The Nullborn Curse

This was a mistake. That was the first thing that came to mind as I stood outside the school gates. Taking a deep breath, I took a step in and I instantly felt the stares of people pinned on me. “Who is that?” “What is that doing here?” Their whispers filtered to my ears, bringing me to my first thought of how this was a mistake. A very big one. I had gotten a scholarship to Solarae Academy, a school located in the middle of no f*****g where. I didn’t even know the school existed until I received the letter. My foster mother hadn’t even blinked before shoving me onto the train. “A scholarship is a scholarship.” She had muttered, not bothering to hug me goodbye. Classic. As long as she wasn’t paying a dime on me, she wouldn’t care less if I was dead or alive. My grip tightened around my secondhand suitcase, eyes scanning around. I hadn’t even taken more than three steps past the gates before I knew something was off. Terribly off. Maybe it was the boy with pale blue hair who lit a cigarette—with fire that came from nowhere. Or maybe it was the girl who floated three freaking feet above the ground with books hovering around her. I froze, my suitcase dropping from my hand. “What the—“ My throat closed up. My heart tried to crawl up and out of my chest. There’s no way this can be happening. I couldn’t believe it. But the more I stared at it, the more insane I thought I was going. This wasn’t some elite prep school in the mountains. This was—this was something else. Oh s**t. Oh s**t. I spun around, gripping the edge of my hoodie like it could shield me from whatever madness I had just walked into. My first instinct was to run. To flee. To get the freaking hell out of here while I still could. But then I realized I had nowhere to go. The gates had been sealed shut behind me, trapping me inside. Maybe I just imagined it. