Witch's Bell Book One

“wrong”, not “right” at all.
    'Where's your car, anyway? I have to get to work at some point,' she stretched her neck to the side. 'Someone's got to leaf through those files.'
    'While the rest of us do the real police work,' he added, finally motioning her over to his car and opening the door for her. Ebony barely noted the move, but some part of her mind registered it.
    'I thought you were obsessed with history, and getting things right?' she sat down, buckling herself in before whipping her long hair over one shoulder so it didn't get messed up behind her. 'Well there's a lot of history up in those files and a lot of wrong too. There's a whole wall of shelves devoted to cold cases spanning the last 90 years – and some going back even further. I would have thought, for a square like you, it would be a wonder land.'
    'A square? Did you just hop a time machine from the 90's? I haven't heard that word in years.' He started the engine, carefully checking around before he pulled out from the curb.
    'You obviously don't hang out with geometry students then, or builders, or framers.'
    Nate paused, either paying attention to the traffic, or to the dig. 'No, I avoid them all.'
    'You're weird, Detective, very strange,' Ebony repositioned herself in her chair, feeling far more comfortable in Nate's car than she had in the car of the super-creepy cab driver.
    'Is that your opinion as a witch, or as an ordinary person?'
    Ebony didn't answer.
    'What's it like, anyway?' Nate finally broke the silence, interest subtle, but there. 'How are you adjusting?'
    'Oh, alcohol, drugs – the usual.'
    'Hmm, lucky I'm taking you to the police station then. But, seriously?'
    'Seriously? Look, do you actually care?'
    Nate replied with silence.
    'Fine. It's hard – harder than it should be.'
    'You mean you're finally learning to cut us humans some slack?'
    'I don't know,' Ebony sighed, more confusion swilling around her like poison in once clear water, 'it's all just so hard.'
    'I don't get it,' somehow Nate was paying equal amounts of attention to Ebony and to the road – without either task subtracting from the other. There was something very odd about the way he sometimes managed to streamline tasks like that. How he took everything in his stride like an accomplished master, or an unwavering knight. 'Is it hard being a human, or hard not being a witch?'
    Ebony sighed, very heavily this time. He was asking questions again, and she knew from previous experience that Detective Nate never let up. It just so happened that the line of questioning he was directing himself along was becoming more uncomfortable, though. 'Okay, look at it like this. All my life I've known what I'm meant to be – a witch. And all my life I've known how to secure that goal – through magic. Now, suddenly, I'm not a witch, and I don't have any magic. I don't know what to be, and I don't know what to do. I'm lost. And it's hard,' the words settled into the car like sediment settling into water. Ebony was starting to feel itchy all over, as it dawned on her just how uncomfortably honest this conversation was becoming.
    Nate was paying attention to the traffic, or at least Ebony hoped he was. She didn't want his pressed, keen concentration to be directed at her fumbling admissions instead.
    'Right.'
    Once again, Ebony simply didn't know what he meant. Did he mean everything was alright, or the opposite?
    'It doesn't matter though. Because it will only be like this for another couple of weeks. Then everything will return back to normal,' Ebony said quietly, possibly more for her own benefit than Nate's.
    'I don't know, a lot of things can change in a short time,' he angled his head away, checking his driver's side mirror.
    Once again Ebony was struck with the fact she simply didn't know what he meant. What was he trying to say? For a person usually as direct and forthright as Detective Nathan Wall, Ebony was starting to realize just how much mystery sat behind that square, but handsome mask.
    'Well, I guess. But I won't change,' she swallowed, 'I'm a witch....'
    'Right.'
    Ebony curled her toes. She wanted to reach around, grab his shoulders, and shake him. What was he trying to say?!
    'I'm curious though,' he said as he finally turned down the street that housed the police station, 'why did they take away your magic in the first place? Seems like a bizarre kind of punishment, especially considering the crime was pretty light.'
    She pressed her lips together.