“Damn, you have gotten quick,” Korbin says as we get to the end of our run. We both take a breather, drinking from our bottles of water.

“It’s been a month of running, of course I have,” I say, grinning at him. He is the only one speaking to me since the wedding. Elias, Thorne and Dagan have gone into silent protector mode or something, because they won’t talk to me. I’ve given up trying to figure them out, and decided to focus on my classes. I know I have a new class this morning, wild animals. The teacher cancelled all the classes up till now for some unknown reason.

“Thorne is cancelling his extra training tomorrow,” he tells me, and I shake my head.

“And let me guess, we are flying all day Sunday so Dagan doesn’t have to speak to or train me?” I ask, because this is how it’s been for weeks.

“Nope, we are training. I’ve had a word with Dagan, and he isn’t coming. So it’ll just be you and me,” he says and nods his head at the castle, “come on.”

“Why are they avoiding me?” I finally ask him. I have wanted to ask for weeks, but I just couldn’t. I think I know the answer, that whatever happened at the wedding changed things. Made the friendships we were forming so very dangerous.

“Don’t you know?” he questions sadly.

“I'm not certain but I do kinda miss the assholes," I say with a little laugh.

“They can’t be your friend, they’ve tried and failed. It’s just how it has to be now, so everyone is safe,” he tells me, not meeting my eyes.

“Then we are friends? Because you don’t feel that way?” I ask, and he stops walking, tensing up as he looks at me.

“Don’t ask me how I feel,” he warns me, and then turns around heading towards the castle as I walk silently by him.

“I won’t, but that also means you don’t get to ask me,” I say, trailing my eyes over his tattooed chest as his vest top, sticky with sweat, clings to him. I finally look up to see him staring at me.

“You have class, Isola and I already know,” he says firmly. I snap out of it, running up the stairs, and I look down to see him rubbing his face with his hands before following me up. I get to my room, shutting the door and looking around to find Bee on my bed, passed out with a load of chocolate wrappers around her.

“Bee?” I sigh, stepping closer and lifting her little body off the bed. She curls into my hand as I take her to her pod and slide her inside, shutting the pod door after tucking her in. In the last month, she has learnt more words, and grown more active. She seems to like making a big mess of my room and creating the little handbags she seems to have a problem with collecting. I smile as I look down at the second pod hanging from the tree. It is full to the rim with little leather bags of every colour, some with glitter stuff in them and others without. I grab my leather outfit, cloak, and boots, putting them on my bed. After cleaning up the wrappers, I get into the shower. Twenty minutes later I leave my bedroom, seeing Dagan leaning against the wall this time. He doesn’t look at me as he starts walking down the corridor. I jog to catch up with him, keeping silent as I look over his face. He is still rolling that lip ring between his lips, his blue eyes highlighting his handsome face as they slide over to look at me once, before looking away.

“Here is your class, princess,” Dagan says, pointing at the door.

“When is this silent treatment going to end?” I ask, but he doesn’t even look at me as he leans against the wall and staring at the floor. I shake my head, turning to go inside the classroom and shutting the door behind me. On each small round table is a little purple egg, and every table is filled except for one near the front. I take the seat, ignoring the stares of everyone else as we wait for the teacher to come. After a month of being ignored, being stared at like you have a dick drawn on your forehead becomes easy to ignore.

“Welcome class,” the old man from plant class says as he hobbles into the room, sitting down on the chair behind the desk.

“I’m sorry this class has been cancelled, but the eggs were not ready until now,” he explains to us. I thought he was just ill or something. He hasn’t been in plant class either, we were just told to study our plants in our room for the entire lesson each week.

“What are the eggs, sir?” a guy with black hair asks.

“Snakes, jewel snakes to be specific,” he says, and several of the girls on other tables move their hands away from their eggs, looking scared. I have no idea what a jewel snake is, but normal snakes aren’t that bad. I don't get why people are so scared of them. It’s pointless to be scared of something that is likely more scared of you.

“They will hatch any moment, and it’s your job to make them like you enough not to bite you, and then let them free in the woods. If you are bitten, you have fifteen minutes to get to the infirmary before you will pass out,” he says, yawning as the sound of eggs cracking fills the room.

“If you want to fail the entire year, please run out the room now,” he says, and to my surprise three people get up and run out, leaving about ten of us in here. I take a deep breath in the silent room as I stare at my egg, watching it wriggle a little before a deep crack appears near the top. The egg breaks open slowly as I observe, and then a tiny, green snake with spikes all down its back slithers out the broken egg. I hold my hand flat on the desk as I hear some students swearing, and others speaking softly to their snakes, but I try not to look away from its tiny little eyes that watch me.

“Hello little snake, I’m Isola, and erm... we need to go outside without you biting me,” I say, and the snake hisses at me, sliding across the table. I see a student get bitten by their snake out the corner of my eye. A quick glance at the teacher tells me he is nearly asleep and not paying attention.

“Great,” I mutter, looking back at my snake as someone else screams in the room. The snake gets to my hand, lifting its head as it opens its mouth. Doing the only thing I can think of, I turn my had around and call my dragon, freezing the snake up to its neck, and it falls on its side. I pick up the frozen snake, keeping well away from the sharp hissing mouth. I stand up and see most the students holding books out to keep their snakes away from them. I hold out my hand, freezing all the snake’s bodies, and the students slowly drop their books.

“Get them outside and I will unfreeze them,” I say, not waiting for a response from their shocked faces. I walk out the room, seeing Dagan waiting for me. He just raises an eyebrow at the frozen snake in my hand but doesn’t say anything. I walk past him, straight down the stairs to the front door, opening it up and walking outside. I walk to the trees, placing my snake down and slowly unfreeze the ice. It hisses at me before slinking away into the woods.

“Will you do mine, princess?” a guy asks nervously, moving next to me and putting his snake on the ground as several more students wait behind me.

“It’s Isola and sure,” I say, unfreezing his snake and waiting for the next student to bring theirs. Everyone’s small smile at me makes me think I may have a few less enemies after today.