Page 18 of Vanish

“Princess?” He reached out as if to caress my cheek, but as before his touch went right through me.

“I’m fine, just…” My words faltered as I cocked my head to listen again. The strange whispers hadn’t dispersed when he’d roused—they sounded again though fainter, as if drifting away, drawing my attention from him to an empty alcove nearby. “Did you hear that?”

His gaze followed mine and he shook his head. “Is something there?”

I released a weary breath. “I’m not sure.” With Lucien’s ability to see me, I had hoped he would also be able to perceive the strange voices, but it appeared that whatever I thought I sensed was only noticeable to me. I strained to listen, hoping intently that the curse wasn’t playing games with me.

I startled when Lucien brushed my cheek again, a sensation that was almost a touch. It drew me closer to him and farther from the unseen presence crowding the room. I could almost see the invisible curtain I’d peered behind being pulled shut to mask my notice of the others who had previously occupied the room, the door closing to block out the sound, leaving only the previous silence.

“Lisette?” This time Lucien’s hand moved to rest over mine, drawing the last of my attention away from the room back towards him.

The concern filling his eyes as he peered at me was unlike any I’d ever experienced before, acting as a key to my desire to turn to and rely on him; all I needed was to summon enough strength to unlock the gate of the protective fortress guarding my secrets.

Worry furrowed his brow when my silence extended too long. “Did you feel at risk of disappearing while I slept?”

I shook my head. “I’m alright.” At least I could reassure him of that.

It took time to fully convince him, and even longer to persuade him to return to sleep. In the end he compromised by sleeping on one of the settees in the library so that he could remain near me without bringing me to his bedroom. I alternated between watching him drift off and looking back around the rows of towering shelves surrounding us in a cocoon, but the previous presence I thought I’d detected remained absent. I wondered if I’d imagined them or simply misremembered the experience, even as the instinct that helped me sort through my foggy memories confirmed that the peculiar event had truly transpired.

As the night eventually melted into daybreak, I could only come up with one possible explanation: perhaps what I had faintly discerned was not my imagination, but the world that lay beyond our notice that contained all that the curse had consumed…one I could only access by being caught between two realms.

CHAPTER10

Lucien

Restlessness marred my night, intertwining my dreams to twist my fears into distorted images that I longed to escape from. I only received pockets of reprieve whenever I interrupted my uneasy sleep to check on Lisette; her faint form was more difficult to find in the dark, but there was always just enough thin moonlight to reassure myself that she was still here, allowing me to once more attempt sleep.

I was finally rescued from my endless night when someone jostled my shoulder. I groggily murmured Lisette’s name as I slowly untangled myself from my nightmare’s snare and struggled to the surface of consciousness to greet the faint morning light bathing the library.

My first thought upon rousing was that it was Lisette who touched me; only when I shook off drowsiness’s tendrils did I notice that the hand on my cramped and aching shoulder was too heavy to belong to someone without form. I blinked blearily and my brother gradually came into focus, crouching beside me against the backdrop of shelves.

My brain struggled to process the scene. Ryland…waking up in the library…Lisette nowhere to be seen…

I gasped and bolted upright, my elbow making contact with my brother’s torso. I ignored his grunt of pain, my entire focus consumed by my frantic search. I didn’t immediately see Lisette, but eventually noticed her hovering in the shadows cast from a nearby shelf. My tense posture relaxed. She was still here.

Reassuring myself that my fiancée was safe—if being cursed and no longer possessing a physical body could be considered such a thing—allowed me to return my attention to my brother, wincing as he massaged where I’d accidentally struck him. “A fine good morning greeting to receive when I’ve come as a favor.” His gaze followed where mine had sought Lisette’s invisible form—more tangible in the light of day—but as before he showed no sign he noticed her. “What are you looking at?”

“Nothing.” Guilt prickled my conscience at the hasty lie that couldn’t be further from the truth, one that felt more dishonorable considering I’d been blessed to have Lisette take on some form rather than being entirely erased.

By Ryland’s frown he clearly didn’t believe me, but I’d spent too much of my life withholding my true emotions for him to think he could press the matter. Instead he worriedly took in my haggard expression. “It took me a long time to find you. Is there a reason you fell asleep in the library?” He noticed the books on curses still stacked haphazardly on the nearby desk and sighed. “You’re working too hard.”

“The curse set the precedent for the work expected of us; it doesn’t take a day off, so neither can I.”

“My comment wasn’t a suggestion for you to neglect your responsibilities, simply an expression of concern for your wellbeing. I understand the dire situation, in some ways more than you do.”

I gaped at him as his words settled over me, as if seeing him for the first time, and lurched forward. “You caught the curse and nearly disappeared!” How could I have forgotten something so important? To think I had one of the only survivors of the curse within my own home and I’d failed to obtain any information from him to help Lisette. From my peripheral vision I noticed her stir, tilting her head towards us in a show of interest.

His lips curved upwards. “So glad my brother cares enough for me to remember my brush with death.” A haunted look quickly eclipsed his teasing manner. “I hate to think what would have happened had Evelyn not been there to save me with her magic, or if we hadn’t been so close to the magical monastery to receive the help from a proper healer. If we’d been any later, I would have succumbed to the same fate as the rest of our subjects rather than living this joyous life as a husband and soon-to-be father.”

The future that he’d almost lost was the very one I yearned to build with Lisette. The fact that she remained gave me hope it was still within reach, even as her condition made it seem entirely out of reach. Years of research hadn’t brought the royal family any closer to a solution, let alone a single night of research with her.

“What was it like to nearly vanish?”

His brow furrowed as he stretched his memory back to the previous year. “It was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced—I wasn’t aware of what was happening, even as a sliver of my consciousness felt I was being drawn towards another world, a completely different realm from the one I was leaving behind.”

Lisette stiffened at the mention ofanother worldand angled her body more towards us. I was surprised that particular phrase meant something to her, considering it hadn’t come up during our research the day before. Had she discovered something during the night? I ached to talk with her, but Ryland’s presence made conversation impossible.

His eyes widened as he took in my desperation, an emotion I was currently too exhausted to mask. His pensive expression softened. “Is this about Princess Lisette?”

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