Meeting Aggie

35.

Apollo paid no attention to me and rolled over in bed. It took him a good ten minutes before he finally stirred. When he noticed me sitting on the edge of the bed, his eyebrows knitted together, and then he let out a gasp of surprise.

"You changed and I missed it? Why didn't you wake me up?"

I shrugged. "You kept mumbling and rolling in your sleep. I gave up eventually and let you wake up on your own. We need to meet Iris before she comes back and gets angry at us."

Apollo threw the blanket off himself and stripped off his shirt. He pulled off his pants and threw them across the room. Sweat dripped down the middle of his perfect abs due to the cold sweats he had in his sleep. Yes, the sun god suffered night sweats.

I bit my lip and shyly looked away. Even though he wore boxers, right above the waistline his sharp cut v-line taunted my hormones. I flushed, suddenly too hot.

Apollo tapped my shoulder. "You know it's okay to admire me, right? Not trying to sound conceited, but we technically are together. And I'm yours."

I quivered at the thought. He nibbled on my ear, and I giggled, pushing him away.

"Stop teasing me and get dressed! For the love of Styx, please!"

He laughed and walked over to the drawers. He took out a pair of jeans and a white shirt. The borrowed jeans looked like long shorts on him.

"I don't know why I even bothered. The tallest fairies I've seen are like five-seven."

He waved a hand over the jeans and made them longer. He also gave himself a pair of matching white sneakers. He looked in the mirror and nodded at his outfit.

"Let's head out now. We don't want Iris getting too pissed off."

Apollo nodded and followed me out of the room. We walked down the hall and made two rights. The guards who stood in front of the doors let us in then closed the doors behind us. Iris stood in the middle of the throne room.

She put a hand on her hip. "About time. That took you guys half an hour. What were you doing?"

She raised an eyebrow at us, but I remained composed. We didn't do anything, as far as I was concerned. Apollo smirked at her, and she gasped. I glared at him, but he just had to open his smart mouth.

"You already know what we did. Do you want to see us in action next time? Or better yet, would you want to join us?"

"You guys wasted time on that in these dire circumstances? Are you mad or are you stupid?" Iris shrieked.

I shoved Apollo. "He's definitely joking. I'm a virgin, so I have no clue what I'm supposedly missing out on."

Apollo stared blankly at me. Iris had the same look, but she was more shocked if anything. Apollo gestured to Iris. She nodded, and he pulled me to the side.

"Aggie, are you really a virgin?"

"Is it truly surprising? Between the demands of school and the constant need to be on the move, I never had the luxury of time for a relationship. My life is a perpetual whirlwind." I shrugged.

He blushed a rosy pink and softly smiled at me. "We should talk more about this after everything, but I'll stick to teasing you the appropriate way. I respect you, and I don't want to come off as a pervert in your first relationship."

I shook my head. "It's cool, honestly. It's ironic you picked me, but it's how you've always been. It's your whole sex god personality. I just fear I won't keep up with you."

"Don't doubt yourself. You would most definitely keep up." He winked at me.

Iris cleared her throat then pointed at her wrist to an imaginary watch.

"Lovebirds, not even Chronos would slow down time for you two to get it together. We wasted enough time. Now please, join me, Princess Agatha, for your first lesson. It's a necessity."

I walked up to her. Six pedestals stood behind her. On each pedestal was an object—a white cloud, a decomposing rock, a clear glass of water, a log, a handheld mirror, and a live raven.

The only one that threw me off was the raven. I walked up to it and scratched behind its head with one fingernail. It cooed to my touch and didn't look like it was tied to the perch or anything.

"Do we need to use a real animal, Iris? I don't want to hurt it."

"The test won't require you to harm it. Fairies can't harm animals, as it's against our nature. Step back so I can explain your test."

I nodded and stepped back from the pedestal. The raven gave me sad eyes but remained still. I looked over my shoulder to check Apollo's facial expressions. He was watching intently and focusing. I think he figured out what the test would entail.

Iris waved at me to stand next to her. "Welcome to the fairy elements test. Don't worry if you don't score higher than two. In the current times, my sister and I are the only ones in the kingdom with three elements, as we were blessed by Hera at our birth."

"That's fair enough. I have no problem with that. How exactly do elements work?"

"Every fairy has five basic powers. We can fly using our wings, shrink, shapeshift, heal, and breathe underwater. We signed a peace treaty with the mermaids for the latter, though. "

"How exactly did you guys 'share' powers?"

Iris raised an eyebrow at me. "You go to the supernatural rulers, and they go to the gods. Anyway, not all fairies can use elemental magic. Either it's in your genes or you have to be blessed by a god. It doesn't matter which one."

"Understood. So, what am I doing for the tests?"

"Each pedestal is tied to an element. If you can't do the test, that means you don't have the ability."

"Sounds...fun."

Apollo hopped in on the conversation from behind us. "Don't take all morning! Seriously! You have an hour before the sun completely rises."