Chapter 22
Nate didn’t say anything, just ducked down and grabbed the broadsword from the crumpled suit of armor.
Ebony’s heart raced as the sounds from the front of the house grew louder and a lot more destructive.
Nate closed the door to the room they were in. He turned sharply, teeth set.
“Ah,” Harry said carefully. “We have company. Probably more nancy wizards. And they’re probably after the gold.”
“What?” Nate hissed.
“Never mind, no time to explain.” Harry shifted himself around on the ground. “Now, unless you want those bearded-louts destroying your house, I suggest we get out of here.”
“Nice plan.” Nate’s teeth were still clenched. “But I don’t exactly have an escape route in here.”
“No? You should always pack at least one escape plan when heading into trouble. I find it always helps.”
Nate swallowed, but didn’t answer. “Ebony, you stay in here. I’ll go out and—”
“And what, get a fire-ball to the face? I’m sure it would improve your visage, Knight, but I wouldn’t suggest it. No, I say we high-tail it out of here and aim for the Grimshores.” Harry was rocketing around on the floor with obvious anticipation.
“How?” Nate snapped, clutching the heavy sword easily.
More bangs and crashes filtered in through the closed door, and Ebony fancied they now had only seconds to spare.
“Time to open up a crack in the space-time continuum. Temporarily, of course,” Harry assured them. Then he settled down onto the floor-boards and proceeded to open up. The traveling case clicked open, the mouth of the bag revealing a swirling, twisting vortex.
Nate shot Ebony a quick look, just as the sound of shouts filtered in from the kitchen beyond.
“Geth insthide, now,” Harry said, as if speaking around a mouthful.
The vortex crackled, sparked, and danced. It looked like a living puff of black smoke, studded with glinting stars and snaking twirls of energy.
Nate raised his sword and grabbed hold of the door handle, trying to stop it from being wrenched open from beyond.
Something thudded into the door.
Ebony looked at the door, looked at Nate, then looked at Harry.
She made a decision.
She pelted over to Nate, grabbed his arm, and pulled him toward the vortex.
“Come on!” she screamed, just as the door cracked under the weight of some terrible force.
As shards of wood splintered everywhere, Ebony tugged Nate toward the portal. With a final wrench, she jumped toward it, pulling the erstwhile detective in tow.
The vortex swirled out to meet them, like a hand clutching from beyond. As soon as they were inside, the view of the room vanished, replaced by a tornado of colors and sounds.
All around Ebony it appeared as if reality were decaying, twisting, unfurling. It was like being placed inside a blender, while every color of the rainbow and every sound of the scale were dumped in with her. Everything swirled before her, through her, and over her. She felt immersed, subsumed, and assimilated.
She felt like space itself, like time, like movement, like matter. For a brief moment, Ebony felt reality and felt like reality.
She felt at one.
But just as soon as the moment began, it ended. And Ebony found herself lying face first on an expensive Persian rug. She also found Detective Nate was lying on top of her.
“Get off,” she said, just as he was standing up.
He leaned down and offered her a hand, pulling her to her feet with ease.
He looked around him, then back to her, then down at the rug. His eyes were wide, but that was the only sign that jumping through a bookstore-vortex had frazzled him.
“Wow,” he intoned quietly, “What just happened? Where are we, and where’s Harry?”
Ebony took a shaky breath, trying to clear her mind. She’d never traveled like this before – whatever this had actually been. The taste of the vortex still remained in her mouth, and it tasted like eternity. “Ah… where are we? She took a look around the room. It was incredibly luxurious, with a soft Persian-rug, beautiful antique furniture, and stylish pictures on the wall. There was also a fireplace and a coat-of-arms sitting just above the mantel piece – a very familiar coat-of-arms.
Two lions and an upright sword.
“Grimshores,” she said quietly, “My guess is we are in the house of the Grimshores or at least one of their houses, considering how rich they are.”
Nate looked around, expression growing less alarmed, but still with an edge of extreme caution. “But how did we get here? I’ve experienced my fair share of magical transport – but that was—”
“Harry,” she finished off his sentence. “Harry Horseshoe was an incredible wizard in his day, Nate, and I fancy he still is. The old guy has read more books and seen more stuff than you or I could hope to imagine. I’m sure he probably learned that vortex trick off a dragon in Nepal, or something.”
Nate shrugged, keeping a wary eye on the closed door behind them. “Where is he then?”
“I imagine he’s still back at your house…” her voice trailed off.
“You think he’s okay?”
“If anyone can fight off those wizards, it’s Harry.”
