Page 51 of Vanish

Lucien simply shook his head. Ryland seemed to choose his next words carefully.

“It seems strange that she disappeared so suddenly when previously she could only be seen by you. Did something happen between you two right before she vanished?”

Lucien stiffened, as if the words had struck him with an accusation. “Nothing.” His voice wavered, betraying the lie…one of many he’d undoubtedly told these past several days.

I doubted anything would have cajoled Lucien to speak of the kiss we’d shared before I’d chosen to succumb to the curse’s own seductive persuasions. I myself had been doing my best to avoid any remembrance of the event, but now the memories overcame me in a rush of sweet recollection.

But it seemed fate had other plans for me. Ryland and Evelyn had just exchanged wary glances, but before the prince could press the matter a heavy knock sounded at the door, causing all three to rise to their feet.

I released a breathy gasp that no one heard when the king of Brimoire entered, looking weary from his travels but wearing a soft expression I’d never seen from my own indifferent father. Even midst my current concern, I felt a yearning for such fatherly affection that the king clearly held for his anguished son.

“Might I speak with you alone, Lucien?” The request emerged as a gentle invitation rather than the harsh orders I was accustomed to.

Ryland and Evelyn promptly took their leave. Lucien followed their departure with a look like he longed to join them rather than remain behind for the king’s dreaded pronouncement. The moment the door clicked shut, he spun onto his father before the king even had a chance to speak.

“I want no part in whatever marriage you’ve arranged; I am still engaged to Princess Lisette.” His chin lifted in desperate defiance.

The king of Thorndale would never have allowed such an outspoken liberty even from his own son, but the Brimoire king’s expression remained kind. “I wish your original engagement to Princess Lisette of Thorndale could have gone through as planned. But though I understand your reluctance, unfortunately our kingdom cannot afford to lose the lose the aid a beneficial alliance would bring to our suffering people. I’m afraid you cannot delay your inevitable engagement to another any longer.”

Pain wrenched my heart. It wasn’t until I was face to face with the very real possibility that Lucien would be taken from me that I realized how desperately I wanted to keep him.

“I know.” By the despair wrenching Lucien’s voice, I had reason to hope he shared my same longings. “But it’s too soon to give up on the alliance created through my engagement with Lisette. Thorndale is one of the most powerful kingdoms in the region and I believe it’s worth keeping our engagement to their princess intact.”

The king studied Lucien. “Do you speak from a place of emotion or sense?”

“Both, but the latter is currently the only tool I have to persuade you: I’ve seen my vanished fiancée since she succumbed to the curse, as I showed you earlier.”

The king listened respectfully as Lucien shared the details concerning my invisibility and outlined the speculations we’d discussed with Ryland and Evelyn, filling in any developments he hadn’t been privy to. When he finished, the king of Brimoire leaned back with a weary sigh.

“While this promising development will undoubtedly benefit our research into the cause of the curse and how to break it moving forward, with time so pressing I’m not sure we can afford to delay a union that can help tend to our kingdom’s current needs. Negotiations proved quite difficult when all we currently have to offer is a crippled kingdom, and the agreement will cost us some of our previously exclusive minerals, but the situation with our dwindling food supply is too dire after the curse consumed so much of our farmland. We cannot afford to lose this opportunity, especially since you say that she’s vanished yet again…or have you since sensed her?”

Lucien drew a wavering breath, his expression conflicted. “Yes, I can still see—” His words faltered and his shoulders slumped. “No, I haven’t seen her since her second disappearance. But I know she’s still there, somewhere just beyond my reach.”

The king rested a hand on Lucien’s drooping shoulder. “I never realized how much Lisette meant to you. I can see that you are suffering deeply…but so is our entire nation. Though I acknowledge your pain, we can’t keep chasing after phantoms. As leaders our focus must be on ending Brimoire’s pain before any more of our people are lost.”

Determination set Lucien’s jaw as he evenly met the king’s gaze. “No matter where she is, my desire to marry her remains unchanged. Our relationship has developed beyond a mere beneficial alliance. No matter what it takes, I will do everything in my power to bring her back.”

I warmed at his declaration of dedication and loyalty, even when it seemed as if I’d permanently vanished, providing further encouragement to mend the distance my doubt had inflicted upon us…if I could find the courage to act on it before it was too late and Lucien was lost to me forever.

CHAPTER22

The discussion with the King of Brimoire concerning Lucien’s pending engagement ended with an ultimatum: Lucien had until week’s end when the dignitaries assisting in the pending marriage negotiations were due to arrive for Lucien to find a way to break my curse of invisibility, else I would be pronounced officially vanished and our arrangement made void.

Mere days felt an unattainable deadline to meet when overcoming the formidable curse felt like nothing more than an elusive and impossible dream, even as I recognized the mercy in granting us any time at all when Brimoire was in too dire of a state to delay much longer.

Following his Majesty’s pronouncement, Lucien took refuge in his study where we’d spent much time together; he sat hunched in defeat at his desk, his face buried in his hands in a futile attempt to shut out the rest of the world, his own form of disappearing.

My emotions wrenched at his distress. I bridged the distance I’d been the one to create between us to brush his shoulder in a futile show of comfort, but he didn’t notice my touch and my heart sank. Though I’d managed to emerge from the coils of the invisible world enough to stand beside him, he’d never felt so distant—residing not in the visible world I still tenuously straddled but in a place that felt too far for me to ever reach.

Having spent far too much of my own life in a similar retreat, I understood his misery and felt a rush of compassion, mingled with hope that the rift between us could be healed and we could somehow find our way to each other. Even if he never returned my affections, I desperately yearned to share the burden weighing heavily upon him, a desire that only increased the longer I watched him wrestling with his pain. In this moment his deceit seemed inconsequential when he’d chosen me over the duties that came from the title that had given him meaning for so long.

“Lisette.”

I startled at his sudden groan, wondering whether he’d sensed my presence, but he didn’t look up, nor did he give any indication he’d seen me. Disappointment twinged. For all my previous resolve to continue to hide, I suddenly wanted to be seen by him more than I’d ever wanted anything.

As if sensing this secret desire and responding to it with his usual tenderness, he roused from his stupor to pull out quill and parchment and write my name atop the page in the penmanship that had become so dear to me during our years of correspondence, despite the dull and stilted nature of our communication.

I didn’t expect him to write me a letter when I currently dwelled in a place the post couldn’t reach. Curiosity over what he wanted to say when our situation had never looked so bleak compelled me to drift a few inches closer, but his quill remained still, trapped in the same uncertainty that had paralyzed us whenever we’d tried to exchange letters beyond our usual polite pleasantries.

---