Alexi bowed his head. “Hello, Miss Wilberforce, thank you for being a part of this special day.”
“No—thank you, Professor, for proving love presses past barriers.” The librarian lifted Percy’s hand in hers, showcasing the contrast that had brought them together, triumphant. Both ladies were quietly overcome.
“I’m so glad to share this with you, Mina. It’s been quite a quarter,” Percy whispered.
“I should say.”
Headmistress Thompson approached, and Mina stepped aside. Alexi stepped aside, too, watching with feigned disinterest as Rebecca said, “Allow me to congratulate you.” She opened her arms, and Percy eagerly stepped into them.
“How can I thank you, Headmistress—?”
“Rebecca.”
“Thank you for everything you’ve done in granting me a home here at Athens, before any of us knew this fate. You have been so kind to me from the first—”
Rebecca looked pained. “No, child, I—”
Percy gushed, undeterred, “I love Athens so deeply. I have a family now, a home, meaning, and suddenly life is glorious. You allowed these blessings to unfold. I am so grateful that you have granted me a place on the staff. Thank you for everything you have done, and will do, for Alexi and me.”
The headmistress’s face was unreadable, but when Percy took her hands to relinquish her wedding bouquet, Rebecca shook her head and refused. “Oh, no—” But Percy would not accept it back. “Ah, all right then.” The woman chuckled, masking unease. “I believe your husband wishes to depart.”
“Oh, Percy!” Elijah cried, as Alexi took her by the arm and the glowing couple walked off to cheers. “My dear, beware His Royal Eeriness! Heed my warnings! He has terrible designs on you! He’ll take you to some desolate place, force you into black robes to recite mathematics! You know not what you do! O, poor youth, sacrificed on the altar of the Constant Sneer!”
Percy laughed delightedly and turned to her love, who pursed his lips and arched an eyebrow at Elijah. She grinned. “Is that so, husband?”
“Oh, I’ve designs on you, my dear,” he said, fixing her with a smoldering gaze. “Hardly terrible.”
Percy shivered in anticipation.
A footman waited atop the front steps of Athens, holding a cloak for Percy; an ivy-bedecked carriage stood below. As the door of the cab closed her inside, Percy lifted the curtain to look back at the crowd. Rebecca’s lips were thin, and her colour wan; the bouquet hung limply from her hand. Michael was studying her. Elijah was still spouting dire warnings, and Josephine was pulling affectionately at his arm, begging him to desist. Alexandra was waving. In the portico shadow, Marianna and Edward were stealing a kiss. Aodhan again hovered over Jane. Beatrice seemed to be inspecting the foundations of Athens, tapping at the flagstones in an unsettling manner.
Percy chose to set all concern aside. “Thank you,” she murmured to the heavens. “Let me live with this loving, mad family forever. I could never have dreamed such treasures mine.”
She turned and reached a hand out the window, aching for her new husband, who was speaking to the driver and sliding tickets into his breast pocket. Alexi climbed in and relaxed across from her, and Percy gave one final wave out the window before the driver had them jostling off to the northeast. A questioning look crossed Percy’s face.
“York, my love. I thought we would spend a couple of evenings in York.”
“How lovely! We’ll see Reverend Mother, then?”
“I thought it might be nice to see where you spent your earliest years—but first I’ve some dreary, eerie nook where I intend to cloister you away and set upon you with black robes and endless theorems.”
Percy giggled, her hands reaching for him. He shifted to sit beside her, and she burrowed close. She gasped with a sudden thought. “Are we to take a train, Alexi?”
“Certainly the most efficient way to travel.”
“Oh! I’ve never been on a train!”
Alexi chuckled. “Even our simple adventures will be full of wonder. You’ll make my whole world new.” He leaned close to brush her lips with his.
“Careful, Alexi, these hints of romance could ruin Elijah’s image of you.”
“You’ll have tales, indeed. I promise.”
