The first Attack
661 Words
POV: Ayla Hart
By the third day at Black Throne Academy, I had learned one thing clearly.
I was not safe here.
Mira met me before morning class like she usually did. She didn’t talk much at first, just handed me a small map she had drawn herself.
“You’ll need this,” she said.
I looked at it. “Is it accurate?”
She gave a short laugh. “Nothing here is accurate. You’ll learn that quickly.”
We started walking together through one of the side corridors.
It was quieter here. Fewer students. Less movement.
“That’s because this leads to the lower training wing,” Mira said.
“Training for what?”
“Combat. Discipline. Ranking assessments.”
I frowned slightly. “And humans?”
She glanced at me. “You’re asking the wrong question.”
Before I could ask what she meant, she stopped walking.
Her body language changed immediately.
Alert.
“What is it?” I asked.
She didn’t answer.
Because three students had stepped into the corridor ahead of us.
They were not like Mira. Not like the general students I had seen so far.
More confident. More direct. Like they knew rules didn’t apply to them the same way.
The one in front looked at me.
“You’re the human,” he said.
Not a question.
Mira sighed beside me.
“Yes,” I answered.
He smiled slightly. “So it’s true.”
The second student tilted his head. “She really doesn’t register like the rest of us.”
The first one took a step closer.
“That makes her interesting.”
Mira moved slightly in front of me.
“Leave her alone,” she said.
The first student ignored her completely.
His attention stayed on me.
“You should leave,” he said. “This place isn’t for you.”
“I was admitted here,” I replied.
That made him pause for a second.
Then he laughed once.
“That doesn’t mean you belong here.”
Before anything else could happen, his hand moved fast.
He grabbed my wrist.
Everything happened quickly after that.
Mira tried to step forward, but one of the others blocked her immediately.
“Stay out of it,” he said.
The grip on my wrist tightened.
Not enough to break anything.
But enough to control me.
“Let’s see what you are,” the student holding me said.
I pulled back instinctively.
It didn’t work.
He was stronger.
The situation shifted fast after that.
Pressure filled the corridor.
Like something had entered the space.
Everything went quiet.
Even the students paused.
I looked up.
Kael Draven was standing at the end of the corridor.
Still.
Watching.
The reaction around us changed immediately.
The student holding my wrist released me instantly and stepped back.
The others followed without hesitation.
No argument.
No delay.
They just moved away.
That alone told me how much influence he had here.
Kael walked forward slowly.
Not rushing.
Not reacting emotionally.
Just controlled movement.
He stopped a few steps away from us.
His eyes moved briefly over me.
Then to my wrist.
Then back to my face.
“Are you injured?” he asked.
I hesitated slightly.
“I’m fine.”
He didn’t respond immediately.
Then he looked at the students who had been here moments ago.
They were already gone.
He turned back to me.
“Don’t use this corridor alone again,” he said.
It wasn’t a suggestion.
It was an instruction.
Then he turned and walked away.
No further explanation.
No acknowledgment of anything else.
Just gone.
Silence returned immediately.
Mira let out a slow breath beside me.
“That was not normal,” she said.
I looked in the direction Kael had gone.
No.
It wasn’t.
And for the first time since arriving at Black Throne Academy…
I started to understand I wasn’t just here to study.
I was being watched for a reason I didn’t understand yet.
- Writer
