Witch's Bell Book One Read Free Page A

bookstore called Harry... a witch,' he repeated, voice uneven.
    Ben trundled up to him. 'I told you she was an important one to meet. But no, you didn't believe me,' he let out a stuttering laugh. 'That's the thing with rookies, always think they know best.'
    Ebony put a finger on her lips, and wondered just how much she should tell this man. He was a firecracker, to be sure. Full of determination, idiocy, and a freakish sense of right and wrong. Just the recipe for having something explode in your face.
    But Ebony had what could only be called a special relationship with the police force of this city. As resident Summoner Witch, she had to. The city of Vale, after all, was sitting right on top of a gate between worlds – a Portal. As such, though it already had its fair share of ordinary crime, it also had extraordinary crime. And that's where Ebony came in.
    Vale had truly ancient roots, and somewhere in its dark past a pact had been made between the witches and whatever ragtag bunch had then been equivalent to the police. When they had to, they worked together to keep its citizens safe. No one else had a clue about this pact, or even the existence of witches, for that matter. If Ebony walked up to an ordinary Valian and asked if they knew that there was a witch who did consultancy work for the police department, they'd likely laugh at her and quickly text a friend about the tool fool they'd seen in the street.
    Nevertheless, there was a pact, and it had held right up to this day. Somehow - no matter what happened to the governments, what political parties took hold, what practices were changed, what mayor was elected - the pact held. Even during the two World Wars, the witches of Vale had still kept up their bargain. Come rain, hail, shine, or demon, the Witches honored this sacred agreement.
    And for the most part, the police honored theirs. No witch was ever dragged off by secret government spies for questioning and prodding in a dark room. And no policeman ever had a hex, a love potion, or a curse thrown through their front window. The police knew what they had to do, and so did the witches. Keep to the bargain and somehow this unlikely alliance would last. Break the bargain, as the old witches had warned, and the witches would simply disappear.
    And guns and riot shields weren't entirely effective on a hoard of demons.
    So it was that Ebony had come to know Ben. Ebony had moved to this city when she was a sparkling eyed ten-year-old, and had fallen in love with it. She'd learned the code from her mother, a witch; and had learned to shoot from her father, a police officer. She'd gone off to study, travel the world, and generally bum around in her early twenties, before finally coming back to the only city she really knew. When Harry's second-hand bookstore had come up for sale, she'd managed to muster the money for the deposit. And when the police department had put out the call for a new witch liaison, she'd been delighted when they'd accepted her application.
    That was her story. The enigma of Ebony Bell wasn't too mysterious after all. Just a witch in a big city trying to get by.
    'Ebony is a consultant for us,' Ben scratched behind his ear, 'we call her in when... stuff gets weird.'
    Nate swallowed slowly. 'Of course you do.'
    'You remember when you were transferred to us?' Ben smiled reassuringly. 'You remember when the Detective Chief Inspector sat you down and said this job's going to be unlike anything you've ever done?'
    'I thought he was just exaggerating,' Nate tried to neaten up his tie until it sat flat once more.
    'Yeah well, he meant it. Now, I really should have handled this better. Instead of briefing you at the office about the uh... peculiarities of working for the Vale Police Department, I thought I'd bring you straight in to meet Eb, and get it all over and done with.'
    'You weren't to know Harry would react like this,' Ebony kept picking up books and stacking them into piles.
    'Yeah well, whatever.