Turning me around, Darius placed his hands on my shoulders, and looked at me with hopeful eyes.
“I believe in you; you can do this. Now, try again.”
Sighing, I tried to calm my breathing down again, taking a lot longer than before, and searched through my mind for images of Jackson, praying to Lady Elizabeth to help guide me.
“I can see the manor.”
“Great! That’s good, now keep looking.”
It felt as if I was no longer in my body, even though physically, I was still in the bathroom, my mental body entered the manor. I looked in the dining hall, the lobby, and kitchen but could not find him, until a faint green light appeared in the corner of my eye, and I felt some relief. It was Jackson’s magic; I could feel it and hear it humming. Following the trail, up the staircase, down the corridors, and towards Sophia’s office, I pushed the door open, and my heart sank.
Opening my eyes as tears started to run down my cheeks, the horror and shock was enough to make me fall to my knees.
“What? What did you see?!” Darius shouted, holding me still as I tried to form words.
“They’re – she…”
“What, Hayley?”
“Sophia, she’s dead. And Jackson, he…”
“What about him? Did you see him?”
Shaking my head, I heard Darius sigh as his hands dropped from my shoulders as I fought back tears. Sophia and I although we weren’t friends, the way she was left was personal, and for her to be left in that way meant Jackson and the others may have also been killed.
“Hayley, you need to find him. Did you see anything else?”
“I - I saw a green light, a thread of magic. It's Jackson’s magic.”
“And?”
“I followed it to Sophia’s rooms.”
He sat across in front of me, brought his hands to my face, and began wiping away any stray tears. I didn’t weep, it wasn’t something I did but after the events so far, I started to think I was breaking down.
“You need to get back in there and find him.”
“And what if I do find him and he’s dead? Then what?”
“You wouldn’t have seen that thread if he was.”
Thinking on it for a minute, I allowed myself to have one more go, skipping past the stairs and at the top I searched again for the same thread, this time it went past Sophia’s rooms and towards one of the labs. There he was sitting on one of the desk chairs, and he had his head propped up with his hand on a table as Molly laid on the floor behind him.
Racing towards him, I tried to touch him, but my hand went straight through him, as if I were a ghost. I needed to see if he was still alive and had no idea how I was going to do that if I couldn’t touch him.
“Jackson?”At first, I spoke softly, unsure if I even had a voice.“Jackson?!”I said louder, almost a shout in the silence, so much louder that I scared myself.
“Jackson!”Shouting as loud as I could, I watched his body shift slightly.
“Jackson Gates! Wake your lazy ass up!! Or I swear to God, I will murder you myself!”
“Hayley?!”
His head shot up, and all over his face were fresh bruises and cuts. He looked like hell, and all I wanted to do was wrap my arms around him. He looked around the room, obviously looking for me.
“Jack, I’m not really here.”
“I can see that, where are you?”