Evermore (Emily Chambers Spirit Medium Trilogy #3)(60)

But he did not get up. Instead, it was Lady Preston who rose. She called for a footman as she ran down the stairs, her skirts raised immodestly high to avoid tripping. Adelaide gave her father a sour glare then swiped away her tears. She followed her mother.

"As you can see, this search is going to happen with or without you, my lord," Celia said. "Having you join us will help, however it's not necessary."

He stared at the retreating back of his daughter. His drooping moustache twitched, but otherwise he didn't move. He still looked bearish but not like a formidable one, but rather a poor, chained beast in a cage. Defeated. I felt sorry for him.

"Join us," Louis urged him. "If we find your son's body in time and the counter curse is issued, all will be well and you'll come to believe us. If we don't and nothing happens, then you've only wasted an hour of your evening and this will all be over. We'll never bother you again, or your family." He held out his hand.

Lord Preston bowed his head. I sighed. It was hopeless. The man could not set aside his stubbornness and pride, not even for an hour. Not even in the hope of seeing his son.

Louis lowered his arm. Lord Preston's hand shot out and grabbed it. Louis hauled him to his feet and clapped him on the shoulder as if they were old friends.

Celia and I followed behind them, but I stopped short as Jacob appeared. He was considerably weaker, almost entirely transparent. I bit my lip to stop myself crying out at the shocking sight of him.

Then he suddenly disappeared. I waited. Celia did too, aware that I'd seen him. Louis and Lord Preston continued down the stairs.

Jacob did not return.

I began to shake uncontrollably. What if we were too late? What if that was his last attempt to see me? The tears rolled down my cheeks, silent but unrelenting. We were so close...to lose him now would be unbearable. Celia wrapped her arm around me and held me.

Jacob flared into existence again and I whimpered with relief. "Em," he said in the whisper that must be all he could manage. "Em, sweet..."

I hugged him fiercely and kissed his lips, his throat, his cheek. He wasn't gone. Not yet. There was still time.

"George will be here soon," I assured him.

"Not..." He pressed the heel of his hand to his eye and faded in and out.

"Are you in pain?"

He shook his head but whether that was because he wasn’t in pain or he didn't want to answer me, I couldn't be sure. At the bottom of the steps, Louis and Lord Preston had stopped to look back at me. I expected angry words from Jacob's father, but I received none. That was one powerful punch from Louis to finally knock some sense into his lordship.

"Got him," Jacob said.

"What do you mean? Got who?"

"Administrators...you a favor...help find my..."

"They're going to help us find your body? How?"

He shook his head again. "Not going to...have."

"They have found your body?"

"...asked Price."

"But he's crossed over."

"Administrators...access..." He shook his head and winced.

"Tell me later. Save your energy. So where is it? Where's your body?"

"...storage...Society...Paddington Station."

The front door burst open and crashed back on its hinges, quite a feat since it was solid wood. George waved a piece of paper in the air. "I have all the addresses of all the warehouses."

"Good," I said, charging down the steps. "Which one is near Paddington Station?"

George scanned the sheet. Adelaide hovered at his elbow, reading too. "Here it is," he said, pointing halfway down the page. "Why?"

"According to Price, that's where we'll find Jacob's body." I ran outside, not caring who followed. I gave George's driver directions and climbed into the carriage. George, Lady Preston, and Adelaide got in with me. As we drove off, another carriage pulled up and Celia, Louis, and Lord Preston set off in it.

Jacob had disappeared.

It seemed to take an age to get to Paddington, but it probably only took ten minutes. Moonlight cast an ethereal glow over the empty streets but kept the lanes in shadow. I felt like I was in another world. This quiet, sleeping London was not the city I recognized.

We piled out of the carriage before it had completely rolled to a stop in a small street behind the station. A large warehouse rose before us, all grand arches and high windows. I held the coach lamp as George unlocked the door. Inside was a long central corridor with several doors running along both sides. George unlocked the fifth one on the left and it swung open on creaking hinges. The smell of dust mixed with something bitter and putrid wafted out. I covered my mouth and nose, but the scent had already lodged in my throat and nostrils.

"We'll split up," George said, removing another lamp from a hook near the door. Adelaide clung to him and either Lady Preston didn't notice or didn't care. She and I peeled off to the right as George lit the other lamp and moved to the left with Adelaide. Outside, the rumble of wheels on cobblestones announced the arrival of the second coach.

"Found anything?" Celia asked as she entered behind me.

Lord Preston held his lamp up high. I did too. The yellow light cast a circle around us and we assessed the area of our search. The storeroom was quite small with no other doors that I could see except for the one we'd used. Several tables took up most of the space and a cupboard occupied one corner. There was hardly a spare square of table surface anywhere. Jars, boxes, caskets, and odd paraphernalia were crammed together or piled on top of each other. There were microscopes and sharp implements, brass syringes and pipes, tubes with colored liquids in them, scales for weighing, coils of rope and chains hanging from the ceiling beams. And that smell—it burned my nostrils.