The other train passengers stared, of course, at the white-skinned girl dressed like a princess. Percy, however, was so joyful and unaware, their looks grew more captivated than rude. Alexi found his defensive edge softening, for his bride remained wholly unruffled. The only eyes she noticed were his, which he kept fixed upon her. The day’s light was so diffuse she was eventually able to stare out the window of their well-appointed car, eagerly watching the English countryside until she dozed on his shoulder.
They disembarked at York at twilight, the last of the sun fading in a final gasp of rich purple. Alexi helped Percy into the carriage procured at the station. Drawing her into his arm, he noticed how the lace around her neck quaked. “Darling, are you cold?”
“No, my dear. Why do you ask?”
“You’re shivering. Please tell me you’re not frightened.”
“What would I be frightened of?” she murmured with a smile. Alexi’s awkwardness was not assuaged. “I know you will be gentle with me,” she added.
“Of course I will be gentle.”
“Though the breadth of our emotions may…tax our capacity for restraint.”
“So I am not alone in feeling…”
“More than a mortal can contain?” Percy finished.
“Precisely.” Alexi choked and turned away, hardly able to look at her until the carriage pulled up outside a small cottage far from civilization, waves crashing in the distance. Then he leaned in like a thrilled schoolboy and said, “You wait here a moment, I have to make sure everything is as I instructed.”
He hopped out of the cab, unlashed a case and darted up the walk, disappearing into a dark building where a single lamp burned in the window. In the several minutes that followed, Percy bit her lip and forgot to breathe.
She was startled by the carriage door swinging open. Alexi held out his hand for her, bidding the driver bring their remaining cases. The man did so, running ahead to place the bags inside the door and hurrying back to the carriage so as not to be an unwelcome presence, but Percy and Alexi didn’t notice him in the slightest; Alexi swept her up in his arms and strode her to the cottage.
The main room was dark inside. Her husband placed her just beyond the threshold, removed her cloak and made a small gesture with his hand. Instantly, the room was alight. Countless candles on sills, end tables, mantel, all across the wide bay window that looked out upon the glittering, final sunset-sea—all burst into spontaneous flame at his command. Percy exclaimed in amazement. Alexi grinned.
The room was also interspersed with bundles of heather. It smelled like a rolling heath. They both took in the scent, and Percy asked, “Alexi, did you arrange all this? Oh, wait until I tell Lord Withersby, he’ll faint!” He only bowed his head in reply. She ran to the window where the moon had risen to wash the sea with luminous silver. “Oh, the view!”
Waves crashed against the rocks. The water sparkled with moonlight, and reflected flames danced in the windowpanes. A fire roared in the fireplace, the cool room becoming cozy. Behind Percy, Alexi opened the door to a bedroom and gestured, igniting fires in a tall hearth and atop candles all around the fine little room. Percy gasped again, Alexi’s inexplicable power over fire a seduction of its own.
A four-poster bed was hung with velvet curtains and trimmed with clusters of heather. Alexi breathed deep. “When you and I shared that moonlit dance at the academy ball, the floral crown woven into your hair—that scent would not leave my nostrils. I imagined you lying beside me, in a field of it. It was the first time I allowed myself to find you intoxicating. And the scent of it here, now, unlocks everything…”
Moving to open a narrow wooden door, he revealed a tiled washroom and a fresh array of candles that sprang to life with a wave of
his hand. Within, steam poured from a copper tub. Moving to the threshold of the bedroom, he motioned to lower the fires in the main room, making those in the bedroom all the brighter. He walked then to the bed, mostly drawing the curtains. He sat in that opening, at the foot, and Percy was enthralled by the roaring fire reflected in his eyes.
He loosened his cravat, not blinking. “My dear,” he purred, and the sound of his voice made her steady herself upon the door frame. “A scented bath awaits you, as does a bit of finery. I’ll wait here.”
Percy nodded, dazed. “Will you…unfasten me?” She turned her back to him and indicated her garment’s clasps.
“Yes, love,” he whispered.
She felt the lace around her shoulders release. His finger lingered there, tracing her nape and tugging gently on a lock of falling hair. He unclasped her necklace and drew the pendant aside. Bending over her shoulder, he stared down at the scar that was revealed where the pendant had once burned her, a mark of Prophecy. He traced it gently before his finger strayed to the swell of her bosom. Percy’s breath hitched.
