Read Online Stone and a Hard Place by R. L. King - Free Book Online

ghost,” he said, still worried. “You—ah— didn’t, did you?”
    “Of course not. Must have been—something I ate.” Stone paused to down half the glass of water in one go. “That’s better. Thank you.”
    “You want to keep this up? Maybe we should just go back down and—”
    “No, I want to have a look around now that we’re here. Don’t worry—I’ll be fine.” He got up, tested his balance, and stood for a moment just looking around. He had to be careful not to let on to Langley yet—at least not until he figured out how to do it without giving away his secret—but this whole business was spooking him far more than he was showing.
    The moment he’d walked into the library, Stone had been hit with a wave of what he could only describe as cold hatred mixed with a kind of unwholesome longing. Something in this house didn’t want him to be here—probably didn’t want any of them to be here—but most of them were too hopelessly mundane to pick up the signals. Aunt Adelaide had probably only gotten a fraction of it, and it had been sufficient to scare her into calling in a stranger to investigate. What was odd was that Ethan hadn’t noticed it either. The boy’s progress in learning magic hadn’t been spectacular so far, but he’d mastered the basics of magical sight over the last couple of weeks, at least.
    Stone turned back to his friends. Langley and Ethan watched him warily, like they expected him to go green and bolt out of the room any second. Waving them off, he took a deep breath and began pacing around as he had in Adelaide’s bedroom. This time Ethan didn’t follow him, instead choosing to remain near Langley. The boy’s gaze followed Stone, but his mind appeared far away.
    After a few minutes passed and Stone hadn’t had a repeat of his strange attack, Langley appeared to relax. He sat down in the chair Stone had vacated and leaned back. It was obvious he thought this whole business was a waste of time, but he was willing to humor his friend.
    “Dr. Stone?”
    Stone paused in his examination of a bookshelf as Ethan spoke. “Yes?”
    “I—need to use the restroom. Is it okay?”
    “Of course. Tommy, where is—?”
    Langley waved toward the closed door. “It’s a bit of a hike, but you can’t miss it. Down the hall, take your first right, then it’s three doors down. I left the door open when I got the water, so you should be able to find it with no problem.”
    “Thanks.” Ethan set the satchel full of bogus ‘occult investigation’ gear on the floor next to Langley’s chair and headed out of the room, and Stone resumed his pacing.
    “You’re just putting on a show for the kid, right?” Langley said, the light finally dawning.
    “What?”
    “You know—all this pacing around and poking at things. You’re trying to impress him. Is he one of your students?”
    “Sort of,” Stone admitted. “He’s—the son of an old friend. He’s interested in my field, so I thought he might enjoy seeing a bit of it in action.”
    “Did you fake the dizzy spell too? For dramatic effect?”
    Stone sighed, coming back over. “Tommy—” He almost said more, but this simply wasn’t the time. All he knew was that he would need to come back here, this time with some real detection gear, if he was going to find out anything definitive. And for that to happen, he had to be very careful what he said to Langley. “I didn’t fake the dizzy spell,” he said at last. “I told you, I think something I ate disagreed with me. But let me finish this, all right? Then we can get out of here.”
    “Sure, sure.” Langley plucked a random book off a nearby shelf and leaned back in his chair. “Just call me when you’re done communing with the spooks.”

    Out in the hall, Ethan moved quickly. His path was purposeful, but he felt oddly detached, like he was watching his body from somewhere up above it. It wasn’t as if he wasn’t in control of his actions, but rather that he was