Serene’s POV

My head was spinning as I went to my room. So, much had happened in such a short period of time. Zeph shouting at me with hatred and then Arlo confessing his feelings. It felt like my head would explode. I was in emotional turmoil, I wanted to sleep so I lay in my bed. But, sleep was nowhere near me. I was so confused about what to do with Arlo, I can’t toy with his emotions.

A few hours passed like this and I heard the door knob move. I, turned around to find Ayrden entering the room. She had a smile on her face.

"Well, Mikasim is all in and so is Arlo." She beamed at me.

"Really? That’s great news." I said excitedly. "Mikasim said that he knew they were planning something but had no clue what it was. And, he also said that Lourden and Zeph can’t be mates. Werewolves do have mates in Folkels but it’s very rare, besides once you find your mate you typically mark them and nothing can separate them for days. That was not a typical behaviour we saw between those two." Ayrden explained in detail.

"That’s refreshing to hear, I hope it’s true but the question remains on what power she has on Zeph that he is willing to do her bidding," I asked with a confused state of mind.

"We will find out soon. Don’t worry." Ayrden consoled me.

"Can I ask what Arlo said to you when I left?" Ayrden asked me curiously. I don’t think he wanted to reveal his feelings to anyone other than me so he won’t be comfortable if I told Ayrden and she let it slip from her to someone else.

"Well, he was just furious about Zeph that how he is trying to break our team with his annoying behaviour. " I didn’t lie but didn’t tell her the complete truth as well.

"He is not wrong, besides Arlo cares about you more than Zeph. At least that’s what I have observed." Ayrden said as a matter of factly.

"I think they have different personalities and their own way of showing and doing things."

"Haaa, either way, it has been so chaotic for the past two days, I want to get some sleep. We have classes tomorrow." Ayrden reminded me.

"Yes, let’s get some rest, tomorrow is not going to be an easy day," I replied sadly.

She came forward and hugged me. "No matter what happens, I am always here for you." She reassured me.

"Thanks, Ayrden and I will make sure that we are together during all the hardships, no matter what life throws at us. We will face it together." I hugged her back. We sat there for a bit and then decided to sleep.

The next day, we woke up got ready, and headed down for breakfast. Entering the dinning hall, I looked around and my heart almost sank. Zeph was sitting with Lourden, she had one hand on his thigh. He was facing away from me so I couldn’t see his expression but Lourden looked directly at me and smirked. I wanted to punch her stupid face but I remembered that I had to comply for now. I smiled back at her instead of getting angry. She looked confused by my smile. I, headed for an empty table but was blocked by Tanzil.

" So, you can’t help yourself, can you? Always trying to steal other people’s mates. You are such a slut." She whispered the last words in my ear. I felt like the whole dining room was watching me. My ears had gone red and anger was building up. Ayrden squeezed my hand to remind me we had to stay calm.

"Maybe," I looked directly into her eyes and smiled before heading towards a table to sit. She gritted her teeth behind me.

Frela was sitting at that table. "These girls are really mean, I am sorry you have to put up with them Serene. You are very brave, I wouldn’t be able to do that." She said awkwardly as we both sat down with her.

"You don’t have to be afraid when you haven’t done anything wrong. Sometimes we need to stand up to them." I smiled at her reassuringly.

We had our breakfast without any further incident. Zeph had already left when we got up. Our first class was with Shumal Sensei. We looked up at the tree and it was glowing with crystals. For hundred marks one jade crystal had been awarded. For 50 marks one violet crystal had been awarded under our names. Our whole team had one Jade crystal each. Ralph had a Jade Crystal and a Violet Crystal as well. It was due to his success in Mariela Sensei’s class.

"Wow, we have a hundred points each, yahhh." Ayrden clapped her hands and I smiled at her. Meanwhile, Ralph had entered the class as well. We called him and he hugged us both looking at the score.

"Congratulations Ralph, you are the leading scorer." I patted him on the back.

"Yes, yes!" He pumped his fist in the air making everyone laugh.

Zeph was sitting at the far end of the class close to the window. He was looking outside and didn’t pay any heed to what was going on. Arlo was sitting on the other end. His head bowed down but I knew he was listening. I wanted to talk to him but wasn’t sure what to say.

Shumal Sensei entered the class. Firstly, she congratulated us on our scores. We did a bit of reading about the consequences of sealing away the dark dimension, and she assigned us to find out more about it and turn in the assignments within two days. Once the class ended, Zeph was the first one to leave.

Next, we had, " Mythology and Beasts " with Lavaria Sensei. As he entered the class with that hearty smile on his face, the classroom atmosphere brightened up. Firstly, he clapped for the teams who had successfully defeated the Schlangto. Secondly, he acknowledged the efforts of the teams who were unable to defeat it. We spent the class discussing different battle strategies and weaknesses of Schlangto and he gave us some extra strategical tips based on our powers for future battles. On the whole, he was extremely proud of us.

"Serene, those arrows were flying and they were so satisfying to watch. I loved that." He smiled at me and I felt a bit embarrassed getting praised in front of the whole class. But, my heart was filled with sadness thinking how we had spent an entire week together as a team and just a few days later we can’t even look at each other.

Next, we had combat class and Sarim Sensei told us that we would have to compete as teams with other teams in hand-to-hand combat. Werewolves and vampires will have different teams from us and they would compete against each other. There were 9 witches/warlocks, 4 vampires, 6 werewolves, 5 Folkels and 1 Fae in our batch.

Five teams were formed of five members each. Three consist of Witches/warlocks, and Folkels, while two consist of Vampires and Werewolves combined. Our team consisted of Ayrden, Ralph, Zeph, Me and a warlock named Darius. Ralph and Darius were replacements for Arlo and Mikasim.

We were given two weeks. The tournament was to be held after two weeks, so we had plenty of time to practice. We were assigned one mentor from seniors to help us train and guide. Our mentor was Zilver which made Ralph pretty disappointed. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

We sat with him and started to strategize, discussing other teams and their strong points and weaknesses. Zeph was sitting opposite of me and he didn’t even glance at me, he acted like I didn’t exist.