Page 45 of Vanish

Prince Castiel’s glare sharpened. “Did you assume I took after my father in his disregard? Regardless of her illegitimacy, she is still my sister.”

Shock seized my breath and I stilled, my search momentarily forgotten in the face of such a revelation. “Her—what?”

He frowned. “She is the daughter of a mistress. While my father does his best to preserve the secret for the sake of our royal image, I’m surprised she never shared her background with the man she was to marry.”

Yet another example of how little I knew her that cast the beautiful kiss we’d shared in shadow, making me feel I’d done everything in the wrong order if we’d experienced that particular physical intimacy when there was still so much neglect in our emotional relationship.

It took me a long time to retrieve my voice. “She…never told me.” Because I’d never cultivated a relationship where she felt she could confide something so important. Had she feared my rejection? Unless I located her, I would never know or be able to placate her worries.

Prince Castiel’s frown deepened. “Which means that in the years you’ve been courting her you’ve failed to secure her trust, leaving me no reason to entrust her to you. I’m warning you: if you use the circumstances surrounding her birth to cast her aside or mistreat her like our father…”

His threat hung heavy in the air, one I would never dream of giving him any reason to fulfill. His revelation didn’t sway my heart from her, though it did offer some clarity to the puzzle I’d been assembling in regards to her difficult background.

By Prince Castiel’s dubious look, he clearly didn’t believe my heartfelt sentiment. “Unfortunately our past actions condemn you. Be assured I will use all the influence in my possession to change the King of Thorndale’s mind about the arrangement…but that is a bridge we will cross once I find her. Regardless of who is at fault in her vanishing along such a dangerous route, I will do all within my power to rescue her.”

It took me a long moment to still my storm of emotions enough for the full meaning of his words to settle over me—while my kingdom had always been under the impression that all who befell the curse disappeared forever, he seemed convinced that she still existed.

“Is there a reason you believe you’ll be able to find her?”

He narrowed his eyes but said nothing, a response I took for affirmation. My heart pounded wildly. Did he know something about the curse afflicting Brimoire that I could use to help my people?

“Please, you must—”

He immediately silenced my desperate plea before I could even finish. “I have no reason to impart such information to you; such knowledge belongs only to my sister.”

“But if you have something that will help me protect my kingdom—”

“The affairs of your kingdom are irrelevant to me. I will find Lisette and tell her what I know; whether or not she decides to share her knowledge with you is for her to decide.”

He suppressed my hopes before they could even take root. While I’d once had reason to be optimistic in my deepening relationship with Lisette, after our first kiss I no longer knew where we stood.

Regardless of the tension between me and the prince, I cared for Lisette too much to allow a grudge to prevent me from seeking all the help I could get in finding her…especially if he possessed information that could aid my kingdom. He listened intently as I informed him of Lisette’s condition, only omitting the romantic details that I wasn’t brave enough to share with her menacing and protective brother.

So far Prince Castiel’s reactions had defied my expectations, leaving me no idea how he’d respond to my news that his sister hadn’t entirely vanished but lingered in an invisible form. His stoic expression betrayed no hint of what he might be thinking as I spoke, least of all the tender care I now knew he harbored towards her. Had Lisette experienced a similar frustration when trying to peel back the layers of my own stoic mask in hopes of discovering my hidden affection towards her?

When I finished, he studied me a long moment before speaking. “So your current search is because you believe she is still in the palace. While I still have many questions and concerns, they can wait until I find her.” He departed without another word to comb through another section of the palace, seeming as determined as I was to find her.

I watched him go with considerable misgiving, wondering whether my desperation for Lisette had hindered my judgement—after their earlier threats, I couldn’t deny the possibility that the prince had come to Brimoire with less honorable intentions than seeking out his supposedly vanished sister.

The most I could do was arrange for several guards to accompany him, though they would be no match for his swordsmanship should he harbor a more nefarious purpose. For the time being I would have to give him my trust, though it was the last thing I wanted to extend after he’d stood indifferently by midst all the heartache Lisette had experienced at the Thorndale court.

My conscience prickled with the reminder I was condemning him for the same sin I myself was guilty of, yet another example of how much I saw of myself in the Thorndale prince.

If I wanted Lisette to continue giving me a chance despite my previous mistakes and past show of seeming indifference, then it was only fair I extend her brother the same mercy; only she could decide what judgment to render towards him.

While I had no tangible reason to trust him, the concern I’d glimpsed beneath his foreboding mask at least reassured me he was sincere in his wishes to find her. I sent a fervent prayer that as Lisette’s blood relative, the Prince of Thorndale would succeed where I had failed…and that her disappearance hadn’t cost me my opportunity to be with her forever.

CHAPTER20

Lisette

Where was I?

I thought I’d completely faded, only to find myself in a place too concrete to be described asnothingness. I slowly took in my fuzzy surroundings that blurred the shapes of the room where I stood, a place that even midst its foreignness felt familiar. What had once been a place of form and color was now nothing more than hues of various shades of grey, without any discernible outline that would allow me to decipher the objects and give them meaning.

I seemed to float above an unseen threshold between two destinations like one would straddle a doorway, keeping me in a state of in-between—one side was the place that even its faded state I was certain was the visible world I was drifting farther from, and an indecipherable void lay on my other. Though I couldn’t peer into it, I somehow sensed invisible forms lying just beyond my perception, their indiscernible whispers beckoning me closer.

I tried to turn away from where I’d just left so I could finally step into the unseen realm and see what awaited me there, but no matter how much I tried to venture there something held me back, a lingering attachment I couldn’t seem to let go of. I wanted to further fade into this unseen world lying just beyond my reach, but I was afraid that even merely dipping my toe into the pool of nothingness would be enough for it to consume me, preventing me from ever reemerging in the visible world.