Page 8 of The Little Shop of Grand Curiosities

A man from The Faraway North. A man you couldn’t trust with your heart. A man who couldn’t be harmed, for a man without a heart could never be broken.

He wasn’t ApolloStranger. He was Apollo Zayra.

“You’re him, aren’t you?” I heaved, my eyes wide in terror. “You’re the Prince of Thaloria. You’re the Prince of Broken Hearts.”

His sardonic little grin turned as bitter as a nightshade. “How nice,” he deadpanned. “My reputation precedes me once again.”

No one knew exactly how the Prince of Thaloria lost his heart. Some claimed that the gods cursed him because of his unbridled hubris, and others believed that he’d insulted an ancient spirit of love, and so as punishment, she’d taken away his ability to feel it. There was even talk of some witch-made curse, but a mortal couldn’t simply curse another mortal. A witch could cast a spell through chants and magical ability, but the recipient had to be willing for the spell to take root. And it was rather absurd that anyone would everchooseto be heartless.

The true story remained a mystery, but everyone in the Asteria Realm knew of the young, handsome royal who roamed from city to city, leaving a bloody trail behind, for he had an insatiable appetite for hearts, as he didn’t have one himself.

Apollo reached for me, anticipating that I was about to flee, so I screamed at the top of my lungs, “Get away from me! My heart is not on the menu, you beast!”

Before I could even think about escaping, he grabbed my shoulders and shoved me against the rough trunk of a tree. He clamped one hand down on my mouth as he drew up his dagger with the other. Every muscle in my body froze, and every heartbeat in my chest stuttered as he raised the shiny blade to my throat and leaned closer, crowding me with his body until there was nothing else to see but him.

“Listen to me very carefully, Nepheli,” he said in a low, reasonable tone, even though there was absolutely nothingreasonableabout any of this. “I understand that you’re scared, and I know I messed up coming to your Shop, but you’re in the North now, and I’m sure you think this place is all magic and curiosity, but it is also very dangerous. This forest has monsters and fairies and bandits who will do pretty much anything to get their hands on a piece of gold, and unfortunately for you, only one of us can survive from a dagger to the chest. So you’re going to be a good girl and keep quiet and do whatever I tell you to do, or I’m going to head on my way and abandon you here to fend for yourself, and believe me,”—he threaded the tip of his dagger under my butterfly pendant, the blade ice-cold against my flushed skin—“Little Miss Butterfly,” he sneered, “you donotwish me to do that.”

He took his hand off my mouth, and I gasped for breath, my insides buzzing, and my muscles trembling from fear and adrenaline. “You’re not going to eat my heart?”

He rolled his eyes at the leafy canopy while sheathing his dagger. He did not move away from me, though, and the proximity of our bodies felt as sharp and detrimental as any other of his hidden weapons. “I do noteathearts, Nepheli. That’s just a nasty rumor.”

I met his devious gaze. “Is it also just a nasty rumor that you break the heart of any girl who loves you?”

“Darling,” he drawled, tilting his head to the side. “Look at me. What do you think?”

“I think I need to get home before something worse happens to my Shop,” I bit out, glaring at him. The mere thought of the havoc the creatures would be wreaking in my poor Shop as we spoke brought tears to my eyes.

My whole life, I had one thing, one lovely, curious, interesting thing, and now it was all just… gone.

“Once we reach the city, I’ll help you get home,” Apollo claimed, his expression utterly inscrutable.

“I cannot trust you to do that,” I growled. “You could do awful things to me.”

Apollo raised a brow. “I could. But that doesn’t mean you wouldn’t like them.”

Gods, the arrogance of this man! No wonder the gods cursed him. He was horrid. Absolutely heinous. After all the damage and chaos he’d brought upon my Shop, flirting with me right now had to be unprecedentedly audacious. And not even a halfhearted apology to offer. Nothing!

I swallowed down a curse and bristled between my teeth, “If you mean me no harm, then you will move away from me right now.”

He narrowed his eyes, suspicious. “Are you going to scream again and invite the entire Dragonfly to our location?”

I shook my head.

“Use your words, Little Butterfly. Can I trust you to behave, yes or no?”

“Yes,” I gritted out. “But canItrustyou,Prince of Broken Hearts?”

He stared down at me like I was something he could crush under his boot. “Don’t be ridiculous, darling. Of course, you cannot trust me,” he said, his tone dry and self-amused. “But you don’t have any other choice, do you?”

I looked ahead, at the narrow, verdant path studded with thorny brambles and gnarled trees, the sun pounding on exposed patches along the route—but in the distance, all shadow and inauspicious possibilities.

Suddenly, all those summers I’d spent in the city, locked inside my bedroom with my books and my daydreams instead of going to the countryside with my schoolmates, seemed like a fatal decision. Because Apollo was right. I had no idea how to navigate a forest. I had no idea how to return home by myself. I was left with no choice but to trust him.

“Just to be clear,” I warned, “if you do eat my heart, I swear to the gods, I’ll come back as a ghost and haunt you for the rest of your wretched life.”

“Sounds thrilling,” Apollo cooed. “Someone as fascinating as myself surely deserves at least one obsessive stalker.”

“I will not be your stalker,” I hissed, raising my finger to his nose. “I will be your doom.”

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