Page 30 of The Little Shop of Grand Curiosities

She can’t even save herself. She knows nothing of life. Nothing of use. All those silly books. Will she make a weapon out of meaningless words now?

Pressure packed down my chest. A sob left me.I didn’t want to listen anymore.I wanted to disappear. I wanted to be inscrutable, something that couldn’t be judged. I wanted to run away, and hide deep in the heart of Fairyland, and be lost forever. And I had the vague sensation of running already, although not with my own two feet. As if Apollo had bundled me into his arms and was now sprinting through the forest, anxious to take me to that wicked lair of his, where all the other girls had lost their hearts before me.

And of course, she has no friends to help her either,the voices persisted, cutting me open, bleeding me slowly.Always too eager, too awkward.

All she does is talk to herself all day.

Death suits her. She’s been dead for a long time now, anyway.

Yes, yes. Let him feast on her heart.

Let him leave nothing behind.

The dark, fathomless voice emerged again.What a waste. Such a pretty face for such an odd girl.

“Stop,” I whimpered. My blindfold was wet with hot tears, and I reached up to wipe my burning face.

“Nepheli? Are you alright?” Apollo’s muffled voice sounded somewhere around me.

We stopped moving. Although numb in my fear, I was still able to feel his fingers digging into the skin of my shoulders as he put me to my feet. “Let go of me!” I panted, reaching for the blindfold.

“Nepheli, no!” he grunted, trapping my wrists in a painful, viselike grip.

In a sick panic, I tried to wrench myself free. “Stop, you’re hurting me!”

Apollo let go of me so fast that I lost my balance and toppled over the ground. Sucking a dollop of breath back into my lungs, I propped myself on my elbows. I wanted to stand and run, but a crippling, sinking sensation overtook me. The undergrowth came to life, eager to swallow me into its depths. What felt like vines threaded around my ankles, my torso, my neck. They pushed me into the ground until the cold dirt was all I could feel. I was going to die here. I was going to turn into soil. I was going to grow roots and morph into a tree.

And no one would even miss me.

“Please, get these off me! Get them off! Please!” I shrieked in a frenzy and fumbled for the blindfold again.

Apollo descended on top of me and held me down for the vines to do their worst. “Nepheli, the fairies are messing with you. It’s just me. There is nothing on you, I promise.”

His weight between my thighs became as unbearable and oppressive as the vines. I thrashed for freedom until my body trembled from as much exhaustion as terror.

“Get away from me!” I howled.

Here comes the dagger, the fairies sang.

“Nepheli, please, we’re so close to the bridge!”

I readied myself for the sharpness of the blade. I tried to summon some dignity, but there was only fear and regret in me—the most undignified kind of despair. “Please, don’t kill me,” I begged him with a ragged sob. “I want to live. I haven’t—I haven’t done anything yet. Please, I need more time!”

Apollo growled. “What are they telling you, damn it?” He pinned my wrists above my head and immobilized me completely by leaning forward to bring his chest flush against mine. “I’m sorry, Nepheli. But I don’t know what else to do,” he said. Andbitme.

First, his hand clamped down on my jaw, angling my head to the side, and thenhis hot mouth was on me. It was no light nimble or gentle graze. His teeth pierced that tender spot on the base of my throat, and I was instantly flooded with horror. A cry burned out of my lips, fresh tears stinging in my eyes. The pain slowly took hold of me, squeezing in between the fog of my thoughts and the numbness of my bones.

Suddenly, everything came back to me in a bright swipe of memories; the creatures, the Celestial Door, my Shop waiting for me to return.

I put my hands on his shoulders and tried to shove him back as his tongue glided over my throbbing skin, trying to soothe the sting of his bite. “Stop!” I snarled. “Apollo, I swear to the gods, if you don’t move your mouth from me right now, I will spend the rest of my life trying to find a way to kill you!”

“Oh thank the gods,” he heaved, and I knew he was off me because I could breathe again, and my body began shivering from the abrupt lack of his warmth.

I searched blindly for something to hold on to. “Apollo?”

“I’m here, darling. You’re okay,” he soothed as he slipped one hand under my knees and one around my waist to bundle me up in his arms. “Are you with me?”

“Yes,” I croaked. “Just get me out of here.”

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