The Strangely Beautiful Tale Of Miss Percy Parker (30 page)

“Maddening, in fact,” Percy murmured, moving her face to kiss his fingertip, her lips lingering there as he reacted with a yearning exhalation.

Her expression suddenly grew grave. “Alexi, promise me you’ll not leave me alone tonight. I can’t bear it. These terrible events have nearly killed me. Promise me you’ll not turn from me like you did at your sister’s, toy with me like before?”

Dark eyes burned with desire and adoration. “Percy, the sanctity of our love is tied to the balance of our world and”—he drew a shaking breath—“my very life depends on it.” Loosening the cravat around his abused throat, he pulled at a thin metal chain. A small silver ring was revealed.

“Strange that we’ve both worn symbols of our fate against our skin,” Percy murmured, staring as he slipped the ring from the chain and held it before her. Delicately crafted, a single silver feather was wrapped into a slender circle. It took her a moment to realize what his presenting a ring to her meant, but when she did, she nearly shrieked in delight.

“I waited for ages to give this to my destined love, growing older and bitter, losing all hope. Then you waltzed in, Persephone Parker. You lifted me from the ashes. I love you. Your nearness is the cure to my cold, lonely life.” Alexi pressed the ring into her palm, his hands trembling helplessly. “Heal me by becoming my wife.”

The joyous cry from Percy’s lips could have made flowers bloom. Perhaps it did, somewhere in window boxes above.

“Oh, my dear professor!” She laughed. “I’ve been helplessly yours from the very first.” Her pale eyes burned with the blue flame that bound them all, that fire triumphant over darkness at last. “My God, your
wife!
” she squealed as he slipped the ring upon her finger. “I could only dream someone would have me so, and for it to be Alexi Rychman—”

“It must be me,” Alexi interrupted. “My goddess may live on in you, but even if she doesn’t…I need you, Percy.”

He fondled her arms and nuzzled her neck as tears of joy and relief from the night’s unearthly terrors spilled down her cheeks, all horror draining away with each salty drop. “You will stay at my side tonight,” he commanded, arms locking around her waist. When Percy drew back, blushing, eyes widening with excited uncertainty, he anticipated her nervousness. “I’ll respect your modesty until we are wed, sweet girl, but you and I have much to discuss.”

She nodded, shifting in his hold, and he gave a hiss. “Michael may have to wed us immediately!” he groaned, no longer able deny the contours of her body, so evident beneath the thin fabric of her gown.

Their eyes locked, desperate. The betrothed were permitted such passion…

All inhibition aside, Alexi slid an arm around her neck and his lips fell to devour her throat, her shoulders. Her senses sharpening with desire, she felt his fingertips upon her rib cage. His hand trembled upon the cloth and crept upward. Percy gasped as she felt his palm graze her breast then cup it. Her skin thrilled, flushed and tingled in places she blushed to acknowledge.

Responding to her sounds of pleasure, Percy’s beloved caressed her with increasing hunger, his hands roaming and questing. Their bodies joined in a symphonic movement of touch and response, and the light in the sacred chamber grew brighter. The mosaic bird above them glowed as if the heat of their pressing bodies had ignited a divine hearth.

Percy wept softly, joyously. Her hands seized and fluttered
over him alternately. “You delight in this body, then, Alexi? It arouses, not repulses?” she whispered with thinly veiled fear, while every trace of his fingertips caused entirely new delights.

“Is this not proof?” he panted. “Pale as you are, your features and body are singularly, beautifully perfect—my flawless sculpture come to life, warming to my touch. I warrant, dear girl, that respecting your modesty shall be a—I’d best take my hands from you else I be unable to help myself! Oh, forgive me! You shiver with cold. Have my cloak,” he begged.

“I don’t shiver from the cold, Alexi!” Percy laughed. “How I rejoice that my strange skin could receive such a loving treatment! I imagined you, imagined this…but the truth of it!”

He looked down at her and grinned. “I am a man who searches for truth. Truth and a reason.” And with a smile, he descended upon her again, ravaging her lips, his hands began to once more wander.

There was a tearing sound. At first Percy assumed it was some part of her clothing, but then the corner of her eye saw that the altar door again gaped. “Ah. The door,” she stated.

Alexi turned and groaned. “Perhaps the heavens know, as I do, that I’m about to lose all hope of control and make these stones our marriage bed,” he muttered, reluctantly drawing back. “Come, love, our friends await.” He unclasped his cloak. “Though we should let them. Lord knows I’ve waited for you forever! Yet…you do deserve an actual bed.”

