Witch's Bell Book One

can't believe it. You just spaced, again. What are you even thinking about?'
    'Ha?' Ebony snapped back to reality.
    'I've mentioned Chalcedony twice now, both times its sent you off in a little bit of a vacant tizz. I call that a pattern. So, what's the deal between you two? Not to try and drive a wedge between you, but you don't seem like friends.'
    Ebony just wanted to get to work, as strange as it sounded, and retreat to her new castle of files and windows. But she'd have to make it past the Questioning Knight first. 'You really want to know? We used to be good friends – best friends.'
    'What happened?'
    'She stole my toy.'
    Nate tried not to laugh, but his bottom lip wobbled a bit. 'She stole your toy. How old were you?'
    'Twenty.'
    'Right.... What kind of toy was it?'
    'It was a plastic figurine,' Ebony took several steps away from the car, trying to signal to Nate that the conversation had run its natural course.
    He finally closed the car door, automatically flattening his tie. 'A plastic Figurine. You, a witch, ended a friendship with another witch, over a plastic toy.'
    'It wasn't over the plastic toy,' Ebony corrected, voice terse. 'It was over the fact she stole it.'
    Nate's expression was priceless – a mixture of confusion and amusement that made his usually strong chin dimple slightly. He licked his lips. 'Right. What did this plastic toy look like? I mean, was it a limited edition Darth Vader or Barbie?'
    'It was a little plastic knight,' she said with a vague smile. She'd loved that knight, she really had.
    For a second, a very strange expression crossed Nate's face. But it was gone quickly, and in its place came derision. 'You ended a friendship over a plastic knight... okay. I don't get witches.'
    'No,' Ebony said, turning on her heel, finally deciding the conversation – or interrogation – wasn't going to end until she ended it herself. 'You don't understand women, there's a difference.'
    He tipped his head to the side, eyes slowly blinking. 'Are you sure about that?'
    But before Ebony could ask him what that meant, he turned, waved a brief goodbye over his shoulder, and walked off.
    She just stood there for a moment, watching his departing form with confusion, annoyance, frustration, a world of other pressing emotions.
    Argh! What an odd man! And what an odd morning. This no-magic thing was proving to be way more trouble than it was worth. It was making the once proud, beautiful, elegant, sassy, and in-control Ebony a clumsy, spacey, eccentric, emotional wreck.
    Three more weeks of this and Ebony would be a completely different person.
    Feeling sick at the very thought of it, Ebony Bell finally walked into the station, arriving for her second day of work later and more confused than ever.

Chapter Twelve
    E bony was having a strange day. It was a Friday, and technically the end of the working week, but that didn't stop it from being strange. In fact, it made it all the stranger.
    Ebony had finally figured out this whole "public transport" thing, and had settled on walking to work instead. She'd found a route that managed to get her from her own door, and up to the dusty top-floor of the Vale Police Department, in forty-five minutes. And while, once upon a time, Ebony wouldn't have ever bothered with walking such a distance - usually using some magical luck to bum a lift, or finding some excuse to put off the outrageously far appointment - this was no longer a strategy she could afford to enjoy. It had taken her three days to realize that if you knew how long it took to walk somewhere, then you had to give yourself that much time, and a little extra, in order to make your appointment. No longer could she rely on some handsome wizard zooming past on his Harley, just in time to whip her across town. Ebony had to find her own way, and in her own time.
    Despite having finally calculated the distance and time it took to walk to the police station, Ebony had still been late that morning. She hadn't allotted enough "extra" time for the extraordinary. Despite no longer being a witch, and being consequently incapable of sensing or overtly attracting the magical – that didn't mean she wasn't a magnet for the weird and unexpected. It just meant that the weird that did come her way wasn't waving a wand, chanting spells, and throwing lightning bolts. That still left a whole universe of mundane-strange to get all up in her face. And get all up in her face it had.
    On one street corner, while she had