Even Though I usually make a website for each of my novels, I thought my personal site should have a page for each novel, just in case I'm being lazy and don't update my other sites....and stuff. lol. This is Black Magic's page and will keep you updated on everything to come for black magic. ^^

SUMMARY:
Envy is your averge everyday bookworm. If it has words she\'ll read it...So naturally when a new bookstore opens she\'s one of the first to check it out. The second she enters the store she is drawn to it. A thick white leather bound book with gold trim. Nothing seems special about it...Yet she can\'t leave without it. At first all of the pages are blank inside and she can\'t find a better use for it than making it her journal. The first night she makes an entry was after a large fight with her step mother. Strangely afterwards she feels comforted and safe. The next morning she awakes to find the journel that had been resting beneath her pillow on the top shelve of her book case. That\'s not all though....Someone or something has responsed to her entry. And she finds a small golden tag on the spine that reades : Zane. What happens when a book begins to speak to you...Ask for your help...?

Black Magic ~ Preference~

I looked down the long hall. Just hours before it had been packed with busy students loading and unloading the lockers that lined the walls, completely unaware of what was going to happen. As much as I would like to think that this was going to change that, I knew deep down it wouldn’t.
The air picked up like a gust of wind was tearing through it. My hair tangled backwards out of my face, reassuring my entire body. There was no backing out of this. He needed me.
I reached my destination. Room 304, my science class. The others would meet me soon, I had to be ready…For anything. I jiggled the door’s handle and twisted it trying to open it. Nothing seemed to work, so I backed away. My confidence was fading. What if I wasn’t strong enough? My arm jerked upwards on its own and my fingers balled into a fist. I could feel his presence wrap around my arm and seep into my veins.
My fingers suddenly loosened and shot open. I heard the locks unlatch before a gentle breeze pushed the door aside.
I clutched the book underneath my arm tighter. He needed me. I entered the room. Nothing seemed to be touched, nothing had changed since the last time I had been in it. The only difference was that all of the warmth in the room seemed gone. It felt empty.
A heat rushed over my body, like someone was comforting me, urging me to continue. I sat the book carefully down on my teacher’s desk. I shut my eyes and remembered when I had first met him.
It was like I could see him sitting there in his chair with his legs crossed, looking disappointed. It was like he was saying ’Envy how many times do I have to tell you? Magic doesn’t exist.’
I shook my head and the image vanished. He was wrong…and I was going to prove it…No we were going to prove it.
I pulled out the long red pillar candles from my bag and lit them with a match. They softly illuminated the room, bringing in mounts of comfort. I inhaled and carefully opened the book to the page I had been studding since the start. It was finally time. My ears caught the slightest sound of footsteps in the hallway. All of the training had really improved my hearing. Just as I had been told it would.
Within seconds five people would enter and within an a few short hours seven will exit. Hopefully.

Chapter One

“It’s not like that at all, I swear.”
I laughed a little as I reassured my best friend Avi.
“You can’t keep a secret for long Envy. I know you like him…”
I blushed a little but quickly shrugged it off. The biggest problem in my life at the moment was trying to convince half the people I knew that I did NOT have feelings for the new kid. It was hard enough on him, he shouldn't have to fight off the rumors that the freaking book worm had ’feelings’ for him. For god’s sake I didn’t even know anything about him. As far I was concerned he was just Justin Daniels the new kid in town, and I was still just Envy the girl who fantasizes about living inside one of Anne Rice’s novels.
“Seriously Avi. Why would I lie about something like that?”
She shrugged and let it drop. We were almost to the lunch room now, we didn’t need to attract the attention of gossip hungry teens. That would be like swimming in shark-infested waters holding a bucket of chum above your head.
It was fairly crowded in the small table filled room. Students were pushing there way through lines eager to devour their lunches after enduring four periods of class. To be honest, lunch time only served one purpose for me, and that was being a free period for me to read.
I was skilled in the art of multitasking. I could successfully consume a loaded tray of hot food without taking my eyes from within my book’s pages.
I bent down slightly to reach for a tray when someone’s elbow jerked into my side. I looked up and began to chew them out.
“Could you remove your elbow from my rib cage! God, there’s more than enough room…”
He looked down at me and smiled.
“Sorry about that…What’s your name again?”
I groaned before walking away completely ignoring Justin the new kid. I didn’t want to talk to him, I’d rather he hated me. Then there wouldn’t be a point for any rumors to start. It would be just another set of mortal enemies like the world really needed anymore.
He sighed.
“So I’m guessing the rumors aren’t true Envy?”

