Page 10 of Demon and the Raven

They all nodded.

“Well, I myself would not because for one, you never know whom you’re speaking to, which takes catfishing to a whole new level of scary, and second, you never want to summon something you can’t banish—which is a good general rule.”

Cass winced. If I hadn’t been looking at her, I would have missed it.

“Something happen?”

“I don’t know,” she replied hesitantly. “We talked to something…we think…and then we left to get snacks, and when we came back, it was different.”

“What was different?” I asked, knowing that the chances that they had spoken to something through the veil were decidedly small. Contrary to what most people thought, spirits were not anxiously waiting on the opposite side of the veil to chat. It was not like in the movies. Ghosts, on the whole, preferred to be left in peace.

They were all suddenly quiet.

“I can’t help if you don’t tell me what’s wrong.”

“The thing moved,” Delia told me.

“What thing?”

“The piece that’s supposed to.”

“The planchette?”

“Is that the name of it?” Skylar was staring at me.

I nodded.

“Yeah. It was in one spot, and now it’s on the other side of the board.”

“That could be anything.”

“But we had it in a safe place.”

“Define that.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You said it was in a safe place. I have no idea what that means.”

“It’s on a flat surface, so it shouldn’t have moved.”

But how easy was it to bump a board without noticing? “Okay, so when you left to get snacks, did you close it out?”

“Close it out?” Cass appeared confused.

“Did you say goodbye?”

They all shook their heads.

“I see. May I ask where and when you did this?”

“Today, in the basement,” Delia answered me.

“Your basement?”

“No. The basement here.”

“Oh,” I said, trying not to grimace. Of course the board moved; they were lucky it hadn’t been flung across the room and into a wall, which would have scared the crap out of them. “Let’s have a look, shall we?”