Page 42 of The Little Shop of Grand Curiosities

“Do you know your measurements? I should start with your dress for tonight as well.”

My head whipped back at her. “My dress?”

A little silver sewing needle materialized at her fingertips, and I had the incomparable pleasure of watching a weaver sew magic into life.

14

Nepheli

The dress was made of stars. A close-fitting bodice with satin ribbons on the back and delicate embroidery of drunken constellations on the front unraveled into full silver skirts, each lush layer as soft as satin and as gauzy as lace. It was a bit scandalous too, with a slit running up the left leg and a square neckline that could only be described asgenerous.Back in Elora, I would be mortified to be caught wearing something this daring, but here, in the liberating embrace of magic and adventure, I felt more beautiful and confident than ever as I slipped into it. In fact, I wished for the night to never end so I could keep wearing it and feel like this forever.

Agathe helped me fix my hair in an elaborate updo as well, pinning up some of my curls with sparkly, star-shaped hairpins.

“Isn’t this a bit much for dinner?” I wondered, staring open-mouthed at the new Nepheli in the mirror. I could not remember the last time I’d attended any sort of dinner, much less a formal one. Was it the night I met Ryker’s family or the last Winter Solstice I’d spent with my parents before they moved West? Both felt like an eternity ago.

“Nonsense,” Agathe huffed, and with a stitch of her needle, her simple pink attire transformed into a twilight-colored dress embellished with tiny amethyst crystals. “Life is too short not to dress like a princess at every given opportunity.”

I narrowed my eyes at her with comical incredulity. “Aren’t you immortal, Agathe?”

“Well,you’renot,” she said dramatically. “I’m trying to be supportive here.” She grabbed my wrist with both hands, hauled me up, and dragged me out of the room like it was nothing.

“You’re freakishly strong, you know that?” I wheezed.

Agathe grinned at me over one wing as I followed her to the mushroom-ridden staircase. “I can knock a grown man down by simply blowing a wisp of air at him,” she declared.

“Oh,please,do that to Apollo tonight,” I cackled, and we didn’t stop giggling all the way to the dreamy, candlelit dining room.

A marvelously set table, only big enough for four, unfolded before an arched window that overlooked Walder’s glorious backyard and the twinkling night sky. The hearth right next to it was already crackling and roaring, the mantle adorned with vases full of the most peculiar blooms I’d seen in my life, a cross between roses and begonias but with wide open faces like a sunflower’s.

“By the sky,” Walder sighed, jumping to his feet the moment we entered the room. He came and kissed the back of my hand, bowing from the waist. “You look absolutely ravishing, my dear,” he said in his rich, animated voice, and I was fairly certain that I blushed like an enamored idiot at thatsmilehe flashed me. I had no idea spirits were such charmers. “Like a newborn star.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Can we hold back the simpering nonsense, please?” Apollo, who didn’t even deign to look at me, much less rise from his seat around the table, grumbled and gulped down what remained of the wine in the crystal cup in his hand.

To my surprise, he’d spruced up a bit. He had washed and shaved and got dressed in a loose white shirt, black trousers, and suspenders that fit him rather handsomely. The light from the candles placed high on the shelves around the window dazzled over his chiseled face and made a halo of his hair, giving him an ethereal, almost fairy-like look. The dark jumble of his hair was combed back, but a couple of insolent locks still fell over his eyes as he leaned over the table for the wine bottle. That was Apollo in a picture. Absentminded and carelessly beautiful.

Walder cleared his throat. “Didn’t I say something about not serving dinner to brutes?”

Apollo sighed, rolled his eyes at the ceiling, and finally turned his head. A rush of heat went through me at the snap of his attention. He stared at me for a few long,longseconds with his hand paused on the wine bottle and his eyes flickering over my body like broken lamplights, momentary and unsteady. Then he looked away, swallowed once, and grumbled, “Can we please eat now? I’m starving.”

Walder groused under his breath, “Impossible boy.”

Of course,Apollo couldn’t even spare me a disingenuously polite comment. Why was I even surprised? It was ridiculous to feel disappointed, standing in this beautiful, glimmering room with a mahogany piano to my left, a crackling fire to my right, and a meticulously set table before me, all while being in the company of two kind and brilliant magical creatures. This was going to be a lovely evening, and not even the Prince of Broken Hearts couldn’t ruin it for me.

“Why don’t you take a seat, Nepheli,” Walder said in resignation, and he ushered me to the empty chair next to Apollo.

Agathe settled down on the miniature set of furniture that Walder had attentively arranged on the spot across from me, amid the generous dishes and various candles that spread over the table. He made sure to serve us all wine and food—a mouthwatering assortment of roasted potatoes, salt-baked sea bass with warm tomato vinaigrette, and herb-buttered vegetables—before settling down himself, opposite Apollo.

“Everything looks absolutely delicious, Walder,” I crooned in pure delight. “Thank you so much for your hospitality.”

Walder raised his glass to a toast, winking at me with boyish mischief. “To charming new friends.”

For a little while, we all luxuriated in his divine dishes and outlandishly sweet wine. The wine in particular struck me with a keen sense of magic, as it only took a few sips of the vermillion-and-gold liquid to make me feel light and fever-warm. But I drank merrily, as indulgently as the evening demanded.

“Pace yourself,” Apollo shot at me, cutting with unnecessary aggression through his fish.

I glared at him. “Youpace yourself. You’ve alone drunk half the bottle.”

“Don’t worry, dear. There’s plenty more where it came from,” Walder reassured and conjured between his long fingers a second bottle of wine, the clear glass glinting mirthfully in the candlelight.

---