Ghostlight Read Online Free

have called him a “tough customer,” but I’d been saving the best for last.
    The copper beech tree was very old, very tall, and its branches drooped all the way to the ground. If you parted them, you walked into a space almost like a tepee, only not so dark and close—light and air could still filter in. The floor was cool dirt, making it a great place for escaping the heat and stickiness of a July day, and the leafy roof offered protection from the rain. In Kingdom, this was where the friendly badger family lived, and where Princess Etheline escaped when life at court grew boring, or worse,
dangerous.
    I parted the branches and waved Julian in. After a worried glance at me, he hugged his camera to his body and stepped inside.
    “You can still stand under the branches when you’re close to the trunk,” I said, “but I like to sit. It cools me down. And then, when the sun shines directly through those dark red leaves, it’s like the sky is on fire.”
    He lowered his backpack to the ground and sat next to me, his forehead wrinkling a little as he checked the scene through his camera. “Again, the lighting is a problem.”
    “But I bet you never thought of filming under a tree before. It’s…” I scrambled for the right phrase, “out of the ordinary.”
    He nodded. “Okay. But what sort of story would take place here? I’m not filming a Narnia movie.”
    He might as well have kicked me. “What could be cooler than a Narnia movie?”
    His eyes softened in a familiar way, as if he found me quaint. “It’s an interesting place, Avery, but not practical. Anything else?”
    “Well…there’s bits of forest here and there that are kind of wild and old-timey.”
    “Like what we walked through to get to Hilliard House?”
    I nodded slowly.
    “There’s the river, too,” he said. “We could make good use of that.”
    “So what are you saying?” My stomach already seemed to know the answer, because it was churning again.
    “I appreciate the tour, Avery, but Hilliard House is still the best option. All you have to do is look at that house and the stories start telling themselves.”
    “But I can’t go there.”
    Julian studied me. “What’s your deal with that place?”
    “I hate talking about it. The last time I was at the house…”
    How best to explain it? The only people who knew about that day were Grandma, Blake, and me. We never even told Mom the whole story.
    “The last time you were at the house
what
?”
    I swallowed. “I snuck inside without permission, and Grandma found out.”
    “So? Did she make you stand in a corner or something?”
    “No, Julian, she took a belt to my backside. In my whole life, that’s the only time she ever laid a hand on me. It was
serious.
”
    He was quiet for a moment. “But why?”
    “She says Hilliard House is a dangerous place.”
    There was more to it than that, but it was too weird to say out loud. It wasn’t just that I’d snuck into the house—I’d actually fallen asleep for hours. Grandma called the sheriff and begged him to put together a search party. After they found me, she said I’d wasted the time of a lot of hardworking men. I had to stay in her sight for the rest of the summer. That was when Kingdom started. I couldn’t really go anywhere, so we had to pretend.
    But if I told Julian that, he’d ask why I went to the house in the first place. And I wouldn’t be able to answer. The answer to that question was the shadow I could never see straight on.
    “Avery?”
    I looked up at Julian. “Sorry, I was just thinking.”
    “How long ago did you sneak into the house?”
    “Oh, it was years ago.”
    He looked thoughtful. “You’re not a little kid anymore, you know.”
    “She would still kill me.”
    “Then we’ll get in and out without her ever knowing.”
    My heart lurched. “Were you even listening to me?”
    “It’s no big deal, I promise. We just have some planning to do first. Can you meet me here