We walked back down the stairs and headed towards our class, and since we all had morning combat together we walked in a large group, we headed outside and down to a large field full of training dummy's and targets.

When we arrived the teacher greeted us and told us to stand with the others. I saw Max standing by a couple of other guys and made my way over to him, Chase, Verity, and Orpheus following close behind.

"Hey" I whispered moving to stand next to him.

"Hey," he said back in a hushed voice.

I brought my attention back to the teacher, watching him pace back and forth with a serious expression on his face.

"Now that you are all here, I would like to introduce myself." He said coming to a stop in front of us all. " I am Mr Kohl" he finished giving a small bow.

A tall boy with enchanting blood red eyes and raven black hair that fell attractively around his perfectly chiselled face walked down the hill and stood next to him.

"Ah, Everyone, this is Shade," he said gesturing the boy "he is in your year but arrived at the academy late" he confirmed.

He looked at the crowd carefully until his eyes fell on mine, they flickered a lighter shade of red but showed no emotion, electricity surged through my body making it difficult for me to stand, I shivered and swallowed the pain as my shoulder burned uncontrollably, trying not to let him see how he was affecting me. I buckled the right slightly and grabbed onto Orpheus' arm to steady myself. To look more natural I linked my arm through his, he gave me a confused look and I smiled weakly and reflected a 'don't ask' sort of look, well the best one I could anyway. He nodded his head and placed his arm around my back holding me up.

Shade narrowed his eyes at Orpheus and continued to stare into my soul before breaking his agonizing eye contact. The electricity died down but lingered in the air causing me to take in a sharp intake of breath.

"Although he is only a first year, Shade will be helping me teach some parts of your combat lessons as his previous trainer is a well know associate of the school, and has trained Shade into one of the schools most highly skilled warriors," said Mr Kohl.

I looked back over to Shade, making sure not to catch his eye contact again. It was strange, he had me wanting to find out more about him but at the same time, he made me want to run and never look back.

"Thanks," I said unlinking myself from Orpheus.

"No problem, but do you want to tell me what the hell happened, you looked like you were gonna faint," he said concern lacing his robust features.

"I'll fill you in at break with the others," I said with a convincing smile.

He nodded his head and turned back towards Kohl. Positive that my shoulder had been on fire, I reached my hand up behind me to touch it but there was no mark.

"We will start by doing some archery," he said beckoning us over to the targets.

A big smile grew on my face, I've always loved archery. From when I was a little girl my dad would always take me into the woods to practice. I listened politely to Mr Kohl explain how to use a bow and arrow and waited patiently for him to allow us to start.

"Okay, you can start. Don't worry if you don't hit the target the first time, I'm fully aware that some of you have never even picked up a bow" he said.

Taking my bow off my waist, I popped it out to its full size and grabbed an arrow. I turned to the side and stood up tall, keeping my feet apart. I then nocked an arrow and drew the drawstring.

Asked Max.

I laughed.

counted Chase.

We all released our arrows at the same time, effortlessly striking the target in its red centre.

"Well done!" Exclaimed Mr Kohl rushing over, looking rather impressed.

We all grinned at each other and turned back towards our targets.

"Aurora isn't it? The academy's Mythica?" Someone questioned in a deep, asperous voice.

A familiar electricity flowed through me. I gritted my teeth and turned around coming face to face with Shade. I felt my shoulder begin to burn again and resisted the urge to turn away from him.

"Yes," I said clutching my bow tightly.

I looked into his eyes making sure to keep an emotionless appearance, amplifying the electricity. He flinched slightly, anger flashing across his dark red eyes.

"Hit the same mark again," he said his voice low and husky.

The class had stopped what they were doing to watch what was going on.

I turned around slowly and knocked an arrow. It was hard to focus on anything with him being so near but I steadied my breathing and drew my bow. Focusing on the arrow that had already pierced the target, I mentally counted to three in my head and quickly held my breath to make sure that my uneven breathing didn't affect my shot. I let the new arrow fly and, to my satisfaction and Shades disappointment the arrow splinted the other one, taking its place.

A couple of people who were watching clapped. I gave them a genuine smile and turned to face Shade.

"Well done," he said through gritted teeth sounding slightly annoyed.

I nodded my head and he walked off towards Mr Kohl.

"All right split into single race groups and hybrids, you join whichever group was your first discovered race and organize yourselves into pairs." Ordered Mr Kohl.

We all organized into groups of five werewolves, six vampires, four witches and six dragon riders.

The other two werewolves paired up and me Max and Chase were left in a three.

"Rock, paper, scissors?" Suggested Chase.

"Sure but to pair with me," said Max.

"Okay," I agreed.

