The rest of the day was kind of a blur, I walked around the house aimlessly, occasionally returning to my room to watch a movie or to read a book before revolving back to my pointless wandering. Although my physical appearance looked calm enough, my mind was racing, no matter what movie I watched or what book I chose to read, my mind kept returning to Armaros and the strange flowers.

"ADRIA!" rumbled the voice of my mother.

Waking from a distant daydream I sprang to my feet and jogged over to my door, swinging it open to reply to her.

"Yeah?" I shouted back.

"Can you come down here?"

I let out a small sigh before stepping out of my room, closing the door behind me. I ran swiftly down the stairs and made my way into the living room to see my mother sitting down on the couch next to my father.

"You're home," I greeted with a smile.

He returned my smile and beckoned me to sit on the couch opposite them.

"How was work?" I questioned politely.

"Great, thank you," he replied, taking a small pause before continuing, "Since it is your 17th birthday next week, your mother and I have decided that you are finally responsible enough to have that puppy that you so desperately wanted last year"

"Really?" I responded meekly, both excitement and disbelief welling up inside of me.

They both nodded, each of them displaying radiant smiles in my direction.

"Can I adopt from the animal shelter that I volunteered at last year?" I questioned hopefully.

"That's a wonderful idea, I will ring them right away!" exclaimed my father, seemingly content with my decision to adopt.

He hurried out of the room leaving my me and my mother in the room alone, I quickly scurried over to steal his seat so I could sit next to my mother and thank her once more.

"I'm so proud of you" She smiled, giving me the impression that she wasn't just talking about the adoption.

She leaned over and pulled me into a big bear like hug before releasing me from her hold.

"Now, you better go up to bed, you have school in the morning"

I nodded my head and walked back up the stairs, changing into my nightwear before jumping into the safety and comfort of my bed.

The next morning I jolted awake abruptly due to a bad dream that I couldn't seem to remember, my heart pounded heavily against my ribcage and cold sweat soaked the back of my shirt. I climbed off my bed taking in large but steady slow breaths to calm myself down.

Making my way into the bathroom, I ran a cold shower and cleansed my whole body, my erratic heart rate eventually returning to its normal pace as I grabbed a towel to wrap around myself.

"What is going on?" I asked myself aloud as I stepped out of the shower and stared into my tired green eyes.

My phone began to buzz from the other room, causing me to walk lazily back towards my bedside table. Taking a sidewards glance at the mystery flowers from yesterday I picked it up and stared at its radiant, blinding screen.

'Lexi: Don't forget about Scott's party, I'll meet you there! xoxo'

I sighed heavily as I stared at the words before me before replying,

'Okay, see you there! xoxo'

Lexi was seriously lucky that she has been my best friend since like forever and I would do more or less anything for her, or she would most definitely be going solo to this stupid party. My eyes flicked over to the time to discover that it was 6 am.

Deciding that I was never going to be able to fall back to sleep, I quickly threw on a pair of black ripped skinny jeans and a grey t-shirt, covered by a denim jacket, I then plaited my long towel dried brown hair into two french braids, before quickly applying some mascara to my fatigued eyes.

Grabbing onto my school bag on the way through my bedroom door, I ran down the stairs and into the kitchen, quickly scribbling a note to tell my parents that I had left early to go to school so they wouldn't panic, I then made my way through my front door and into the forest so I could take a morning walk to clear my head.

Mist shrouded the surrounding trees as if somebody had dropped a large grey veil over the whole forest that could only be pierced by the brightest of the morning sunrays that shone down towards me, making the path that I was walking on only just visible enough to walk on.

Knowing the trails like the back of my hand, I closed my eyes for a couple of seconds and breathed in the fresh smell of pine and clean air as I listened carefully to the songs that were sung by the birdlife that inhabited the towering trees.

Re-opening my eyes, I reached out my right arm to catch a golden ray of sunlight as a passed a tiny clearing amongst the trees, it truly was beautiful here. I had begun to turn my attention back to where I was going but something towards my far right caught my attention.

I walked towards it cautiously, my stomach tieing itself together with each step that I took. Standing there before me, shrouded in a heavy dark fog was an enormously wide tree, the words 'BEWARE' carved deeply into its old bark, a thousand shivers travelled along my skin as my eyes scanned over the length of the tree.

