THE SHADOWED ONYX: A DIAMOND ESTATES NOVEL Read Online Free PDF Page A

move. It had to be. But it just didn’t seem like it. Joy’s eyes flew open, and she searched her friends for a clue to the truth.
    Raven chewed on her lower lip. Was
she
nervous? Joy had kind of counted on her being the strong one.
    “Okay. It’s getting irritated. Feels interrupted.” Lucas sat up straighter. “We’re listening, spirit. Tell us who you are.”
    Back to the normal speed of death, their hands eased along until they revealed another letter.
    L
    What if it was actually real? Pastor Joel talked about the spirit world sometimes. It made sense that if God existed like she’d always believed, the dark side would, too. Joy watched in fascination as her hands were drawn to the next letter.
    A
    It paused for only a few seconds and dropped to the letter below.
    N
    Wait just a second. Was this some kind of sick joke? Joy looked from Raven to Lucas. Were they in on this together? How undeniably cruel to make that thing spell out … “Come on—”
    “Shh,” Lucas hissed, his eyes trained on the space above his gnawed fingernails.
    I
    Joy would never speak to them again. Simple as that. But then why didn’t she just leave? Why let them finish out their ruse at her expense?
    Lucas nodded at Raven and lifted his hands. He reached across the table and lifted Joy’s fingers as Raven removed hers. Game over?
    The planchette trembled and inched forward.
    All. By. Itself.
    Acid churned in the pit of Joy’s stomach. Everything she ever believed about life, death, God, and heaven crumbled into purgatory as a game claimed her faith.
    E

    “I’m going to throw up.” Joy scrambled through Raven’s bedroom door and dove for the toilet in the hallway bathroom. Holding her hair back, she waited for the contents of her stomach to make a reappearance. It tried to empty, heave after heave. Guess it would have to have something in it before it could expel anything. Had Joy really not eaten all day long? Come to think of it, had she even had a drop to drink? Her cracked lips screamed that she hadn’t. A shrink would say she was trying to kill herself.
    Was she trying to follow in her best friend’s footsteps?
    She sat back against the bathtub, the cool porcelain soothing her skin through her T-shirt. Her head thundered like a parade marched through.
    “You okay?” Raven’s muffled voice called out from the bedroom.
    Took her long enough to bother asking. Joy’s entire life, or whatever was left of it, had just been turned upside down, and Raven casually checked on her after an entire ten minutes had gone by? From the other room? Yeah, real concerned. She was probably in there making out with her boyfriend. Melanie would have been in the bathroom at Joy’s side the whole time she was sick, holding up her hair and pressing a cool cloth to her forehead. That’s what best friends did.
    Wait a minute. Joy’s head whipped from side to side. Was Melanie there with her? Had she been by her side ever since … since her death? Maybe she’d listened to all of Joy’s conversations, counted the tears that fell, watched her sleep. Could Joy talk to Mel—like actually converse with her? Joy shook her head. Too much.
    Placing her palms on the side of the tub behind her, Joy forced her body to unfold from its crouch. Her knees wobbled as she shuffled to the sink then flipped on the faucet. She let the cool water run between her fingers and over her wrists for at least a full minute. Leaning over the basin, she splashed some water on her face and let it drip off, stripping dried tears with it. Yanking a black, rose-embroidered towel from the hook beside the mirror, she pressed it into her eyes.
    “Joy? You okay in there?” Raven’s voice came through the door a little louder than the first time.
    Hadn’t Joy answered her? “Yeah. I’ll just be a minute.” Joy blotted her face dry, hung the hand towel back on its hook, then made her way back to the bedroom. Act casual.
Never let them see you sweat
.
    Lucas lay kicked back