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The Shadowed Onyx (Diamond Estates)

By Nicole O'Dell

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Chapter 1

“Are there any spirits in this room with us?”

Joy Christianson stared at Raven, whose face glowed in the candlelight from the black tapers flanking the game board on the floor between them. Raven’s eyes drifted closed, and her fingers danced atop the same wooden triangle that lay motionless beneath Joy’s.

The tallest candle flickered, casting a somber spotlight, illuminating the letters that would spell messages from beyond. The flame bent to the left as though a birthday child begged for a wish.

Peeling her gaze from the candle, Joy followed her new friend’s instructions and squeezed her eyes shut. It was Raven’s house after all. Her house, her rules.

The game piece—that’s all it was, right?—trembled and then slithered across the Ouija board. Joy’s eyes snapped open, and she jerked back. “Very funny, Raven.” Joy inched away as though gnarled fingers would reach from underneath, grab her ankles, and pull her to the great beyond. “I don’t even believe in this stuff.” She slid her hands under her legs. No way she’d put them back on that thing.

Raven raised one eyebrow and cocked her head. “Oh? You don’t, huh? Then I don’t suppose that’s your heartbeat I can practically hear all the way over here? What about the rapid breathing and. . .” She yanked on Joy’s arm and inspected her hand. “Sweaty palms?” She returned to the ready position and waited. “People aren’t usually scared of things they don’t believe in.”

Something was out there. Joy could feel it in her bones.

Something existed beyond the reality she knew. Something other than what she’d always believed in, other than God. But did she want to communicate with whatever—whoever—it was? “I don’t know, Ray. I. . .I might not be ready for something like this. Besides, it’s just a game.” Joy needed to get out of there. Pronto.

“It is so not just a game.” Raven shrugged. “You can think that if you want to. But then you might as well give it a try, if it’s only for fun, that is.”

Okay, now what? Joy could play along and pretend she didn’t believe in that stuff, or she could admit her terror of all things supernatural and leave Raven’s house immediately. The whole Ouija-board thing was probably totally fake, but then why the shivers, and, most importantly, why had that thing moved?

Perfectly explainable. The shivers were simply a product of her own nervousness, and the triangle thingy moved because Raven pushed it on purpose. Joy really didn’t know Raven all that well. She certainly hadn’t been someone Joy spent time with before…well, before. Until they locked sad eyes across a crowded lunchroom. Had it been a mistake to strike up a friendship with Raven just so Austin wouldn’t bother her?

Raven flipped her dark brown hair behind her shoulder, though the top layers fell in front of her pale face like a dark curtain. She placed her fingers on the triangle’s wooden edge and tipped her chin toward Joy. “Come on. What are you waiting for? There’s activity here, and I’m going to prove it to you.”

“What are you saying? You think there are ghosts or. . .what?”

One corner of Raven’s mouth curled up, and she winked. “Or something like that. Let’s go.”

Joy pushed the sleeves of her fuzzy pink sweater up to her elbows and gathered her hair into a long ponytail, rolling a band from her wrist to secure it out of her face.

Deep breath. Only a game.

She cracked her knuckles one at a time then reached her hands toward Raven’s. Joy barely let her fingertips rest in position on her side of the piece. Her bright pink nails glared a contrast to Raven’s black ones just inches away. The candle teased the black stone in Raven’s skull ring with glints of light.

Joy trembled.

“Oh Great Spirit here tonight, will you identify yourself to us, please?” Raven slowly opened her eyes and gazed into the dancing candle flame nearest the door.

Joy begged her muscles to lift her fingers from the game’s surface, but she couldn’t move. What if something were there? What if—

Joy’s fingers jerked an inch and then gently glided along the board as the triangle headed toward a letter. Raven again? Or did something more sinister propel it? She stared at the fingertips across from hers. They didn’t appear to be applying any pressure to the planchette at all. Yet it continued to move.

“We mean no harm. Who is with us here?” Raven’s voice sounded strange. Calm. Gravelly.

The bedroom door stood open only a few feet away, letting a bit of a glow into the dark room from a night-light near the hallway bathroom. Joy could make a mad dash, but she’d have to jump over the candles and the game to get to the door. And then what? She’d be out in the strange, empty house with all the worked up spirits while Raven stayed back and made friends with the nice ones? No thanks.

The glass part of the triangle stopped over a letter.

“M,” Raven whispered.

Was it okay to talk out loud? The thing paused for the briefest of moments then slid away. It paused over the letter E.

“Me? Is that what it’s saying? What does that mean?” Joy shook her head, blond wisps sticking to her lip gloss. “I’m done. Seriously this time.” She stood and reached over Raven’s head to twist the switch on the lamp beside the bed, dousing the mood with light.

“For now.” Raven licked the thumbs and forefingers of both hands and squeezed the flames, extinguishing them with a sizzle.

“No, for good. I’m not messing with this stuff anymore. It freaks me out.” Joy shivered and pulled her bulky sweater tight around her body. Never again. She’d have to find her answers another way. There had to be another way. But first she had to figure out what her questions were.

Raven shrugged as she folded the board and slid it under her bed. “There’s not a lot you can do about it now. You’ve had a taste, and you’ll want more.”


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