Page 27

Nepheli

Ifelt much more relaxed and energized after our little break, but Apollo, to my surprise, seemed to grow even more pensive, and as our route split in two by a knoll shaded with curious orange trees, I couldn’t help but wonder about the accuracy of our direction.

“Left or right?”

“Left,” he said without a doubt.

My eyes drifted to the tall apple tree that stretched out above us, where a little sprite was currently gorging herself on a shiny red apple.

“Maybe we should ask for directions. Just to make sure,” I suggested.

Apollo scowled. “We don’t need directions. We’re going left.”

“You look apprehensive,” I pointed out, and in apt synchronicity, the vein in his forehead ticked, ticked, ticked.

“I look annoyed,” he deadpanned. “It’s because you’re annoying me.”

Gods, the mood swings of this man! And to think that a few minutes ago I was actually enjoying his company.

I turned my back on him, hooked my hands on my hips, and chimed politely to the sprite above us, “Excuse me, Miss? Could we bother you for directions?”

The sprite ignored me, her face still buried in the apple.

“Um, excuse me?”

A contemptuous little laugh came from Apollo. I glared at him over my shoulder. He rolled his eyes, put two fingers under his tongue, and whistled. The sprite finally looked down at us, irritated, if not a bit murderous.

Apollo gifted her his charming little half-smile. “Hello there, beautiful.”

The sprite, to my utter astonishment, perked up the second she settled her round purple eyes on him. The apple fell from her little hands and tumbled on the sod at my feet. She turned a burning shade of pink, looking truly thrilled, and grinned a cunning, sharp-toothed smile. “Hello, handsome.”

Oh, for goodness’ sake.

“Which way is Fairyland, beautiful?”

She lay down on a branch, lowered her glinting lashes, and asked in a tiny but sultry voice, “Looking for trouble, aren’t you?”

Apollo shrugged with his hands in his pockets, the portrait of boyish carelessness. “Only way to cross to the other side, isn’t it?”

The sprite nodded and gestured right from the knoll. “From the path you sometimes see and you sometimes don’t, it’s faster, but the route gets steep and rocky. A little dangerous for land-bound creatures.” Then she pointed left. “The path that’s always there will add twenty minutes to your journey, but it’s smoother. Just follow the wild basil. It’s a straight line to Fairyland—although some people would not find this a very good thing.”

Apollo mocked me with a haughty raise of his brows. “Told you.”

“Thank you for your time,” I sighed to the sprite.

Her lips widened to a monstrous, nightmarish grin. “Go get your ears eaten.”

A kind of terror descended on me. “What?”

“It’s how we say good luck in the North,” Apollo interjected.

“That’s… not disconcerting at all,” I dryly muttered.

Apollo tipped his jaw for me to follow. “Come on, we’ve wasted enough time.”

When I lifted my gaze again, the sprite was gone, and only a thin trail of glittering dust remained behind.

The path left from the orange knoll was indeed smooth and welcoming. In fact, the forest seemed to get out of its way to clear our path. The trees and brambles were shuffled to the side so neatly that you’d think they’d been planted there by an assiduous gardener instead of nature’s hands.