His voice dropped a little. I turned and looked at him. He raised his eyebrows and I sighed.
“The rumors are not true Justin.”
He nodded understanding before departing into one of two lines that branched off from the main one.
Did he believe me? I shuddered a little and finished picking out my lunch despite the growing pain in the pit of my stomach.
Avi and I sat at our usual table off in the furtherest corner away from everyone else. I dug my book out of my backpack and began reading were I left off like I always did.
Avi seemed to shuffle in her seat. I looked up and she grinned half-heartily. I returned her smile and looked back down to continue. I got through no more than two paragraphs before she started to talk.
“So what are you doing after school Envy?”
Normally she respected the fact that I didn’t like to talk much, but today she was uncharacteristically poking at me for information.
“Nothing, why?”
I sat my book down and studied her expression.
“Well there’s a new bookstore opening downtown and I just thought you’d want to check it out.”
I smiled. She knew me all to well.
“Of course.”
She grinned and went back to eating her lunch. She was defiantly an outcast just like me. Avi just didn’t care what people thought. She wore baggy clothes and always wore her dark curly hair in a half bun. She was just being her, and that’s why we were so close.
I wasn’t sure I could survive without her. Instead of picking up my book I started to chip off the purple nail polish I had put on just the night before. It was a nice neon color that really didn’t go with anything else I was wearing. Just like the girl across from me, I preferred bagging clothing. I was wearing dark olive green cargo pants that were at least three sizes too big, and amen’s t-shirt that had a picture of my favorite band displayed across its front.
Oh and least we forget the huge combat boots thatI fashioned. I wasn’t Emo or punk…Not really gothic either. I had my own style which was usually whatever was on top of ‘the pile’.
Why did it matter what other people thought? I was comfortable and nothing I was wearing was going to hurt them.
So what was the point?
The rest of the day went as it would any other day; slow and boring. Sometimes I wish something would fall out of the sky and destroy my school, just so something new would happen. I was craving for one of my favorite novels to come alive. It would make everything so much more interesting if a dragon rampaged through the town’s square.
Avi’s mother gave us a ride to the downtown plaza and told us shed be back t pick us up in two hours, if we weren’t there she’d assume we were walking home.
“Did they finally add a Barns and Noble Avi?”
I pondered. She shook her head.
“No, I heard it was some sort of collector’s book place. They repair books from like the middle ages and seal them cheap…Not to mention the bestsellers they carry too.”
I liked the sound of this place. I wasn’t sure I’d ever smile like this again. I’d never heard of a place that ‘repairs’ books. Most people would just throw out a book if it’d long seen it’s day and was beyond useable. I thought it was a wonderful idea to save books…It was like saving a person’s imagination. It was of an utmost importance to do so.
Who’d want to live boringly, without ever being able to dream up their own personal world where everything went the way they wanted it to? It just didn’t seem normal not to.

The bookstore was fairly large. It took an entire block on the main street near the center of downtown. It stood a few stories high, but as farI could tell, only the first floor was used as a store. It didn’t look or feel any different than any other book store. Part of me had been hoping that it would be a small piece of time from the past, like a refreshing heaven within a blazing hell. Butno it wasn’t anything special. The entire first wall was made up of glass, including the entrance doors. There were several large posters advertising bestsellers like the newest book in the Eragon series and specials on Harry Potter box sets. Thus epenthesis on ’nothing special’.
“I thought you said…”
I started to question my best friend as we got closer to the doors. I stopped mid-sentence distracted by this weird electric feeling. I couldn’t think past ’I have to enter’. I dropped the need to yell at Avi like a bad habit and focused on the ever present need to enter.
Why did it feel like my life depended on it?
I didn’t even spare a glance at the newly displayed, prized bestsellers, I headed straight to the back. The shelves gradually grew older as did the books they shelved, until I reached the last row.
The main attraction was a combination of ever-aging encyclopedia sets and romance novels with covers that suggested they belonged in a fifty’s sitcom special. All hope was not lost though. A very small section housed a series of leather bond, dusty books. Every single one was the same reddish brown color except one. At the very end of the set was a pure white book with golden trim. It seemed to glow and reach out to me.
I couldn’t explain how but I feltconnected to it. What kind of longing was this…
I reached out and grabbed it. It felt perfect beneath my fingers, soft but durable and just the right size.
It felt like someone’s eyes were burning into my back. I turned around paranoid that I was being watched.
It was only Avi.
“What’s that?”
She reached out to get a closer look. I pulled it closer to my chest.
“Just a book…hey are you ready to go? I don’t think I’m going to find anything else I like.”
She nodded.
“Yeah it was kind of disappointing. The ad had partially bragged about all of the ‘rare and valuable’ books they carried.”
She snorted clearly just as upset as I was by the lack of specialty the store held. I pursed my lips.
“Did you see any check out counters?”
I asked. She nodded slowly and lead me to the front of the store. There was a small counter that curved around one of the few corners.
An elderly man was sitting in a small office chair (one of those ones that have wheels attached to the bottom of their legs.) He titled his head up to get a better look at us. His silvering hair was tied back in a loose braid. His face was artistic with thin, sharp cheek bones and his eyes seemed deep while his nose reminded me much of a bird’s.
I had no doubt that he was Cherokee.
“Can I help you?”

