Page 37 of The Little Shop of Grand Curiosities

What had gone through my head tobiteher of all things I could not determine without questioning my sanity. But Nepheli had been so frightened and frantic that I’d had to snap her out of the fairies’ influence one way or another before she ended up hurting herself. Andthis,apparently, seemed like a good idea at the moment.

With a sigh, I tugged on the entry’s golden drawstring, and the three little bells dangling over the arch of the door jingled their merry song.

Walder’s featherlight footsteps sounded from inside the cottage, and if I had a heart now, I knew I would be overwhelmed with a bittersweet sense of nostalgia.

Feelings like these were what I missed the most. The ones that were evidence of a life well and fully lived. Nostalgia, gratitude, awe, a lovely sort of melancholia while gazing at a sunset, the sky bleeding and my eyes starving for its death.

I’d like to say that the things I was willing to do to get these feelings back frightened me, but I was beyond fear.

Or so I believed.

There had been a moment today in Fairyland when I’d gathered Nepheli in my arms and ran as fast as my body could manage that I could have sworn something inside me had pounded—throbbed like a frightened heart. But that was probably just me losing my mind, right? This wild hunt had finally driven me mad.

The door creaked open, and there he was—not my oldest friend, but my dearest, for he had met me as a heartless man but never treated me as such. After all, Walder was not the kind of creature that could be broken by someone like me.

His kind, ageless face widened, first with surprise, then with genuine delight. He laughed under his breath, and we exchanged—as Mother would say—ourunpleasant pleasantries:embraces that involved slaps on the back and calling each otherbastard.

I took a good look at him. His wise black eyes, his gleaming dark skin—flushed from an early glass of wine, no doubt—and his full lips, as always on the verge of smiling. Lush foliage trailed from the sides of his neck and moved upward to cup his cheeks like the phosphorescent scales of a river kelpie.

He was perhaps the most significant and powerful being in the Dragonfly Forest. Although Eiran was its Guardian, Walder was its Heart.

“You look good, old man,” I drawled.

Walder raised his dark brows and fixed the collar of his silk white shirt. “I’d tell you howyoulook, but we are in a lady’s presence, I see,” he said in his generous, baritone way as he turned to Nepheli.

With a hand at the small of her back, I ushered her forward.“Walder, this is Nepheli Curiosity. We are… traveling companions.”

For a microsecond, Walder’s expression turned deviously sardonic, both at the unnecessary explanation and the evident mark on Nepheli’s neck.

“Hello,” Nepheli croaked as her nervousness and excitement peaked.

Walder bowed, slipping his palm under hers to leave a brief, reverent kiss on the back of her hand, something that made Nepheli blush up to her hairline. “Charmed,” he warbled. “I am—”

“A forest spirit,” Nepheli blurted out, breathless in awe. She smoothed her palms over her mud-stained skirts in clear embarrassment. “I—I didn’t know.”

Okay, so there was no doubt that Walder was one outrageously handsome bastard, but for fuck’s sake, she looked like she was about to fall into his arms and profess her eternal devotion to him.

Of course, her shock was justifiable—spirits, although habitually living amongst mortals for centuries now, were hardly lesser than gods. But, seriously now, they werestaringinto each other’s eyes like lovestruck idiots for what seemed to be an entire damned minute.

I finally cleared my throat, and Walder cast me a wry, sideways glance. “Well, Nepheli, it seems like Apollo didn’t warn either of us because I certainly had no idea he had such a lovelytraveling companion.But please don’t be alarmed. Guests are always welcome here. Come—Come inside. Make yourself at home.”

We barely managed a step before Agathe burst out of the doorsill, exclaiming a jolly, “Apollo!”

Her butterfly wings left a pink trail of magic behind as she flew straight at me and wrapped her tiny arms around my face. She was no bigger than my forearm, but she was as strong as ten young warriors, and I stumbled backward at the impact.

“By the sky! How fortunate to be visiting Walder at the same time!” She released me with a little laugh, clapping her hands together. “And you brought a girl too!” That, she said it the way I thought Mother would say it, with exaggerated relief and indignant joy.

So I clarified once again, “We’re traveling companions.”

Walder mocked me with an insidious little smirk. “Are you repeating it because you’re afraid we’ll forget?”

I gritted my teeth, swallowing down a curse.

Thankfully, Nepheli wasn’t paying a morsel of attention to either of us. “You’re a weaver,” she gasped, gaping at Agathe. “An actual weaver.”

“Nepheli isn’t from around here, obviously,” I said dryly, and Walder glared like he wanted to slap me for the remark.

“It appears so,” Agathe laughed endearingly. “Come on, Nepheli, why don’t we get you washed up and ready for dinner? Walder is amarvelouscook.”

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