Hi everyone,
I have a new Steampunk/Time Travel romance - As Timeless As Magic
It's the second in the series: (Unparallel Adventures of Time Traveling Egyptians)As Timeless As Stone is the first
Blurb:
With her bell skirt and layers of petticoats knotted, Felicity straddles her motorized steam bicycle and rumbles down the streets of London. When her attention is captured by a dark, handsome and half naked bystander, she crashes into a brick wall.
After tinkering with a time machine, Heru, an ancient Egyptian, is swept through the ages to nineteenth century London. He rushes to the aid of a woman in ridiculous, conservative clothing, riding a noisy brass-horse. Once he lifts her into his arms he doesn’t want to ever let her go.
She invites him to her home where he invokes an ancient curse to stop her father from violating an Egyptian corpse at a mummy unwrapping. Her father, used to getting what he wants, will stop at nothing to keep Heru from his daughter and steel the time machine.
Can Heru keep the time machine out of Felicity’s father’s hands and keep her safe from the man’s black hearted machinations? And when Heru is transported back to his era, will his love be lost forever or will Felicity step back in time with him?
From As Timeless As Magic:
Felicity and her father, now the center of attention, hovered about a large, upright, stone sarcophagus crafted in the image of the body within. The head consisted of a painted yellow and green striped nemes and a handsome face painted brown with almond-shaped, kohl-lined eyes, a straight nose, and full red lips. From torso to feet, gorgeous symbols and hieroglyphs in bright paint decorated it. Heru hung his head. Such care had been paid to the inhabitant’s afterlife, and now the poor soul would be cast from it. There must be something he could do.
Felicity’s father addressed the assembly in English, then she whispered something in his ear and he switched languages, speaking in French, probably repeating what he’d just said. “Friends, welcome. Tonight as we unwrap this ancient Egyptian pharaoh, many of you will take home party favors of beautiful amulets embedded in the wrappings.”
Everyone clapped their hands loudly and Mister Mugrage continued. “Look around the room, there are other treasures here from the desert sands as well, exquisite vases, shabits, and statues.”
Heru recalled watching his mother, a lector priest, painting magic spells on shabits. In the afterlife, these small servants transformed to full size and came alive to work in the field of reeds for the deceased. He wondered why Mister Mugrage called the mummy a pharaoh, the sarcophagus clearly contained only a noble, and from his own time period, the middle kingdom. Heru’s stomach turned. The mummy could be someone he knew. After all, he had only left this morning, though it seemed long ago. He clasped his belly, fighting the queasiness. It suddenly seemed a bad idea to have eaten so much at the restaurant.
Felicity’s father gestured to him to come up. Mister Mugrage actually wanted his help in disturbing this dead soul. Heru felt the heat of everyone’s gaze upon him, including Felicity’s. It would embarrass her if he made a scene, so he took a deep breath and walked to them.
Along with Mister Mugrage and one other man, he seized the stone lid and struggled with it until it budged. Under his straining arms and shoulders, with the help of the other two men, the slab slid aside with a grating noise of stone grinding against stone. All the men in black suits and women in floor-length fancy dresses cramming the parlor, released a sigh of awe and applauded.
Heru peered within the sarcophagus, at a coffin shaped like a human figure, in a green headdress with a single yellow stripe and a jewel painted in the middle. His gaze lingered on the beautiful hieroglyphics in orange and blue, thinking of the power they held and the magic his mother created with them in her spells.
“Now, what we have all waited for.” Mister Mugrage opened the coffin. A gilded mask lay over a linen sheet wrapped around a human corpse.
Heru rubbed his brow, then fisted his hand, aching to punch Felicity’s father in the teeth.
Mister Mugrage removed the mask in the likeness of the mummy inside and held it up. “This mask is a wonderful treasure for the evening and I will do you all the favor of parting with it for the highest offer made.”
For more on my Steampunk Romances please visit my website - MaeveAlpin.com