To my greatest dismay, a pile of flowers lay at the bottom of its trunk, the same type of flowers that I had found in my room, and in my locker the day before. Somebody was trying to warn me against something, but the question was...what.

I spun around and immediately began running in the opposite direction, heading towards the school. The pine-covered soil crunched gently under my feet as I ran, helping me to focus on my own pace rather than the pursuing footsteps that I swear that I heard somewhere in the trees behind me.

Eventually giving in to my growing curiosity and anxiety, I picked up my pace before turning my head to look behind me as I continue to sprint towards the school. Not being able to see anything at the fast pace that I was running at, I stopped dead in my tracks and scanned the forest.

Due to my tired and panicked state, the only thing that I could hear above all else was my own breathing and heartbeat, but a horrid feeling still surrounded my gut, screaming at me to keep running.

Just as I was about to turn around, a dark hooded, shadowy figure came into view standing next to a looming tree around ten meters away from where I stood. My blood froze in my veins, making me stiff with shock as I stared at the grim darkness before me.

Noticing my terrified expression and frozen composture, the figure crooked its head to the side in what seemed to be either recognition or confusion before it began to walk towards me alarmingly slow pace.

Breaking out of my trance, I leapt backwards and spun around, running as fast as I could away from the hooded figure. I swung my head over my shoulder as I ran to check for my pursuer but I couldn't spot him through the thick trees and overhanging mist.

My stupid idea to look over my shoulder caused me to abruptly crash into a hard surface and crash to the floor with a loud scream.

After hearing an angry grunt, I opened my eyes that I had squeezed tightly together to see a pair of fiery blue eyes, not recognising them I scanned his face quickly to see a boy that I have never seen before, he had flawless pale skin and pure white hair that hung fashionably around his face.

"You really should watch where you're going" he stated in an unamused tone.

I pushed myself off of his body and held out a hand in his direction, he brought his body up into a sitting position and stared at my hand.

"Sorry?" I offered, an awkward half-grin on my face.

Taking in my worried appearance, he grabbed onto my hand and pulled himself to his feet before dusting the pines off his pants.

"In a hurry?" he questioned, a small chuckle escaping his lips as he watched me frantically search the area around us.

"What?... oh, no... I just thought that I saw something, that's all" I replied, trying to keep the panic out of my voice.

"Since you are the first person that I have run into in this town, I have to ask, have you seen a guy with black hair and blue eyes around here?" He asked, looking me directly in the eyes "he's new around here, is about 6'3 and probably has some sort of brooding look on his face"

"Well, technically I ran into you" I laughed "but are you taking about Armaros by any chance?" I questioned curiously.

"Yep, that's him" he laughed lightly.

"He's probably going to be at school"

"Mind if I walk with you?" He asked hopefully.

"Sure" I replied plainly.

We began walking towards the school in a comfortable silence, now that I was walking with somebody, I immediately felt safer, something told me that whoever I saw in the woods wasn't going to approach me when I had company.

We hadn't gotten far when Armaros came into view, his eyes locked briefly with mine before they turned towards the guy that I was walking with. Confusion immediately spread over his face before his pace picked up until he was practically speed walking towards our direction.

"What are you doing here?" He asked the boy in what seemed to be annoyance. "and Adria, why are you with him? there's no way that you two know each other"

"I am here because the academy asked me to be, they heard your concerns and thought that you would appreciate me coming... and Adria and I met him a couple of minutes ago" he explained, making my mind spin in confusion.

"I appreciate you coming to help but really, I'm fine" replied Armaros sigh a long sigh.

"I'll try to stay out of your way then" he responded with a smile.

"Thank you"

"Oh Adria, I almost forgot!" Exclaimed the white-haired boy in a cheerful tone "my name is Asher" he finished, extending his hand out towards me, a bright smile on his face.

"Nice to meet you" I replied with a small laugh as I shook his hand.

***Thanks for reading :D

Here is the chapter that I promised (Sorry that it's slightly late)

I'm so excited about this book, I've already got loads of ideas on how the story is going to unfold!

I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter,

But until next time,

Happy reading :)***