Page 43 of The Little Shop of Grand Curiosities

I started with a gasp. “How did you do that?”

Walder shrugged. “I’m a spirit. I can quite literally spirit away to the shadow-world and conjure back to reality anything I desire.”

“That’s fascinating,” I sighed, tingles of wonder trailing up my bare arms. “I’ve read that spirits are in direct connection with the unseen, but I would love for you to tell me more about the shadow-world later, if it’s not too much to ask.”

“It’s just a little magic,” Apollo cut in, brushing back the locks from his eyes with an impatient hand. “What’s so fascinating about it?”

I raised him a brow. “What is up with you tonight?”

He ignored me and leaned over to take the bottle from Walder.

“I would be delighted to answer all of your questions, my dear,” Walder graciously ventured, “But first, I’m dying to hear all about your journey. How are you finding the North so far?”

A prickle of anxiety jabbed at my chest. I sat back on the chair as my eyes drifted to the pink candle that burned next to my plate, its little flame quivering like a tiny fearful heart. I saw my whole life flashing in that uncertain yellow-orange light, the past shrinking into a smaller, less curious place while the now seemed to expand, a bright door left ajar to countless possibilities. “Daunting. Dazzling. Vast,” I admitted. “I’ve only been here a couple of days, yet my life back home already feels like… like the first chapter of a very long book. A chapter that was dull and unmemorable, and utterly incomparable to the current one, where everything is so magical and vibrant, and a bit scary,” I blabbered on until I raised my eyes from the candle and realized that everyone was staring at me. “I’m sorry. I’m rambling.”

“On the contrary,” Walder encouraged, “I adore hearing people’s first impressions of the Dragonfly. I still remember how astounded Apollo was when he’d found my cottage.”

I shifted in my seat to look at Apollo, who seemed entirely disengaged from the conversation. “Why were you astounded?”

“I expected something less… quaint,” was all he contributed, glancing away from me and out of the window.

“Did you stumble on it by accident?” I pressed.

“It’s a long story,” he blurted out before Walder could reply on his behalf.

Agathe sighed in exasperation. “And apparently you’re too busy to entertain us with it now.”

“Can I please eat my dinner in peace?” Apollo groaned.

“You’re hardly eating,” I observed, following his gaze to the twinkling sky outside. “What are you looking at anyway?”

“I believe Apollo is quite taken with the stars tonight,” Agathe crooned.

“Oh, you’ll always find Apollo staring at the sky,” Walder said with a giant, coy smile. “Did he tell you he wanted to be an astronomer when he was young?”

Apollo’s head whipped around. His lips were red from the wine and his cheeks pink from the attention, and I justlovedwatching him fidget in his seat. “I’m not telling you anything ever again,” he growled at Walder.

Walder laughed in pure contentment.

I cast Apollo a teasing sideways glance. “An astronomer, huh?”

He snapped his eyes on mine, dark grey stones melting in the candlelight. “I was a boy. I was just being silly.”

“There’s nothing silly about a dream,” I argued.

“There is when it’s unreachable.”

“Why is it unreachable?” I insisted. “Haven’t you had enough of traveling? Why not settle down and follow your passions since you’re clearly not interested in politics?”

“I never said I wasn’t interested in politics.”

“Then why leave your court?”

“You ask a lot of questions, darling.”

“Only because I never get proper answers.”

I thought his eyes darkened just to taunt me. His heated gaze held me captive. My only option was to stare back at him. I wasn’t sure how it had happened, but we had somehow moved closer to each other, and now his knee was bumping mine under the table, and our forearms were fighting for space atop it.

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