35

The Shop slowly returned to life as I sprinkled a generous amount of stardust into the cauldron, the gushing bubbles shifting from a foul grey to the green of clovers after rain. The reawakening was an unhurried, almost imperceptible process, but to the eye of the Curiosity was as stark and brilliant as the midday sun. The colors of the woodwork deepened. The garlands of crystals slightly veered to catch the golden morning light. The purple plants tilted upward in conspicuous exhalation. The bookcase in the corner shone like a giant sea-rock pushed out to the shore by an angry wave.

The Shop.

The Shop was awake.

Apollo and I dusted and swept, mopped and tidied, and now the Shop looked almost the same as I had left it, although I could not say the same about myself.

Nostalgia swelled in my chest—the anticipation of missing something in the near future—but not regret, and certainly not fear.

Apollo, recovered and as sturdy as a mountain once again, drew the purple curtain over the Celestial Door and gazed around in satisfaction. "I think it's ready," he said, putting the broom aside.

I nodded as I sat back on my chair behind the desk and started sorting through my correspondence. I had already written to my parents and tried to tell a story that I still had a hard time believing myself, and now they were awaiting us in the West, anxious and excited to finally meet Apollo.

We planned on visiting Walder and Agathe next before returning to Thaloria. I was going to be busy attending classes at Thaloria's Academy of Magical Arts while Apollo was going to reassume his royal duties as the whole Asteria Realm had learned by now that Prince Apollo was finally cured. Even weeks after his recovery, the papers were still speculating about what had actually happened, with each story being more fanciful and absurd than the other. Apollo didn't want our personal lives plastered all over the papers, so most of the articles told the tale of the Starshine Curiosity, who had restored the Prince of Broken Hearts with true love's kiss.

Indeed, life had such a curious way of making fairytales out of our hardships.

Apollo came up behind me, put his hands on my shoulders, and scanned the letter I held between my fingers. "It was nice of Ryker to help you find a family to take over the Shop," he said with grudging acquiescence.

I tucked the letter away and stood to lean against the edge of the desk, smiling coyly. "Look at you using the words nice and Ryker in the same sentence."

Apollo put the chair aside and came to slip his palms over the wooden surface behind me, trapping me in between. "I'm not jealous that you're friends with your ex-fiancé. If he so much as tries something inappropriate with you, I'm going to kill him, but I'm not jealous."

"Apollo!" I scolded.

"Right, right. Of course, I'm not going to kill him," he said ruefully. "I'm just going to torture him until he begs me for death. So it would be a kindness, really."

I slapped his arm, grumbling, "What am I going to do with you?"

Apollo flashed me a roguish little grin. "Hopefully something dirty," he said as he fished out of the back pocket of his trousers a small, pink book. "Look what I found behind your desk earlier."

I squealed, realizing it was the book. The obscene little guidebook to my pleasure Apollo had requested from the bookcase that very first day.

"Please, don't read this!" I implored, springing off the desk with my hands in the air, trying to catch it.

Apollo raised it above his head, his other hand slinking around my waist to press me up against his body. "But I'm curious," he drawled, flicking it open.

Slowly, he lowered it to a reading distance and his brows shot up with comical incredulity as he skimmed over the first page. "That's it?" he said, unimpressed. "Well, that's easily achievable."

One moment he was tossing the book on the floor, and the other he was boosting me up on the desk.

"Apollo! We can't do this in here."

He smiled that heart-rending smile of his as he stepped between my parted knees and reached for the hem of my dress. "Does giving my girl an orgasm offend the Shop's tender sensibilities?"

"You're impossible," I growled, my cheeks burning.

He slipped a hand under my skirt. "And you're wet. Not to mention cruel. You won't marry me. You won't stay with me. Don't take away my privilege of making you come, too."

My bones turned liquid as he nudged my undergarment aside and teased me with the very tips of his fingers. I dug into the edge of the desk and managed to breathe out, "The only reason I won't stay with you this fall is because the Palace is too far away from the Academy. I need to be in the city if I am to attend classes with Thea every day. And I will marry you…eventually."

The truth was, I didn't want to move too fast. I wanted to savor this time of getting to know myself and him. I was still giddy about going on dates with him. I was still shaking every time he touched me or whispered something filthy in my ear. Everything was so new, so tender. And I was happy with not planning too far into the future and simply enjoying the journey that would get me there.

"Just admit that you like watching me grovel, Little Butterfly," Apollo rasped into the shell of my ear.

Despite everything, he still called me Little Butterfly. He called me many things. Darling, when he wanted to challenge me. My star, when he wanted to hearten me. My girl, when he wanted to make me smile. And Little Butterfly, when he wanted to remind me that his heart was still mine, whether I wore it around my neck or not.

He pushed a finger inside me, and I caved into his shoulder with a shuddering sigh.

Suddenly, the cauldron made a choking, almost coughing sound that brought me back to reality. In a fevered haze, I pushed him back, sprung off the desk, and straightened my skirts. Apollo laughed and licked the finger he just had inside me.

My poor knees went weak at the sight. "You're a heathen."

He smiled as he leaned down to smack a loud kiss on my cheek. "Yes, but I'm your heathen."

The cauldron quietened its roar to a murmur, and for a moment, the whole Shop seemed to stand still, brilliant and warm, streaked with ribbons of sunlight. I took a deep breath, taking its sweet, magic-flecked air into my lungs.

"You know," I finally exhaled, burrowing into Apollo's hard arms—my favorite place in the whole wide world, "I always thought the Shop was a part of me. But now…"

"Now?"

"Now I think that for a little while, I just got to be a part of it."

"I was thinking earlier how life is a bit like a Curiosity Shop, too," he said, playing with a strand of my hair.

I frowned up at him. "How so?"

"Well, it's full of wonder and color and strangeness. Some things about it are funny and comforting, others are mysterious and dangerous, and there is always a hidden door—a leap of faith you have to take in order to discover."

The cauldron bubbled across the Shop.

I smiled, knowing what it meant.