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“You’re perverse.”

“I have a long journey ahead of me, and I’m in desperate need of entertainment,” he argued.

“You’re still perverse.”

“Five gold marks, then.”

How did this prick have so much money? And five gold marks werea lotof money. I would be covered for at least one more month in Elora, a little less if I bought a pair of new boots and a strawberry cream cake.

Gods, how I missed cake.

I had to admit that, although mortifying, and considering my little and rather unimpressive experience on such matters, the book was probably nothingtoodisgraceful.

Someone must have said at least once in the entire history of the universe that dignity was overrated. What, no? Oh, well. Perhaps I was the perverse one, then. But tonight, I would feast on frosting.

“Seven marks,” I gritted out, my face uncomfortably warm. “And you better not expect a receipt for this.”

Apollo, now known as the Rich Prick from the North, smirked like a devious house cat at me. “Deal.”

We went back to my desk, and I began wrapping the book with a sheet of sparkly tissue paper, half-regretting my decision already.

“Shop’s not going too well, huh?” The Prick felt the need to point it out.

“What gave it away?” I wryly retorted, handing him the book.

“Why, though?” he persisted, fumbling through a pouch for my seven gold marks. “I mean, we don’t have Curiosity Shops in the North but they’re still very popular in the East.”

I gaped at him, shocked that I didn’t know this. I knew some things about the North through history books and, of course, the papers, but a place this magical was also very elusive. It liked to keep secrets. And I was a Curiosity. Secrets were the bane of my existence.

“Why don’t you have Curiosity Shops in the North?” I asked a little desperately.

Apollo shrugged. “The whole kingdom is a Curiosity Shop, I suppose.”

A sudden, breathtaking daydream came and stole my mind away, filling my thoughts with over-bright images of fairies and castles and enchanted forests. How lovely would it be to live in such a wondrous place?

Sometimes, I would indulge in these fantasies, fancying myself a great wanderer of the world. I would get this funny feeling deep in my gut—a homesickness for a place I’d never been—and I would dream and plan and wish for impossible things. And then I would remember the Shop and the daydreams would die like a flame underwater. I could never leave Elora because I didn’t even know how to be myself without the Shop. The shameful truth was that I would rather be extraordinary somewhere mundane than risk being ordinary somewhere magical.

“You okay down there, darling?” Apollo’s deep voice swam up from the tide of my thoughts.

I sniffed and tucked a few locks of hair behind my ears. “I’m fine. Have a safe journey,” I said dismissively and busied myself with placing the coins into the register.

“You didn’t answer me, though,” he prodded. “What happened to the other Curiosity Shops in Elora?”

“People here aren’t curious anymore. The magic in this city is thinning,” I said in a cool, matter-of-fact manner, despite the tightness in my throat.

Apollo stared at me for a moment, his eyes so deeply grey they looked almost black. “Perhaps that’s for the best.”

“Excuse me?” I scoffed.

“Curiosity can be dangerous,” he said.

I gave him a withering look. “It’s better to have something dangerous than to have nothing at all.”

Suddenly, the door flung open—the bang as loud as quiet went my heart. Dark, amorphous lumps of…somethingslinked into the Shop, their bodies grimy and sluggish like overlarge worms.

With a yelp, I grabbed my parasol from behind my desk and raised it before me like a weapon. “What—Apollo—What is happening?”

Apollo whipped back his cape, revealing an intricate leather baldric that extended along his chest and hips. The leather sheaths were full of swords, daggers, and hunting knives and—oh gods.He was an assassin. I’d let anassassininto my Shop.