The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker by Leanna Renee Hieber Read Free Book Online Page A

eavesdropping.”
    “How magical!”
    “That’s the least of our parlour tricks that may impress you.” Alexi turned to his company. “Allow me to announce happy news. Miss Parker graciously agreed last night to become my wife. We shall return to Athens this evening, where we will be married on the morrow.”
    “Tomorrow? In a hurry, are we?” Elijah asked with smirk. He yelped when Josephine, seated nearby, tried to surreptitiously kick him under the table. “Why is it that, in the lastfew days, acts of actual physical violence directed toward my person have increased at an alarming rate?”
    “Because,” Rebecca was swift to clarify, “your capacity for the daft and the inappropriate has soared to such alarming heights as warrants a sound beating.” Her upraised glass was clinked by a giggling Michael’s.
    “In my own house, no less,” Elijah pouted.
    “In Auntie’s house,” Josephine reminded him sweetly.
    Alexi turned to his betrothed and Percy grinned; meals at the convent had never been this lively. “You see, Percy, around the age of fourteen we were overtaken by the powers that would forever change our lives. The happening also, however, stunted certain persons’ intellectual growth. I believe some of us never actually matured further.”
    “And so did those born insufferably haughty and miserable remain similarly unaltered,” Elijah replied, leveling eyes with Alexi as he took a sip of liqueur.
    “But for reaping the benefits of an ever-expanding intellect,” Alexi sallied. Elijah snorted. “And so my mind and my heart—the latter of which Miss Parker has taken upon herself to expand—shall be joined with hers in our chapel.”
    Percy, without the faintest idea of what to say, delicately sipped her glass of cordial, a blush burning her ears.
    Jane smiled and gave a toast: “To the betrothed.” It was eagerly met.
    Percy, trembling, nodded thanks to all. She knew she ought to perhaps say something; they were all looking to her. She opened her mouth and wished her voice weren’t so hard to find, but suddenly she didn’t have to say a word. A black rectangle of a door popped to life behind Elijah, who whirled in alarm. A tall, middle-aged female spirit with intense features, tightly pinned hair and a piercing gaze, clad in a snugly buttoned traveling dress of contemporary vintage, stepped to the threshold. Alexi jumped to his feet, blue fire immediately in his hand.
    The woman opened her mouth, staring intently at Alexi,and said a word in a language Percy did not know and could not place, yet understood; uncanny facility with language was one of her many gifts. “Peace, friends.”
    Blue fire extended from Alexi’s hands like water from a fountain. Headmistress Thompson rose, her head cocked to the side, her brow furrowed as if in recognition. Percy jumped also to her feet, realizing her ability as The Guard’s new translator might never be more important.
    “She says, ‘Peace, friends,’ ” Percy repeated the exact words the others had not heard. The Guard started, recognizing their particular language, and Jane’s cup clattered to her saucer.
    “You can hear ghosts, Percy?” Jane squeaked.
    “Yes,” Percy said, unsure why that should alarm the Irishwoman or turn her a sudden bright red. The spirit at what Percy could only assume was the threshold of death smirked, as if knowing Jane’s secret, before turning to address the company. She was lovely, in an Amazonian sort of way, her nose a hard, long line with nostrils that flared with strength.
    “You likely do not recognize me, but I was one of you,” she began. “My name is Mrs. Beatrice Tipton. Born in London, raised in Cairo, I was the leader of The Guard that came before you. The Guard that put the seeds of Prophecy into place.”
    Percy repeated this and cringed as Alexi pounded his fist against the table. “Really? Well, then, you could’ve left us some bloody clues, Mrs. Tipton,” he barked.
    Beatrice raised an