The Strangely Beautiful Tale Of Miss Percy Parker (29 page)

The room itself trembled with Percy as her breath hitched and rattled. She squirmed in the binding light, still held transfixed, hovering off the floor. Alexi’s body, once suspended with her, began to sink again to the ground.

“Alexi, accept me,” Percy begged, her plea a strange counterpoint to her aura of power. Their eyes were locked, dark and light.

“Accept you as
what,
my love—what are you?” he asked.

“A mortal girl who needs you…and, I pray, whom you need, too,” she choked out.

“Percy—”

“I’ve no strength, Alexi. I used it all in coming here. Whatever is inside me is tearing me apart,” Percy gasped, her blood feeling thin and insufficient. “I don’t know what’s happening…” Her words were labored, a wheeze in her lungs. “All I know is that I was drawn here, wherever this is, for a purpose you surely know far better than I. Thus, I give what remains of me to you, Alexi, whom I love with my whole heart. Whatever you need of my soul, it is entirely yours and always has been—Ah!”

Pain claimed her body in a brief seizure. The shaft of light collapsed suddenly, as did Percy, crumpling into Alexi’s arms, a limp heap of white limbs and fabric.

“Oh, God,” Alexi cried as he sank with her to the floor.

And suddenly there was commotion. Jane attempted to focus her rattled heart enough to manifest a healing aura. Michael had closed his eyes, and with recovering cheer was attempting to quiet the frenetic nerves of his fellows. Jose
phine placed her locket that contained a tiny portrait of their magical, angelic icon around Percy’s moist neck.

Elijah crept forward. “We were looking for her door. How terribly confusing! Well, I suppose we’ve found her now, haven’t we? I daresay I liked her door a good deal more than that first one…” He would, perhaps, have continued to ramble had Jane not rapped him soundly on the skull.

“Thank heavens she found us,” Rebecca murmured, and moved to the center of the room, where Alexi’s black-clad form nestled Percy’s fragile white mass. “Oh, Alexi!” She placed a hand upon his shoulder.

“Hush!” Alexi shirked away from her hand, cradling his beloved. His forehead against hers, he murmured, gently rocking her. “Don’t leave me. After all this, you mustn’t leave me.”

“Alexi,” Rebecca called. He looked up, and she glimpsed the mad light in his eyes.

“She’s barely alive, Rebecca!” Spittle flew from his lips, strands of wild black hair stuck to his damp brow. “If she dies there will be no one to save us; we’ll have failed Prophecy twice! That gorgon will have won in the end, the sepulcher will be thrown open entirely and our world will be overtaken!”

Rebecca retreated fearfully into the shadows.

Shaking Percy, Alexi began to cry out something in the beautiful tongue bequeathed only to The Guard, and the rest began to chant furiously with him, invoking ancient prayers of healing and rebirth. Their unparalleled sound grew into a heavenly crescendo, and then there was rapturous silence as they awaited the effect.

Percy lay lifeless and unaffected in Alexi’s arms.

He grasped her face, calling her name. Nothing.

“Forgive me, Persephone, I do love you! My love never faltered, though I failed you…” He madly clutched her to him.

The warm wind of their prayers turned a bitter cold, and the ground began to tremble. Dread filled the room like water into a sinking ship. Rebecca whimpered his name, but Alexi paid no heed. Thunder roared and the stained-glass window above cracked. The group began to scream as the stone that had revealed itself as a guardian pin in their chapel began to wrest again from its moorings.

As their faith and sanity began to slip away, their fragile hope again dashed, Alexi could only whisper to his lifeless beloved, cradling her, murmuring praise and desperate regrets into her ear. His tears drenched those cheeks he repeatedly kissed. “This is the end after all,” he said. “You tried to save us, but my failure doomed us all.”

Tiny shards of glass began to fall from above. There was a violent thunder of horses’ hooves. After centuries, it would be his leadership, his incarnation that failed the world.

“Percy, please save us,” he whispered. “It’s your fate. My love, please be strong for me against this terrible darkness…”

Suddenly he remembered his grandmother, what she’d said to him and to Percy. If there was ever a darkness that needed his fire…

In a burst of furious desperation, Alexi closed his eyes, using the last of his energies to turn the whole chapel into a small sun of cerulean flame. It poured out of his hands as he caressed Percy. It danced in sapphire waves over her alabaster body, entwining her limbs and licking at her cool skin as if kissing her toward consciousness.

Suddenly, enormous wings, cloudy visions of feather and flame, shot from Alexi’s back and unfurled with a surge of blinding illumination. The rest of The Guard stumbled back. His black robes whipped about him. The wings were made of blue light, barely tangible shapes of mist and sundered divinity; these same wings had burst forth as an omen in the academy above, and they were now his proclamation of power, demanding that his lover come home to his arms.

Helpless tears of wonder poured down the cheeks of The Guard as their leader’s glorious phantom wings wrapped his beloved in a cocoon of resurrection.

“From the Flame of the Phoenix, a Feather fell and Muses followed,” Rebecca murmured, huddled beyond the circle, her face ashen and her throat bruised purple.

“My God, the old tale indeed,” Michael sobbed, and he rushed to her side, lifting her to her feet and grasping her hands.

Limbs the colour of moonlight shuddered. A strong will and gentle heart stirred back toward the mortal life Percy wanted more than anything, and invincible love prodded her to consciousness as she became aware of the musical wind and dancing aurora lights around and within her. She’d fought too hard to allow this frail body to abandon fate. She’d not permit the wheel of the world’s fate to turn to darkness, but would rouse to the lover who woke her with fire.

As a new peal of thunder shook The Guard’s bones and apocalyptic horsemen threatened to bear down upon them, from Percy’s dry lips came a sound, a soft feminine rasp:
“Shhh…”
The rumbling cavalcade dulled to a whisper. The ceiling held, and their sanctuary remained intact. The stones of the chapel settled back into place, the pin sealing the sepulcher once more.

Alexi’s fire and his wings faded until wisps of incenselike smoke were all that remained. Percy stirred in his hold. Her eyes shot open to pierce him with a crystalline stare.

“My love,” he choked.

She evaluated him for a long moment. “You have some explaining to do.”

Dark eyes pouring with tears, Alexi laughed; an echoing sound of pure joy.

Percy placed a finger to his lips, a chuckle turning into a sickly cough. Her head swiveled as she listened to the silence. There was no more barking, pounding or murmuring in her
mind. Only relief. Taking in her surroundings as best she could, she glanced at the six pairs of eyes that hovered over her, comforting in a distantly familial way.

“What was all that…?” Elijah asked, dumbly breaking the silence. Rebecca elbowed him.

“I was hoping you could tell me,” Percy murmured, her eyes focusing. “Oh, it’s you, with the touch. And—oh! Headmistress! Why are you here?” She stared up at Alexi in confusion, her body wracked by shivers. He held her closer, but she clawed at him. “Please don’t send me away tomorrow…”

Cupping her face in his hands, Alexi kissed her passionately. She gave in to the press of his lips, her body trying to shake the lingering effects of her epic battle, but she soon pulled back and gasped. A blush patched her cheeks. Glancing bashfully at the company around her, she turned her head, murmuring Alexi’s name with shame, ducking and hiding inside the safe darkness of his cloak and giving an overwhelmed, youthful sigh. “Alexi. Goodness, does that mean—?”

Bringing her blushing face up again, he was sure to make this covenant eye to eye. “I failed you, Percy, but never again. Everything will be made clear to you.”

“You made that promise previously,” she reminded him.

“Yes. I was lost, my duty here unclear, though my heart was not. I beg you, forgive me.”

“You will see me again, then?” she murmured, aching. “You’ll not send me back to the convent?”

“
See
you? I’ll not allow you out of my sight from this moment on! Say you’ll forgive me.”

“Forgive you?” Percy coughed again. “Well, I am rather angry.”

“You should be angry—with all of us.” Rebecca stepped forward. “Your rejection had everything to do with us and nothing to do with Alexi; he is not the one to blame,”
she admitted shakily, glancing humbly at her friend and colleague.

“Bless me for I have sinned!” Elijah cried, prostrating himself at Percy’s feet.

“Get up, silly man,” she laughed weakly. “You don’t need a blessing; we all need a good night’s rest. However…what in the name of Holy God just happened?”

“You’re a goddess,” Elijah whimpered.

“No, I’m a mortal woman with a horrid headache and a confused identity.”

“No mere mortal girl could open a gate to the other side!” Elijah assured her.

Percy shrugged and winced. “Well, it would seem that serpentine friend of yours could, too, and I’d like to think I’m nothing like her…”

“No, no, you’re clearly the greater power here. What incredible proof! Your business with those doors was very well done, if I may say. You’ve certainly proved us the consummate fools!” he exclaimed, his foppish sleeves flapping as he gesticulated absurdly. Rebecca made a move to elbow him again, but then realized it was no use and only shook her head and sighed.

