It was the second day of our return in the Royal Academy and I was still disoriented from the boys' speculations that seemed to become realer and realer as time went by. Every time I thought of it, my heartbeat would quicken, my blood thrumming. I spent the day keeping myself from thinking about it, looking for ways to distract myself.
It was already bad enough that I couldn't participate in today's Battle Training, now I was left alone to roam the halls if only to avoid the memories that were chasing me. Before heading to the arena, Nikolas had pretended to pass by me to silently ask if I was going to be okay on my own.
"I can skip practice," he had whispered to me in the classroom, looking out the window so he wouldn't be obvious. "I can stay. You don't have to be alone here."