He wrapped his cloak around her with great care, and she giggled, quaking with nervous anticipation of the prospect. A sudden dreadful thought clouded her gaze. “Alexi?”

“Yes?”

“Am I still being sought after, sniffed out by that Cerberus we fled, holding a grudge from a mythic past? Are we to be hunted, you and I, by…do we dare say Hades himself? Pursued by other strange minions like that Gorgon revealed
herself to be? Or have I been able, in any way, by powers I do not understand, to set us free from those horrors?”

“I cannot say, Percy, for we were given our myth alone. I know only of the phoenix and the Muses. I’ve no memory of them; I know only what was told to us by that goddess long ago.”

“I had a vision you—what was surely you—died in flames, in my arms,” Percy wailed, recalling the horror.

“Whatever we were, or we are, we’ve returned to each other. We certainly have foes yet to face; there was too much talk of settling scores for it to be over. But for now, darling…?”

“For now I, Persephone Parker, am content with you, Professor Alexi Rychman, here in the Queen’s England, enamoured with anything you do and anywhere we go!”

Alexi swept her into his arms and she squealed in delight, clinging to him as he carried her up through the portal door and past the altar beyond. The sacred chamber closed dutifully behind them. He bore her down the church aisle and out of the silent, empty chapel, then through Promethe Hall’s front doors and into a now-peaceful evening.

At the threshold of the academy, Alexi placed her on her feet and they gasped in unison at the sight before them. Dozens of peaceful spirits had gathered in greeting, the sorts of spirits that The Guard allowed to roam without censure, souls that just couldn’t quite let go or were tethered by the living who couldn’t let go. Patiently floating on either side of the portico, an incorporeal receiving line had formed for the newly betrothed duo. These spirits’ expressions were filled with warm anticipation, and Percy smiled at each in turn.

Turning to Alexi, she kissed him reverently, a shaft of moonlight falling on both of their faces like a spotlight. The spirits applauded—and many remarked that it was about damn time.

“No matter future foes, Alexi, look what a life we will lead,” Percy cried. “Look at our entourage!” Clutching his
hand, she could hear murmuring tongues in all manner of accents and languages, and all were offering their regards and congratulations. “Oh,” she breathed, blushing, flattered.

Percy stared at each spirit with a respect that acknowledged the inner soul, perhaps in a way that was never realized in their mortal lives. Each ghostly countenance took on an expression of peace before the glowing form dimmed into the darkness. Many spectres waved or blew kisses before they departed to their rest, granted in return for their felicitations a much-needed sleep by a wondrous, compassionate force. The air felt at peace, never so balanced.

Venturing to look at the sky, Percy was relieved to see it no longer torn. The heavens, and her heart, were now whole. The scales were level.

“What do all these spirits tell you, my translator and my love?” Alexi asked softly.

Percy turned to him. Pale and powerful, she was a beaming, heavenly sight on the academy steps, bathed in and reflecting moonlight.

“They tell us, love, that eternity awaits.”

Pardon the list, it takes a village…

Thank you to Paul Peterson, my first and beloved audience.

To Andy Waltzer, who loves Percy as much as I do.

To Michael Dixon, who inspired me to finish the book.

To my family, for everything, always.

To Marijo, for the brain cell.

To Marcos, for caring.

To the RWA NYC, an awesomely supportive resource.

To Isabo Kelly, for teaching me tons of things.

To my agent Nicholas Roman Lewis, for always believing in this story.

To Marianne Mancusi, I promise to pay it forward.

To Chris Keeslar, editor extraordinaire, thank you for this blessed moment.

“A compelling, engaging novel that drew me in from page one. Bravo!”—M. J. Rose, Bestselling Author of

The Reincarnationist
and
The Memorist

“I want more! NOW! Such a beautifully written book…The story is fantastic in more ways than one. A gorgeous writer…”

—Maria Lokken, President, Romance Novel.tv

“A strangely beautiful tale indeed! An ethereal, lyrical story that combines myth, spiritualism and the gothic in lush prose and sweeping passion.”

—
USA Today
Bestselling Author Kathryn Smith

“Tender. Poignant. Exquisitely written.”

—
New York Times
Bestselling Author C. L. Wilson

A LEISURE BOOK
^®

September 2009

Published by

Dorchester Publishing Co., Inc.
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New York, NY 10016

Copyright © 2009 by Leanna Renee Hieber

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E-ISBN: 978-1-4285-0732-6

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