I suppose it was fair since Chase and I got to be in the same house. We played the game quickly and to my dissatisfaction, Chase won. I sighed and watched as he punched the air and walked away dramatically with his arm wrapped around Max Singing 'all by my self' towards me mockingly, Max pushed him away and he stumbled and ran a few steps to regain his balance which made me burst out laughing, he shot Max a glare and hit him on the back of the head playfully.

"Aurora!" Called Mr Kohl approaching me swiftly.

"You're on your own?" He asked.

"Yep, I could go in a three with Chase and Max " I quickly suggested.

"No need, you can pair with Shade," he said casually.

Shade and I looked at each other and then back to Mr Kohl with looks of horror on our faces.

"Is there a problem?" Kohl asked, clearly oblivious to how we affected each other.

"Nope," said Shade instantly, replacing his emotions with a smirk.

He walked over smugly and stood opposite me bringing his electricity with him. I cringed at the sensation and looked at the floor. I really need to find a way to block out his effect otherwise I could lose control and end up hurting him.

"I want you to fight without using your wolf strength, this will challenge you to think in different ways and focus on the tactic rather than instinct" explained Kohl.

"Are we allowed to use weapons?" Asked Liam, one of the Bloodstone pack werewolves.

"Yes," said Kohl "but don't actually kill each other" he added.

We all nodded and I pulled out my twin daggers. Shade glared at me blankly and pulled out his own daggers. Kohl gave us the signal to begin before running off to tell the next group what to do.

I locked my eyes with his and prepared myself for the pain and sure enough, my shoulder started burning painfully. I pushed it to the side and refused to break eye contact. We began to circle each other, waiting for the other person to make the first move, eventually, Shade lunged for my left side but then attacked my right, knowing that trick I blocked him easily.

He lunged forward again and I twirled out of the way and struck him on the back with the pommel of my right dagger making him stumble slightly, he spun around and locked his furious eyes on mine. I lunged forward and began attacking, he was well prepared and dodged my attacks easily and struck a few of his own, which I also managed to block.

We fought for a couple more minutes before he struck a blow on my right shoulder sending me tumbling to the ground. I rolled out of the way of his blow and tripped him sending him to the ground, furious, he jumped on top of me to pin me down, sending painful sparks all over my body. I immediately pressed my dagger to his lower back pointing up at his heart as he held his dagger across my throat. We stayed that way without breaking our intense eye contact awaiting Mr Kohl's judgment.

"It's not actually clear who won there," he said in disbelief "If that was a real fight I think you would have just killed each other"

Knowing that he was right Shade rolled off me and stood up. I got to my feet and dusted myself off before walking over to Orpheus, Chase, Max, and Verity.

I looked back up to see Shade staring at me scowling.

"That was awesome!" Said Verity.

"Yeah you were both like super ninjas" added Chase.

I looked at him blankly for a second and burst out laughing, jabbing him in the side rolling my eyes.

We looked over to the witches training to see fireballs and tornadoes blasting back and forth.

"Wow, that's intense," said Max.

"Yeah" I agreed.

I suddenly felt nervous, being a Mythica everyone expected great things from me but what if I couldn't live up to it? There were so many things that I didn't know about myself and my other sides, so how was I meant to compete with the races that have only trained and practised that one part of themselves their whole life?

"Werewolves!" Shouted Kohl breaking my thoughts "don't just stand there gawking, 400-meter sprint in your wolf forms to that flag and back!" He said pointing at a distant white flag.

Everyone lined up and morphed into their wolf forms, I jumped into my white wolf and heard everyone take a sharp intake of breath. I sighed and looked over at Shade who was staring at me curiously, he saw me look towards him and looked away quickly, jumping into his wolf form.

It was my turn to gasp.

He was easily taller than me and had pure black fur and I'm not talking about the usual black with dark grey mixed in it with it like Zack and a couple of other dark wolves I've seen, he was pure, pitch black, which was just as rare as having a pure white coat like mine.

said Max through the link.

Noticing me staring, Shade held his head high and brushed past me sending sparks through my body, standing in line next to me.

I growled at his contact and waited for the signal patiently. Hearing my growl Chase and Max looked at me with puzzled looks.

I growled.

asked Max, his concern flooding through the link.

Come the familiar voice of Zack from wherever he was.

said Chase.

I said reassuringly.

The sound of the air horn pierced my ears sending me forward ahead of everyone else in a burst of speed. I closed my eyes at the feeling of the wind flowing through my fur and pushed myself faster. I opened them to see Shade running next to me with ease, he looked over at me with a smug grin which, to be honest, looked a bit pathetic in his wolf form. I growled and circled the flag with him still by my side, we ran past the others who were only now approaching the flag in a blur and continued to pick up speed.

Shouted Max competitively through the link.

I growled in determination and extended my paws, throwing them strongly in front of me. I slowly began to overtake him and shot him a wolfish grin. He returned the growl and pushed himself harder but I continued to overtake him until he was on my tail. I jumped over the finish line and skidded to a stop.