“But why send us here?” Nate kept looking around, probably taking in every detail he could.
“To finish this story,” Ebony realized with a blink, “And quickly.”
“But if we’d stayed at the house, we could have fought, we could have—”
She put up a hand. “Listen to me, Nate. You say you need to find out who is behind the Grimshores, who is manipulating the Portal. Well, maybe Harry is giving you your chance.”
“But, Ebony, you can’t be here,” he said quickly, gaze flickering for a second. “The closer you come to the Grimshores, the more you act-out against them – the more you feed the spell.”
Her lips trembled. She hadn’t thought of that.
“You have to get away from here, I’ll see to the Grimshores.”
She paused then shook her head. “No. I’m not leaving.”
“Ebony, plea—”
“No. This is my story, Nate, mine. I need to finish it. Or I need to die trying. That’s why Harry sent me here: to give me the opportunity to finish this how I want to.”
“This is madness. Let me—”
“I don’t think so. I’m done playing. I’m done running. I’m done thinking. It’s my turn to act,” as she spoke, her skin became hot. She felt as if she were amassing some great energy within her, as if someone had kindled a fire deep inside her heart.
He gave a quiet laugh. “Now you get involved? Now you become brave? Now you get forthright? You’ve been running confused for several weeks now—”
“And now I’m turning around to face the devil, as it were.” She put her hands on her hips. She was strangely aware of herself, she realized, strangely aware of how it felt to be Ebony Bell.
She could feel her skin, feel her hands, feel her feet, feel her heart. She was aware of her thoughts, of the determination rising in her like steam off boiling water.
Ebony felt like Ebony Bell: witch, woman, human.
She sniffed.
Nate looked at her, slightly awed. “You look… determined.”
“That’s because I am determined. No,” she suddenly corrected herself with a sharp smile. “I’m not determined. My destiny, my life, is no longer going to be determined by anyone else – not the Grimshores, not my mother, not the Coven, not even you.”
Nate’s gaze shifted, but he didn’t say anything.
“I’m not determined by anything,” she repeated. “I am determination instead.”
Nate laughed. “That sounds like Will Magic, Ebony. You sure you’ve never heard of Knights.”
“No, this is my magic. And it’s time for me to use it.”
Just as Ebony finished her sentence, something happened.
There
were two soft, barely-audible thuds as two bracelets hit the carpet.
She slowly brought her wrists up and stared at them. The bracelets were gone.
There was a click, and her choker fell from her neck, like a dead petal from a rose.
“Ebony,” Nate moved forward, clearly surprised, “Your bracelets—”
A smile started to grow on her lips. She ran her hands over her wrists. She felt the flesh, felt the warmth, and she felt the magic. In fact, she realized she had never stopped feeling the magic. It had always been there, Harry had been right. Her only mistake had been in believing someone could take it away from her.
Nate leaned down and picked up one of the bracelets. Then he looked at Ebony. His gaze was different now. For the very first time, Nathan Wall looked impressed by Ebony Bell. It wasn’t her looks, her personality, her humor – it wasn’t anything about her. It wasn’t a feature, a facet, a face. It was the whole gem that caught his eye.
People can become impressed by an aspect of something, but very rarely do they allow themselves to be impressed by something as a whole.
She smiled. “Shocked? Because I am.” she kept the smile on her lips and then started to laugh easily. “I really didn’t think it would be this easy.”
Nate shared her smile, though he still kept an eye on the door. “What are you talking about? What about this entire situation is easy?”
“All you have to do,” she said mostly for her own benefit, “Is decide what you want. And then all you have to do is go after it. Direct yourself toward it – heading set, course locked in.”
“Ebony,” Nate began.
It was just so simple, it really was! Ebony kept the smile on her face and felt the electric-warmth of the realization flood through her, like hot water through cracks in the ice. All she’d ever needed was to decide what she wanted.
Her whole life. That’s all she’d needed.
She’d looked this way and that, for distraction, for entertainment, for meaning. She hadn’t realized the true reality had always resided within. Her wants, her desires – she was what gave her life meaning. Not the other way around.
Don’t look outside for what lies within. All these years she’d failed to realize that. You don’t wait for life to give you meaning, you give life meaning.
Nate walked up to her, placing a hand gently on her shoulder. “What’s going on?”
“Oh, nothing really. I’m just ascending here, just realizing the true nature of reality. I’ll be done in a bit, honest.”
Nate shook his head, his expression mystified, but a smile still on his lips.
Slowly Ebony settled. She took a breath. “Okay, let’s go.”