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“The Shop can wait,” he cut me off, guessing right about what I was about to say.

“Actually, it can’t. It’s called having responsibilities. Which I understand is a foreign concept to you since, apparently, all you’ve ever done with your princely duties is run away from them.”

Apollo halted mid-step and pinned me with his steely gaze, the muscles of his jaw twitching. “Don’t make me gag you.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me.”

I shook with fury. “Gods, you’re so…so…”

“Charming? Attractive? Irresistible?” he offered dryly.

“Heinous! You are a despicable human being!”

“And you are a headache.”

“Well, I hope I split your head in two!”

He cocked his head to the side, smiling wide. “Will you marry me?”

I swallowed my tongue. It was very possible that every blood vessel in my eyes had burst because, momentarily, I lost my vision.

“Ah,finally, something that shuts her up,” he sighed with pure contentment and strolled down the route with his hands in his pockets, as cool as a breeze.

I, on the other hand, was on the verge of screaming and tearing through my hair, so I took a moment to collect myself before running after him.

“How long till we reach the city?” I panted.

“It’s a four-day journey,” he said, then glowered at my feet. “Make it five.”

Gods, help me.

Five days away from the Shop. Five days of worrying and walking. Five days with this horrible beast of a man.

“Five days is alongtime,” I grumbled. “What about the creatures?”

“What about them?”

“What do you mean what about them?” I squealed. “They’re probably rampaging all through Elora as we speak. Someone could get gravely hurt, don’t you realize that?”

“Don’t get your wings in a tangle, Little Butterfly,” Apollo mocked. “They were chasingme.Creatures like that don’t go after people for no reason. They most likely returned to their box the moment we left Elora.”

I couldn’t help it. Even with the crippling fear of what might be happening to my Shop packing down my lungs and even with my good sense arguing otherwise, curiosity pricked at my heart. “What box—Wait, why were they after you?”

Apollo sighed. “I accidentally opened a cursed box that I found in an abandoned Curiosity Shop in Elora.”

My eyes rounded from shock. “Are you insane? Why would you ever do such a thing?”

“I didn’t know it was cursed when I opened it, Nepheli,” he said, my name on his lips as unfairly obscene as his exasperation.

I considered, for a moment, using my parasol to make way between a patch of tall weeds. “So these were not some random creatures. They were guardians.”

Apollo glanced at me over his shoulder, looking intrigued. “They were what?”

“When a Curiosity Shop closes down, the owners usually sell their merchandise to other Shops, but if something doesn’t want to leave the premises, it most likely means that it is a fundamental part of the magic that created the Shop in the first place. And it goes without saying that you shouldn’t ever,evertry to remove it from its home because then its guardians will—” I hushed, realizing that I sounded like an obnoxious encyclopedia. But Iknewso many things, and it was so rare that I got to use this knowledge, and be anywhere other than the Shop and with anyone other than myself.

Feeling flushed and embarrassed, I clutched my pendant in my hand and averted my gaze from him.