“That scar has beautiful memories,” she murmured, smiling over her shoulder at him. “You kissed me for the first and most glorious time after seeing it. There is pain in this Great Work; I see that. But you are my reward…”
“My reward, indeed,” he said, shuddering with pleasure to be so near her.
Unhooking an embroidered panel of her dress, his palm slid down the revealed laces of her corset. The ties loosened and expanded with his sharp tug, allowing Percy a deep breath and a gasp. Then Alexi knelt, both hands at the small of her back. He fumbled with the layers of her bustle, opening a space where the thin muslin of her camisole was the only barrier between his fingertips and her flesh. She felt both his hands encircle her waist as he led her back a step.
He bent his head, lifted the bottom edge of her camisole and kissed the bare skin at the small of her back. A sharp breath and accompanying shiver worked up her spine. He unfastened the skirt along her side, one hook and eye after another. The satin hung down, the muslin against her skin fluttering as a small draft tickled the backs of her legs. Percy stood paralyzed, aching to know where his hands would travel next. But he simply took her hands, placed in them the bunched fabric of her skirt and patted her on the rear, sending her lurching forward.
“Oh. Thank you.” Percy choked, turning to face him at the washroom, her loose dress starting to slip from her shoulders.
“Do you require further aid?” Alexi rasped, staring at the line of her collarbone.
“I won’t be but a moment,” she replied, biting her lip.
Shifting her skirts and closing the washroom door, she learned a sumptuous lace gown awaited her upon the back of the door, with ribbon closures from neck to toe. Percy blushed. It was nearly transparent light blue lace without lining. The note attached to the first ribbon said, Tie every bow. I have waited all my life for this night, and it must not go quickly.
Mind hazy and heart pounding, she slipped her wedding dress from her body, hung the layers on a peg and lifted her muslin undergarments over her head. She stared down at her white flesh and trembled as she stepped into the bathwater. It was lightly scented and perfectly warm, greeting Percy’s calves, then caressing her entire body, but its warmth could not stem her trembles. She drew soap along her arms and legs, and everything inside her prickled. In mere moments, it was the right of powerful male hands to trespass every inch of her, and that would be her every pleasure.
She could not stay long in the water. Drying herself, she stared at her new gown. The lace felt incredible against her skin as she slid it onto her arm. Her shaking hands had trouble, but she tied each tie and unpinned her snow-white hair, glancing in the mirror to see that her blue-white irises had somehow grown as luminescent as those dark eyes awaiting her just outside. Never in her wildest dreams could she have imagined this scene. She longed to fling open the door and fly at him with passionate joy, but a fear lingered: what if the sight of her—the unmitigated, complete whiteness of her flesh—was too much?
There was no turning back. She opened the door.
Alexi gasped. There in the door frame, steam pouring out around her, an angel appeared through misty clouds. Her body was perfectly alabaster, its contours visible beneath the sheen of soft blue, and a waterfall of pearlescent hair tumbled over thin, delicate shoulders. Her eyes gleamed, tiny moons ringed in blue. Her cheeks had gained an even flush, and her pale lips were parted to allow quick, irregular intakes of breath. The shadows of her white skin were nearly the blue of the gown that clung to her thin body, every bow tied. She glided to him as if magnetized. The tips of each candle flame in the room rose, as if wishing a better view.
While Percy was preparing herself, Alexi had removed his fine dress, replacing his wedding attire with a black silk robe that buttoned down the chest. He rose now as she moved to him. Their eyes locked, and their shaking hands found each other. Alexi cupped her face and slid an arm around her waist.
“I love you,” Percy blurted.
He swept her into his arms, parted the bed curtains and laid her gently down. Her hair was a gleaming mass upon the pillow, and blue lace spread about her like a pool of water. He stood there a moment as she gazed up at him. Slowly, he knelt. Billowing black silk slid over pale blue lace. He flicked the bed curtain shut behind him, the foot of the bed open only to the crackling fire.
