Devil's Bargain: An Alastair Stone Urban Fantasy Novel (Alastair Stone Chronicles) by R. L. King

Author:R. L. King [King, R. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Magespace Press
Published: 2019-01-13T22:00:00+00:00

13

I didn’t sleep very well.

Every time I nodded off, I thought I heard some strange noise that jerked me back awake. Several times, I got up and checked Mel’s and Max’s bedrooms for any sign of oddness, but everything looked normal. For the rest of the night I lay in my own bed with the bedside light on, trying to read but spending most of my time re-scanning the same paragraphs over and over.

What was I doing? The rational part of my mind, the “normal” part that didn’t want to stand out in a crowd, make any waves, or deviate from the routine I’d followed ever since the kids were born, tried to convince me that I should just give all this up and let the police handle it. That was what they were paid for, after all. They found missing children all the time.

Yeah, but sometimes they find them dead. And the ones they find are runaways, or were taken in a custody battle, or were even kidnapped by normal strangers.

There was that. The police certainly didn’t track down babies stolen away by old witches as part of some sick magical bargain.

My thoughts drifted to Alastair Stone. What a strange man he was, with his long black coat, bright blue eyes, and brisk manner. Could he really do what he claimed, or was he just playing a cruel joke on me, trying to make the square, conventional woman believe magic existed? Would he even show up tomorrow as he’d promised, or just call to laugh at me? “Good one!” I could hear him say in his British accent. “I got you good, didn’t I? Don’t be so gullible next time! Ta-ta!” I didn’t know if real British people said “ta-ta,” but it seemed to fit.

The hardest thing for me the next day when I finally gave up trying to sleep was not to call Mark and ask to talk to the kids, or call Lieutenant O’Riley to find out if the police had made any progress locating Emma. Even if Dr. Stone did turn out to be a fraud or a prankster, he’d asked me not to call anyone else until I heard from him. I at least owed it to him to wait that long, on the off chance making those calls might put my loved ones in danger.

When his gleaming black Jaguar pulled into the driveway shortly after noon, I was actually surprised to see it. By that point, I’d managed to convince myself he wasn’t coming. I hurried outside and met him as he came up the front walk.

“I was afraid you wouldn’t show up,” I blurted.

“I thought you might be.” He didn’t seem bothered by my words. “Did you call anyone?”

“No. But it was hard as hell not to.”

He still wore the black overcoat; today, his jeans were a bit darker and his black T-shirt had the Pink Floyd rainbow prism on it. A pair of dark sunglasses concealed his eyes. “So, then—are you ready to go?”

“Right now?” Suddenly, everything seemed to be happening so fast.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.