Page 108 of Hearts of Stone

He turned away, not letting Mellors say a thing more, and stomped over to the Range Rover that was kept for his personal use. Jumping in, he roared down the driveway, barely waiting for the automatic gates to fully open before pulling out on the road.

“Leave this with me,” Mellors said. “The thing is, from what you’ve told me, there’s only a relatively small pool of people to work through. My processes might be a little slower than Harry’s,” he continued, as he grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze, “but I have many contacts in the police force and in the courts. We’ll bring this bastard to justice, you wait and see.”

I had no intention of waiting and seeing. Daniel was my friend. I wouldn’t be able to ease the guilt I felt until I had found this Big character. As soon as the moon rose, I’d getthe gargoyles to take us to Mother Agnes’ and see what she could find out. But to appease him, I nodded sharply, before disappearing back into the house.

Thunder rumbled as I walked up the stairs and it was the perfect soundtrack to my mood. Lightning flashed and then there was the crack of more thunder almost immediately. It was close. I walked down the hall and into my room. I stripped off the scrubs, folding them up and putting them on top of the hamper, ready to wash and return to the nurse who’d lent them to me, then went into the bathroom.

Only to find I wasn’t alone.

I walked over to the bathroom sink and ran the cold tap, watching as the water flowed over my wrists, trying to alleviate the all-encompassing feeling of nausea that swirled in my guts. That choked-off sound of the breathing tube in Daniel’s throat as he tried to speak—I could hear it over and over. I closed my eyes, feeling overwhelmed, but the cool water was helping and I drew in a deep breath. Letting it out, though still feeling maudlin, I opened my eyes and looked up into the mirror.

And the reflection there smiled out at me.

I blinked, then leaned forward, staring at the wrong reflection, and she did exactly the same thing.

There was no mistaking us for each other. Where my face was long and rounded, hers was small and elfin shaped. Her smile was puckish, something that had me stepping back from the mirror. I turned towards the bathroom door, hoping to make a quick exit, but there she stood.

The short bobbed hair, the glorious fringed shift dress, the Art Deco styled jewellery, she looked like a mannequin in an exhibition on the history of fashion. She was the one I’d seen in the mirror above my bed and in my dream.

“Hello, Jade.”

“You…” I had something to say, I was sure of it, but my throat was closing up. “You…”

“Me.” She held her hands out and then did a little twirl, the fringing flaring out at the movement. “I’m Madeline and I’ve been waiting for you for so long.”

A long, insistent buzz had both of us going to the doorway and looking out into the bedroom, but her reaction was quite different to mine. A crease formed between those perfectly pencilled brows.

“Oh bugger, I thought we had more time…”

There was another buzz, then another. I grabbed a t-shirt and some pants off the back of a chair and pulled them on.

“More time for what?” I asked, shakily, finally able to get out more than one word.

I could hear the note of hysteria in my voice, because I’d come to terms with the fact that this conversation wasn’t real. There was no way it could be. But, oddly enough, that gave me hope. Because that meant that maybe none of it was real. I wasn’t heir to a beautiful house, nor a fortune. But that would also mean that Daniel was just Daniel, not a battered body in the intensive care unit.

“Jade, I need—”

Bzzzt.Geez, whoever was at the front gatereallywanted to talk to me.

“Sweetheart, you need to know—”

Bzzzt.

“He’s coming.” Those ominous words had me turning around and facing down this woman who could only be a ghost, even though she didn’t look it. She seemed corporeal and my mind catalogued the way she cast a shadow on the floor, how the beads on her dress caught the lights. Her lips parted and she was about to say something when—

Bzzzt.

My fingers found the button of the intercom, but I was still looking at her.

“What?” I asked, of the persistent person at the gate, of Madeline.

“Jade…”

They said my name exactly the same way, Madeline in a feminine voice, Adam in a masculine one.

“Jade, I went away and thought about Daniel’s situation,” Adam said, his voice crackling through the intercom speaker, “and I think there’s a spell we could cast together that will help find the culprit.”

“No…” Madeline said, with a sad look. “No, he—”

---