Page 85 of The Little Shop of Grand Curiosities

“Nepheli—”

“I’m happy for you, Ryker,” I cut him off before he said something he’d regret later on. “I really am. I mean, look at you, here in the Dreaming Palace.” And indeed, in his stately silk suit, with his confident posture and bold expression, he looked nothing like the polite but reticent boy I’d once loved. “Can’t you be happy for me too?”

His face softened with understanding, slowly, like water slipping through the drain. He let out a breath. “Of course, I am happy that you’re going after your dreams, Nepheli,” he said as he cupped my cheek with his soft, lean hand. I consciously allowed him this small comfort, this indulgence in the familiar, knowing his next words. Knowing mine too. “I just… I’ve missed you.”

“Ryker,” I exhaled. “You don’t know me well enough to miss me.”

His hand dropped from my face. He took a staggering step back, looking hurt and offended. “How can you say that? We’ve spent years together.”

“Time doesn’t determine how deeply you know someone. Time isn’t a measure of love,” I said as I shrugged off his jacket, and gave it back to him.

Warily, as though it were some lethal weapon, he took it back, frowning in contemplation. “You sound so…” He struggled with the word, his throat bobbing to push it out. “Different.”

“I know,” I whispered. “It’s been quite the journey.”

Below, a tall, dark figure emerged from the nightly mist, heading toward the maze. I narrowed my eyes at the powerful shoulders, the elegant waist, the strong thighs. I remembered how Apollo had said earlier that he would recognize me anywhere, and I wondered if that was true for me too. Would I recognize him even if he were a shadow, a mere outline of a body in the night?

Ryker seized my arm to draw my attention back to him. He didn’t seem jealous or upset. He looked genuinely worried for me as he lowered his voice in a warning, “Nepheli, please be careful. I’ve heard terrible things about him.”

I found the scandal in his tone so amusing that I started to think that Apollo had indeed been a terrible influence on me. In mockery of gossip, I leaned closer and crooned, “And to think that some of these things are actually true.”

28

Nepheli

Iruined my beautiful satin slippers sprinting through the gardens with the magic-flecked mist dampening the gauzy layers of my gown and the sharp sting of the evening chill scraping over my exposed arms and collarbone.

Apollo whirled around the moment he heard the shuffling of my steps on the neat grass of the maze. A look of genuine surprise braced his face. And I slapped it right off of him.

He staggered, one hand holding his reddened cheek, the other grasping the hedge behind him. “What the—”

“You had no right to tell Ryker that I’m his! You do not decide for me, Apollo Zayra, do you hear me?”

“Nepheli—”

I slapped him again. My palm was already tingling from the first collision, butgodsdid he deserve it!

Apollo groaned, “Fuck! How are you so strong?”

I shoved at his chest with my fists, pushing him back against the hedge. “What do you want from me, huh? You kiss me, and then you tell me to forget that it happened, and then you have the audacity to act jealous every time a man breathes near me! You have no right! You hear me? No right!”

I went for a punch, but he was better prepared this time and caught my wrist in midair. So I tried to kick him instead.

“For fuck’s sake, Nepheli,” he bristled, and by the hold he’d secured on my wrist, he spun me around to pin me against the same leafy spot he’d just been. “Just give me a second to—”

“I hate you. Ishouldhate you. You’re the most selfish, impulsive, arrogant man I’ve ever met. I should be repulsed by you.” I writhed, trying to break free. But the more I fought, the more his body pressed up against mine, and the more I didn’t want him to let go, the struggle dwindling to a half-hearted, please-don’t-stop-this kind of wrestle.

He angled his head to the side and loosened a breath I ended up inhaling. “But?”

“I just hate you. There’s nobut.”

“Yes, there is,” he panted, licking his bottom lip. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t have followed me out here.”

“Is this a game to you?” I snarled. “Are youtestingme?”

“I was trying to make it easier for you,” he growled.

“Don’t you mean easier foryou?”

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