Your Loyalty to Me

Aria Needed A Cuddle Buddy. I Just Volunteered. I SWEAR.

I'm SO sorry for not updating for so long... I started reading teen fiction other than just fanfiction and I have to say, I'm hooked.

So, again, sorry for making you guys wait, but I have some good news.

THIS IS THE SECOND LAST CHAPTER OF THR TRIALS OF APOLLO SERIES IN MY BOOK BEFORE MY REAL STORY STARTS!!!!

OH! I can't wait for you guys to read it!

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Apollo's POV

Dear reader, it takes a great deal of willpower to intentionally harm yourself. And not the good kind of willpower - the stupid, reckless kind you should never try to summon, even in an effort to save your friends.

As I stabbed myself, I was shocked by the sheer amount of pain I experienced. Why did killing yourself have to hurt so much?

My bone marrow turned to lava. My lungs filled with hot wet sand. Blood soaked my shirt and I fell to my knees, gasping and dizzy. The world spun around me as if the entire throne room had become a giant ventus prison.

VILLAINY! The Arrow of Dodona's voice buzzed in my mind (and now also in my chest). THOU DIDST NOT JUST IMPALE ME HEREIN! O, VILE, MONSTROUS FLESH!

A distant part of my brain thought it was unfair for him to complain, since I was the one dying, but I couldn't have spoken even if I'd wanted to.

Caligula rushed forward. He grabbed the shaft of the arrow, but Medea yelled, 'Stop!'

She ran across the throne room and knelt at my side.

'Pulling out the arrow could make matters worse!' she hissed.

'He stabbed himself in the chest,' Caligula said. 'How can it be worse?'

'Fool,' she muttered. I wasn't sure whether the comment was directed at me or Caligula. 'I don't want him to bleed out.' She removed a black silk bag from her belt, pulled out a stoppered glass vial and shoved the bag at Caligula. 'Hold this.'

She uncorked the vial and poured its contents over the entry wound.

COLD! complained the Arrow of Dodona. COLD! COLD!

Personally, I didn't feel a thing. The searing pain had become a dull, throbbing ache throughout my whole body. I was pretty sure that was a bad sign.

Incitatus trotted over. 'Whoa, he really did it. That's a horse of a different colour.'

Medea examined the wound. She cursed in ancient Colchian, calling into question my mother's past romantic relationships.

'This idiot can't even kill himself right,' grumbled the sorceress. 'It appears that, somehow, he missed his heart.'

'TWAS ME, WITCH! the arrow intoned from within my ribcage. DOST THOU THINK I WOULD FAIN ALLOW MYSELF TO BE EMBEDDED IN THE DISGUSTING HEART OF LESTER? I DODGED AND WEAVED!

I made a mental note to either thank or break the Arrow of Dodona later, whichever made the most sense at the time.

Medea snapped her fingers at the emperor. 'Hand me the red vial.'

Caligula scowled, clearly not used to playing surgical nurse. 'I never rummage through a woman's purse. Especially a sorceress's.'

I thought this was the surest sign yet that he was perfectly sane.

'If you want to be the sun god,' Medea snarled, 'do it!'

Caligula found the red vial.

Medea coated her right hand with the gooey contents. With her left, she grabbed the Arrow of Dodona and yanked it from my chest.