“Well, it would’ve been nice to know my power, whatever it is, long ago. It might have saved us all a lot of trouble. No. I can’t be a goddess. If I was, I wouldn’t be in this much pain.” Percy smirked half heartedly. Alexi could only stare, drinking in her every word.

“Were you one, then, once? Full of
sorcellerie et puissance?
” Josephine asked. “Do you remember ever coming to us, years ago? Giving us a prophecy?”

“Oh, why…it’s you, too—the painter.
Bonjour.
Well, mademoiselle, I don’t know whether I’ve had such dreams or memories, but I’ve never before been capable of magic or divine acts.” She turned to Alexi, giving in to the warmth of his embrace. “And I don’t remember ever seeing
you,
my
dear.” She bit her lip. “I assure you, I’d never forget if I’d seen you before.”

He drew his covetous embrace tighter, and pressed a finger to the soft skin over her racing heart. “Herein lies the magic,” he declared softly, and Percy’s face lit with a rapturous smile, unwittingly proving his point. “Inside this incredible, radiant heart is all the divinity we need. ‘Tis the whole of my salvation.”

Rebecca bent carefully over them. “Rest is what is best for you now, Miss Parker. Let answers come later. You’re in good hands with your professor.”

Staring up at Rebecca, that word struck Percy with sudden horror. “You won’t…expel me for this, will you, Headmistress?”

The group laughed, albeit some a bit guiltily.

“No, dear heart—since you rescued the world, we may have to make you faculty.”

Rebecca gave Alexi an anemic smile; Percy, even in her weakened state, could see many complex things cross between their gazes. Alexi nodded slowly, as if all might eventually pass.

“Give us a moment, please,” he instructed his friends. “Regroup at the Withersby estate, where Percy and I will soon join you. Don’t worry, there will be time enough for repentance.” Flashing each and every one a caustic smirk, he waved them away.

Without protest, they quietly filed out. As they turned toward the stairway, the door to Athens and their normal world materialized with the sound of a small rip. Only Jane lingered, shifting for a moment on her feet and wringing her hands.

“I am so sorry, Alexi,” she murmured. “There was a time when I did not trust that vile woman. I ought to have fought for Miss Percy. I failed you.”

Alexi shook his head. “Every one of us failed. But all has been made right.”

Jane wiped her eyes, crossed herself, and was the last to leave the sanctuary. The portal closed behind her, leaving Percy and Alexi alone.

Attempting to sit upright, Percy found she couldn’t and collapsed once more into Alexi’s clutch. Never had she been so exhausted, yet her heart pounded in this embrace and her body thrilled. “I’ve no idea what has happened to me. Where are we?” she murmured.

“A special place reserved for us alone, within the academy walls and yet far from them, neither here nor there. But if not for you, this delicate place would have been destroyed—along with much more.”

Percy shuddered. “Oh, Alexi, I’ve had such visions and terrors! If I’m meant to be here with you now, why did you send me away? You were so cruel.”

“I fear it was all a horrid test, bringing us to this catastrophic point. I had to act cruel, to make you hate me, otherwise I’d have never been able to let you go. I was in agony—”

“Good.” Percy’s eyes flashed. “You deserved to suffer, you were awful…”

Alexi’s expression grew pained. “The rest of The Guard feared I was too taken with you to allow Prophecy to be fulfilled. More than just our own desires were at stake—”

“You thought it might be that Gorgon,” Percy accused.

“
They
thought it was, but I believed in you…and your power proved everything tonight!” Alexi gasped, pressing her to him. “Signs of Prophecy were seen in that…woman. The others were enamoured of her, but I never…I knew I was meant to love the Prophesied, and we were so terrified of fate we’d have ruined everything were it not for you.”

“So…
did
you love her?” Percy breathed fearfully, wondering what might have transpired while she was in the infirmary, the exact period of time of which she had no accurate awareness.

Alexi shook his head. “Never for a moment. Loving a
goddess that appeared to me as a young man was nothing like what began to happen to me when you would come to my office, fascinating me. I began to live for our private moments, unprepared for my reaction, unprepared for what you do to me,” he professed, his words a groan of need as his hands roved her shoulders. “As your professor, it was unbearable. Unattainable as my student, and yet…the difference in our status did add a titillating dynamic to this entire ordeal,” he purred, drawing a finger over her cheek.