His voice was thick and bellowed with pride.
“Yeah, I just wanted to buy this.”
I sat the book carefully down on the glass counter. I had difficulty releasing it. It felt like my fingers were glued to it.
“That?”
He raise one of chalky gray eyebrows and sighed. I nodded not wavering in my choice.
“Alright then.”
He groaned a little as he stood up. He push a few buttons into a newer looking cash register. He cursed a little under his breath when the cash box didn’t open. He reentered a few numbers and hit the side of the stainless steel box. It popped open with a screech of protest.
“Let’s see…How about ten?”
He stroked his chin. I grinned and handed him the money. It was steal…
“would you like a receipt?”
I shook my head and headed out the door, Avi not far behind me.



The sun was beginning to set when I cracked open my bedroom’s window to sneak in. I wasn’t sure if my parents were home yet, and it was on the verge of being past my curfew. My foot caught against the window’s ledge and I landed face first onto the floor causing a loud crashing sound.
My bedroom’s door flung open. My step mother sighed looking down at me in a tangled disarray.
“Where have you been young lady? School’s been out for three hours.”
I bit my lip. BUSTED!
“Err…Uh…um. No comment.”
She groaned.
“Do you know how close I was to calling the cops?”
I shrugged.
“I don’t know…”
She sighed.

“how many times have you done this?”
I rolled my eyes.
“How many times do you think?”
She put her hands on her hips.
“Don’t speak to me like that young lady.”

I raised my eyebrows.
“How am I suppose to speak to you Cheyenne?”

She gasped.
“First of all as of the day I married your father, I am your mother and you we address me as your mother.”
She spoke like one of those stuck up people that spent their weekends at country clubs. I snickered.
“Fine whatever ‘your mother’.”
I mocked her.
“That’s it. I don’t care what Andrew has to say, you’re grounded young lady.”

I rolled my eyes.
“From what? This whole disagreement proves I don’t have any freedom in the first place…”
She pinched the bridge of her nose and walked away.
“End of discussion.”
I groaned and slammed my door behind her. Why did she have act like their was a corn cob permanently stuck in her butt? She shouldn’t of been able to treat me like this…She wasn’t my real mother and no matter how many times I try to tell my father what she’s really like, nothing changes.
I threw myself onto my bed and began to overlook the book. Why had I wanted it so bad? I traced my fingers across it’s cover. I opened it to see what it was about, but the first few pages were blank. I searched frantically through it’s pages. Every single one was blank.
Was it a journal? One of those ‘fake’ remakes of areal book sold in gift shops? The pages looked so old I found that hard to believe. It must have been a really good remake.
I sighed. I had paid ten bucks for a blank book! I rolled my eyes and dug through my night stand until I found a ball point pen.
“Might as well put you to use.”
I mumbled aloud. I had never been the type of person to talk about how I felt, let alone write about it.
There was something pushing me to though. I found myself ranting about everything in my life…Right down to how much I hated my step mother. It was like I was writing an autobiography and it felt like the book wanted me to. I felt connected to it.
Before I knew it, the entire page, front and back was filled. My hand ached afterwards. The pressure I had felt on my chest eased up. I wasn’t really all the upset about being grounded anymore. I felt comfortable, like all the ants under my skin were never there.
I looked out my window, the sky was dark and starless. It seemed so distant. The only light I had left was the moon’s soft glow. It poured down onto my face. Was it true that a person would go insane if they slept in the moon’s light? I shuddered and slipped the book underneath my pillow.
God only knows what would happen if the step witch found it. I relaxed under the covers and slipped my shoes off. Tomorrow was Saturday and I’d have nothing better to do than sleep…I was grounded after all.