#missing lucie au

[thevagabondexpress]

two different cordelia carstairs moodboards for the missing lucie au, if heaven won't take me back

cordelia fanart in the first one by lady lye

[thevagabondexpress]

if heaven won't take me back

"Cordelia Carstairs, I have a mission for you."

"What kind of mission?" Cordelia asks, wary.

"I know that you and your family are going to London," says the girl. "I know that you're close friends with the Herondales. There is great danger coming to London also, beyond the full scope of my knowledge or the reach of my control. You are the bearer of Cortana. Only you can do this: protect James Herondale at all costs. Protect him as I cannot."

***

Or, in which Jesse isn't in the woods, and Lucie doesn't get rescued from the pit trap: she just vanishes without a trace. Eight years later, Cordelia is approached the night before she leaves cirenworth for London by a mysterious woman in clothes of faerie make, who charges her with protecting James from an unknown burgeoning threat. Meanwhile, all the faeries have become insular and on edge after a disaster they won't talk about that destroyed the Unseelie court, and Grace's powers suddenly and mysteriously stop working completely any time Cordelia is around . . .

[thevagabondexpress]

in a funhouse mirror, darkly: chapter six of the missing lucie au

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

“That was Cordelia Carstairs,” Grace says.

“Yes, it was.”

“She was all over you, like spider-webs.”

“Yes, she was.” Spider-webs is not how James would have chosen to describe the encounter. He isn’t sure he has words for how to describe it, other than discombobulating. “Why did you not tell me you were coming?”

“You didn’t come to Idris,” Grace answered, her voice a whisper. “I waited—I expected you—but you never came.” She glances nervously in the direction of her mother and they both freeze when they realize she’s actually moved away. She’s speaking to the Lochlyn sisters, Jane and Oona, while Oona’s milquetoast husband whose name James can never remember downs a glass of cabernet and tries not to look like he wants to be anywhere else.