“Welcome home, Bea,” Ibrahim said, whisking his bride into their new flat. She giggled and threw her arms around him, stunned to see tears in his eyes. “Thank you,” he said quietly.
Beatrice cocked her head to the side, waiting for an explanation.
“For choosing to make this home. For wanting Cairo. For wanting me. You did not have to.”
Beatrice smiled. “Ah, yes, you and your choices. Home sometimes chooses us, you know.”
“We are so blessed,” Ibrahim murmured. “To have done our parts and be rid of it all. To have the luxury of the home of our heart. I pray they all will find their way, the new Guard, everyone involved. I pray for a shining star. I pray their safe passages home.”
“Ibrahim prays for the Guard at last? For our dear Lady made flesh?”
Ibrahim nodded. “Most heartily for her.”
This time it was she who shuddered in fear. “Love, forgive me. Tasks may yet lie ahead of me. I’ll know when, but I must always heed the call.”
Ibrahim nodded. “And I shall help you always. No more regrets. I live on borrowed time, and every moment with you is a blessing to be cherished, not to be squandered in fear.”
EPILOGUE
Autumn, 1888
Beatrice and Ibrahim enjoyed years of happiness, never forgetting the forces that had drawn them together. Every now and then Beatrice caught a fleeting scent of flowers on the breeze or strains of faraway music, distant echoes of Percy Parker and Alexi Rychman. Each time, she wished them every blessing. They’d need them all.
One night, as she and Ibrahim sat, hands clasped, upon a divan beside a blazing hearth, there came a roaring sound, one not heard in years yet instantly familiar. Beatrice was surprised and yet not—all day she had known that something was going to happen, without knowing what that something was.
The huge black rectangle opened, revealing a dim, dank maw where figures floated down the gray length of a seemingly endless corridor. A man stood in shadow, just beyond the portal, with one faintly glowing hand raised. A familiar light … Was this someone waiting just for her?
The door had opened for some fell purpose.
The goddess’s work. Suddenly everything fell into place.
Beatrice voiced her dread realization: “The Whisper-world … Oh, God. I’m the one to bring the fire, to knit the worlds. To free the Guard spirits. But from within.” She felt a wave of anger swell within her. “How, if I’ve no power?”
A tiny lick of blue flame coursed around the edges of the portal. Familiar blue flame, an old friend coming to collect a promise she’d made to face dangers whenever they came. But this time she realized her entry into the Whisper-world would be more than that fleeting glimpse beside the goddess. She wasn’t coming back. Not as she was, not to this world as she knew it. To do her job, she would have to pass. Like dear Iris.
Ibrahim knew this was his vision. “Eternity wouldn’t be enough by your side,” he declared. “No matter when this portal came for us, we’d want another day.”
“It’s not coming for you but for me,” she hissed, her anger cresting anew.
“But you remember my vision. We are hand in hand. You’ve work to do, and I am your second. When I came for you in York, I made a pledge to never let you go. No matter the dangers, this vision be damned. Do you regret that I came for you?”
“No,” she choked out.
“So we mustn’t move forward in anger, as it is but duty that again comes for us,” he continued. “Anger will chain us inside this drear place, and we must fight for a brighter dawn.”
“But we could’ve done so much more.”
“I daresay every living person feels the same, but to all there comes a time for something new. For our Lady, for us.”
Beatrice took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. There was no sense in waiting; the door would not close on its own. She extended a hand to her beloved, grateful for his fortitude, for the choices that had made him her husband. He took it. Now, as they’d stepped from England to Cairo, so would they step …
“To the undiscovered country?”
Ibrahim offered her a rare gift: a sweet chuckle that held boyish excitement. Beatrice was bolstered by his strength.
“Eternity awaits,” she murmured, stepping to the edge, then hesitating a final time. Juliet and Romeo, they were, uniting houses and taking a journey together. Unlike Juliet, however, Beatrice knew there was work to be done on the other side. Blood, fire, and a captive army.
Ibrahim squeezed her hand. “I love you, Bea. And I will be with you, now and for every adventure to come.”
There was no promise she could believe save this one, not after all she had seen and done. Luckily, this was the only promise that mattered. They stepped forward into darkness and believed in the coming light.
TOR BOOKS BY
LEANNA RENEE HIEBER
The Eterna Files
Strangely Beautiful
Eterna and Omega
Perilous Prophecy
Praise for Perilous Prophecy
Winner of the Prism Award for Best Fantasy Novel
“The mythology is compelling, the emotional journeys are moving, and the treatment of diverse religious backgrounds is beautifully done: all who work toward good are seen as having common cause, no matter the external differences. I only wish [the book] had been longer.”
—Fantasy Literature
“[Hieber’s] work is pure magic. I love and enjoy the haunting beauty that she’s created. You really must find the time to read these books if you haven’t had the chance yet.”
—P.S. I Love Books
“[Leanna’s] exquisite language, a hallmark of her writing, guides the reader across continents and through dimensions. An engrossing, heartbreaking, uplifting story of disparate people drawn together for a cause bigger than they can conceive.”
—True-Blood.net
“Hieber’s writing is beautiful as always. She has the ability to describe in a way that captivates, making the setting just as interesting as the action or dialogue.”
—Pop Culture Breakdown
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Leanna Renee Hieber’s first novel, Prism Award—winning The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker, is a foundational text of gaslamp fantasy and was recently reissued in a revised, author’s preferred edition as Strangely Beautiful. Perilous Prophecy, the second book in the Strangely Beautiful series, also won the Prism Award (when first published as The Perilous Prophecy of Guard and Goddess). It has been edited and revised for Tor’s publication.
Hieber’s other novels include The Eterna Files and Eterna and Omega, as well as Darker Still, a critically acclaimed YA novel. All of Hieber’s books take place in a single, paranormally blessed universe, and characters from one series have been known to make cameo appearances in others.
Leanna Renee Hieber lives in the New York City area, where she frequently leads ghost tours.
Visit her online at www.leannareneehieber.com, or sign up for email updates here.
https://twitter.com/Leannarenee
www.facebook.com/LRHieber
www.goodreads.com/author/show/1651952.Leanna_Renee_Hieber
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Contents
Title Page
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Ch
apter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Epilogue
Tor Books by Leanna Renee Hieber
Praise for Perilous Prophecy
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
PERILOUS PROPHECY
Copyright © 2017 by Leanna Renee Hieber
All rights reserved.
Cover art by Pierre Droal
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates
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New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
Tor® is a registered trademark of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC.
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-0-7653-7744-9 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4668-5588-5 (ebook)
eISBN 9781466855885
Our ebooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension 5442, or by email at MacmillanSpecialMarkets@macmillan.com.
This novel was originally published in a substantially different form under the title The Perilous Prophecy of Guard and Goddess by Dorchester Books in 2011.
First Edition: June 2017