Read A Quarrel Called: Stewards Of The Plane Book 1 for Free Online

set the board up over by the love seats, since the low
table was a little easier to get everyone around. Tyler and Colton were
mocking, but cooperative, Shelby hung back, doubtful, and Brittney was all-in.
Tara was in the middle, and Sam and I sat off to the side. G. just sort of hung
back behind Tara. Not really fitting in, I suppose, but he still wanted to be
part of the group. It’s just as well, the planchette
was really crowded with so many eager fingers in the middle.
    “This will never work. Too many arms in
the way. How am I supposed to read the board?” Tara complained.
    “Here, I’ll step back. Give me the notepad and the pencil. I
can be record keeper,” I said, secretly relieved to not have Sam pressing
against me in order to fit his fingers on the planchette.
    “Me too,” said Colton, falling back. “I need to use the john
anyways,” he let out a big root beer–fueled belch and trudged off to the
restroom.
    “Okay, that’s better,” said Tara. “We can do more than one
session anyways, and switch out people if we need to, right? Hey Shelby, will
you light those candles? G., will you turn off the lights?”
    Shelby grimaced. I could see she was truly not comfortable
about any of this. “How about G. can light the candles and I can turn off the
lights,” she said. It was a statement, not a question.
    Tara shrugged, the rest of us laughed, and G. was happy to
oblige. “Oh, I almost forgot,” she said, getting up from the table to dig
around in her purse. She pulled the new quartz crystal out and raised it up.
“This should make you feel better, Shelby. The quartz will keep anything 'dark'
away.”
    Shelby seemed dubious that something witchy like a crystal
was going to help keep devil-worship things from happening. I wanted to laugh
at the irony, but didn't. It would just piss her, and/or Tara, off.
    “ Ooooh ,” said Tyler “Spooky.”
    Tara glowered at him. “Whatever. You don't have to
participate if you don't want to.”
    “Oh no, I want to. I just think you're lame for putting a
crystal on the board is all. Like that will actually help.”
    At moments like these, I actually admired Tara; when she
wanted to let things slide off her back, she just did it. Like
water off a duck. If it were something I felt strongly about, I would
have tossed off some smart-ass reply to Tyler's teasing. But
not Tara. She just smiled and said, “Better safe than sorry. Besides,
this is supposed to be fun, not like that movie, Ouija .”
    “Right,” I said, getting her back. “No Doris here.”
    Tara put the crystal down on the board next to the 'yes' in
the upper left corner. She moved it this way and that, until she settled on the
more pronounced point facing in, toward the letters. “Okay, Brittney. What do
we do next?”
    “It says: To open communication, everyone places their right
hands on the planchette - pointer thingy - and closes their eyes and
concentrates on being open to communication from the spirit world. Then when
the medium - that's you, Tara - is ready, he or she asks for a spirit to come
through. It says you can introduce yourself, or you can just ask if anyone is
there.”
    Tara nodded at the group, and everyone touching the board
closed their eyes. The room was dim, but the candles were bright points of
light, illuminating everyone sitting on the loveseats, and pushing the dark
back into the corners of the room. Beyond the circle of light, G. looked on
with interest, the angles of his face thrown into shadow. He caught my eye and
grinned. His hand was resting lightly on the loveseat behind Tara.
    “Hello spirits of the ether, we greet you as students of
John McIntyre High School. Please commune with us.”
    G. was now grinning like a maniac, and I had the hardest
time not giggling out loud. Sam shifted on the loveseat next to me, and I could
tell that he was probably rolling his eyes as he frequently did whenever Tara
opened her mouth (and wasn't looking directly at him).
    “Is