“Percy,” he whispered. “Before words fail us, as I know they will…” He lifted her so that she reclined upon his knees. “I need you to know that, Prophecy aside, no matter what divine remnants have taken up in us, I, as a mortal man, am desperate for you. I’d have loved you no matter my fate.”
Grateful tears fell from her eyes. “How is it, Alexi, that you know what I crave to hear?”
Alexi smirked. “The benefits of marrying a man of genius. Now, Mrs. Rychman…” He slipped the first tie of her gown open at the neck while simultaneously undoing the first button of his robe, and she gasped. “I must kiss you and cease discussion”—another tie fell open—“as my senses flee.” And another. Their subsequent kiss was nearly violent. He lowered himself to lie beside her, first pinning her down with a hand upon her shoulder, then scooping her tightly to him. When he at long last drew back, the phantom image of wispy blue wings folding in around Percy caught the corner of his eye, a spirit remnant, perhaps, of the force that guided their work and destiny.
He guided her hand to the buttons of his robe and was patient as her hands shook; he wanted her to do her part. One by one each tie was loosed, each button undone in slow, beautiful torture. A thin line of flesh could be traced down both their bodies, but that was not enough. Alexi parted the lace of her gown and it fell to the bed. He took in the full sight of her blinding white, sculpted body. Her eerily breathtaking gaze filled with fearful tears. Those brought forth his own.
“Oh, Percy, don’t be frightened,” he murmured, a tear falling from his eye to her stomach, causing a tiny shiver.
“M-my love,” she stammered. “I’m only frightened you may not like what you see.”
Alexi moaned. “How I can convince you that I am enslaved by what I see?”
“I…suppose you shall show me,” Percy replied with meek hope.
“My God, shall I. You are the epitome of beauty.”
Slowly, reverently, he ran hands down the length of her colourless body. Percy arched upward with a soft cry. Alexi climbed above her and his robe parted. They stared at each other.
His tall body was well-defined with such musculature as would befit a man of letters. Percy’s eyes devoured each hard plane and angle. Everything about this man was impressive. Absolutely everything.
Alexi proceeded to prove to Percy that nothing about her unique flesh did anything but excite him, blessing every inch of her trembling skin with lingering, questing, exploratory kisses. In these delicate moments, if there were divine beings housed within them and drawing on ancient passion, Percy could not tell, f
or she was lost entirely within her own.
When Alexi could no longer bear delay, he joined their bodies with a frisson of pain and cries of pleasure. Their limbs wrapped tighter during the progressing stages of passion, and they only took their eyes from each other when kisses so required. Perhaps, Percy thought deliriously, they did see gods in each other’s gazes.
They loved like music: each touch garnered a soft sound, each shift of a body was underscored by an acute reaction, their breath kept time. The tempo of their connection progressed and relaxed, largo to allegro and again to largo, gasps spurring allegretto. Movements were repeated, a prolonged symphony with digressing interludes and desperate refrains, each with a gradual build. The orchestral duet at last grew too hot for their blood to contain, and the candles and hearth in the room erupted higher in an explosion of light, mirroring the indescribable ecstasy of the entwined before extinguishing their flame. Shuddering sighs mixed with deep kisses and tears. Percy heard her heart hammering in her ears, and Alexi’s pounding where she laid her head, his ragged breath a rough breeze on her neck.
They remained locked together with wide, amazed eyes and clutching hands. Words would only diminish the power of what had just occurred, and so they sealed their good night with a languorous kiss. Alexi held Percy as close as he possibly could, and they drifted into blissful, well-earned sleep.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Because of the Whisper-world’s ongoing chaos, the Groundskeeper did not trust the pieces of his dear one not to be trampled upon, stolen or digested. For safekeeping he moved her ashes and parts into a makeshift laboratory, a little gardening shed he’d long ago fashioned out of skeletons and gravestones. Upon a stone dais, right in the shed’s centre, lay a metal coffin. Glass jars were nearby, having been filled with meticulous care, lining a shelf just above his head and labeled for fingers, toes, elbows, breasts…
The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker Page 10
