Witch's Bell Book One

breakfast and just potter.
    With a warm, gentle sun filtering in through the blinds, Ebony found herself settling down onto one of the couches on the lower level, hot cup of chocolate in hand, and half-eaten pastry between her lips. As the crumbs tumbled down her front, she reached around herself for some reading material. That was the great thing about working in a second-hand bookstore, there was never a shortage of things to read.
    Ebony clutched at a little novel poking up between several volumes of a very old gardening magazine, and tugged it free. She glanced at the cover. It showed a swooning maiden in the arms of, presumably, her lover, that or an incredibly friendly stranger. The woman had a blissful, but kind of stupid, look on her face. Ebony shook her head. Did people actually read this kind of junk?
    She turned the book over and quickly read the blurb. It promised a tale of seduction, chase, and titillating romance. The heroine it seemed, though that word could hardly be appropriately used for someone who appeared so pathetic, was swept off her feet by a passing stud, and saved from her life of misery and toil.
    Ebony gave a chuckle and just tossed the book to the side. She grabbed at a gardening magazine instead. She leafed through, taking in the old, but still pretty, pictures. It showed lush, inviting, amazing gardens. Ebony was suddenly taken by how wondrous it would be to live in the country, in such a nice old house, and have a rose and herb garden as wide and winding as the eye could see.
    She put the magazine down. Then again, she wouldn't like to do the work such a garden would require.
    Ebony munched through another section of her pastry, taking a quick draft of her chocolate to wash it down. She wiped her fingers against her top, and reached behind her for something else to read. This time she pulled out a book promising personal power. It was some kind of self-help book, but with an edge of crazy. The picture on the front was of a man with wide, electric eyes, staring down at his hands as they zapped with power. Ebony bit into her lip, more than a little amused, and turned the book over. It promised her that, upon reading and practicing the seven steps inside, she would be blessed with the kind of power "everyone wanted", the kind of power that let people "control the world like the world once controlled them", so they could stop being "just a pawn in the great game of life, and start being a player instead".
    Ebony just chuckled and put the book back where it had come from. Not that she was a complete unbeliever - she was a witch after all - but that book seemed to offer something that no one would really want. Minus the frightful looking man with the electric hands on the cover, who would want the power of the universe, really? What would you do with it? Get yourself a million Ferraris and then run out of ideas?
    It was the same with the gardening magazine and that silly romance. All ideas that looked good from the outside, but once involved in the situation, you would quickly realize that they either required too much effort to maintain, or weren't as inviting as they once appeared.
    Finally there was a knock on the door, and Ebony glanced up at the clock to see that it was indeed eight o'clock already.
    'Come in,' she called, hoping Harry would be polite enough to let the person in. It would be one of three people: her father, Ben, or Nate. She'd lost track of the conversation last night, or it hadn't been decided at that point, but Ebony wasn't quite sure who's car she'd be hopping into.
    But as she stood, she realized she truly looked like a slob. And while her father would hardly notice, and Ben would just shake his head, Nate would....
    Ebony glanced around. Did she have any clothes in this damn place? While she could run home and try and find something nice, sleek, and sassy, that would probably not be a good strategy considering the entire point of being picked up was so that she was never alone.
    'Ahh,' she started, still desperately glancing around. She could go out the back and get one of her ceremonial gowns, but it might look like a bit much.
    The bell tinkled and the person, whoever they were, walked in.
    Ebony found herself jumping from foot to foot, something she'd never done as a witch, but something she apparently couldn't avoid as a mundane woman.
    'I brought you some clothes,' the voice said from behind her.
    In a flick, Ebony stopped jumping. She turned to see her