 'One more thing, Eb.'
    'What?' she spat back.
    'I'm glad you're okay.'
    Slightly disarmed, Ebony just nodded at him. She listened to their departing footsteps echoing through the corridor – straining her ears till she could hear them no longer.
    Well that little visit had answered some of her questions, but also posed others. She now knew what she was going to do for the next twenty-eight days: hang around the office looking through old files of magical criminals, and stealing what scraps of food she could off the desks of others. She knew what she was supposed to do, alright, but just how she was supposed to do it still baffled her. Do humans really just throw on their clothes in the morning, and go out to meet the day with no idea what it will bring them, and no real way of changing what they didn't like?
    Another thing bothered her, Ebony began to realize with a strange flush. Just what was she supposed to do being beholden to the incredibly confusing Detective Nate for so long? She knew that he would hold her currently magicless state over her – like a child ogling at the once proud butterfly trapped in a glass jar.
    Just how was she supposed to deal with him? And how, Ebony gave an involuntary shiver, was she meant to deal with Chalcedony?
    Though Ebony wouldn't admit this to Nate, or even Ben, she had a bit of a history with Chalcedony. And that was putting it mildly. They'd once been best friends, after all.
    And when witches are best friends, they tend to form the types of ties that can moor a relationship through even the most tempestuous emotional storms. That being said, it was now firm fact that Ebony and Chalcedony were no longer on speaking terms.
    It was a little thing to do with a silly plastic toy. But Ebony felt herself fill up with frustration just thinking about it. And she noted, with a curious kind of detachment, how the anger seemed to pull through her, making her shiver with fatigue. Maybe Nate was right, maybe she really did need to rest up....
    And so with a whole month of possibilities brimming through her mind, Ebony forced her eyes to close. It would be alright, she tried to assure herself, as she surrendered to the weakness at the edge of her consciousness. She would make it through this month.
    But would she be the same at the end of it?
    Ebony checked herself out of hospital when she was permitted to leave. She'd resisted the urge to check herself out early, even though she would have loved to see if a) Ben would come good on his threat, and send Nate after her; and b) if Nate would be good enough to track her down; and c) whether he'd actually arrest her.
    But now Ebony just sighed, trying not to look too sheepish as her father pulled up the car in front of the hospital doors. His face had worn precisely the same expression since he'd come to see her yesterday. It was the same look he'd given her when she'd wondered off into the city as a child; the same look as when she'd fallen off her bike and broken her leg; and the very same look as when she'd been magically mugged on her very