Holding my head high I pranced around him happily.

He morphed into his human form and sat on the grass out of breath and looked completely annoyed. I changed into my own human form and laid down a couple of feet away from him taking in deep breaths of air to steady my breathing. Already having changed back, Chase and Max sat down beside me.

"I don't think I've ever seen two wolves run so fast," said Max handing me his water as I sat up.

I smiled and took it out of his hand, gratefully taking a big gulp.

"You've finally found someone who can challenge you, you're like the perfect pair," said Chase with a laugh.

I noticed Shade smirking over to us and elbowed Chase sharply in the side to tell him to shut up.

"What?" Asked Chase dramatically. "If he wasn't so shady towards you... pun completely intended, then I'd ship it" he finished proudly.

Max glared at him and shook his head.

"I'm going to history early," I said wanting no further part in the conversation.

I jumped to my feet and walked towards the building, taking a quick shower before making my way back through the school. And after moving around cluelessly and looking at my map for several minutes, I finally found my history class.

I entered to see that Adelia was already there, she waved at me enthusiastically and tapped the seat beside her. I took the seat gratefully and sighed slumping down into the chair.

"You look tired," she said.

"Yeah, I just had my first combat lesson" I explained slouching further into my seat.

"First thing? That's tragic" she laughed straightening her pen collection.

"Was my brother there?" She asked.

I looked at her blankly for a second before connecting two and two, she didn't actually mention it but Orpheus must be her twin, I suppose they do share some traits.

"Yeah Orpheus was there," I said.

She smiled nodding her head and brought her attention the door to see a tall boy with musky brown hair that framed his over chiselled face and brought out his bright caramel eyes.

"Hi, I'm Titus, mind if I sit here?" He asked nervously pointing to the seat beside Adelia.

"Sure," she said, her cheeks turning rosy pink.

I smirked and raised my eyebrows at her and she shot me a warning glare, I giggled to myself and looked away.

We talked lightly until the class filled up, I found out that Sylvia was also in this class with us so I introduced her to Adelia and Titus.

The whole lesson was on the founders of the school and the previous battles that they faced when bringing the school together but to my disappointment, Sebastian was not mentioned once.

I walked slowly to break with Adelia and Sylvia to meet Chase, Zack, Max, Orpheus, and Verity by the lake near the training grounds.

When we arrived I made sure everyone was introduced and then explained the Shade situation completely.

Once I had finished they all just stared at me with worried faces.

"I'll figure it out," I said reassuringly.

"You said your shoulder was burning?" Asked Zack.

"Yeah" I nodded.

"Let me see?" he said calmly.

He walked over to me and I took off my jacket.

"It felt like it was burning but there was no mark there when I touched it" I explained pulling down the corner of my top.

He gasped and ran his hand over my shoulder gently.

"What is it?" I asked panicking slightly.

"There all patterns," said Zack "similar to the Alpha tattoo"

"What!?" I shouted straining to see over my shoulder.

"Here," said Verity pulling a mirror out of her bag.

She handed it to Zack who held it behind me. I looked into its reflection to see the new mark present on my shoulder.

There were a variety of swirls combining and twisting to form a beautiful black wolf head with two white wings present underneath the head, framing it. It didn't take up my whole back but did cover my right shoulder.

"What the hell?" I said aloud.

"We have to show the principle," said Sylvia.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" I questioned.

"Yeah, he may know what it is" agreed Zack handing Verity back the mirror.

I pulled my jacket back on and followed them through the school to principle Stonehearts office.

I was about to knock the door when I felt the air turn static, I froze and watched as the door swung open to reveal Shade, he looked down at me blankly before storming off heatedly down the hallway.

"Come in" called Stoneheart.

We all entered to see him sitting at his desk organizing his papers.

"Ah, Aurora," he said looking up at me.

"Ugh... we've come t-" I began but was cut off.

"No need," he said holding up his hand "I know why your here, let me see it"

I gave him a confused look and showed him the mark.

He sighed and slumped down into his chair.

"It is the same with one of the other students," he said rubbing his face.

"Shade" I stated.

"Yes but his is slightly different, in fact, it is the reverse" he began "his wolf is white and the wings underneath it are black"

"Do you know what it is?" I questioned.

"No, I do not. But I think that it could be related to the prophecy" he explained, a distant look in his eyes.

"What prophecy?" Asked Zack moving to stand next to me.

"For now, I will not tell you. I need to be sure first" he said.

"What am I meant to do then?" I asked slightly annoyed.

"Exactly the same as what I told Shade, Go to your classes and be a normal student for the time being," he said looking back down at his work.

I shook my head and left the room fuming. 'Be a normal student' what the hell is wrong with him?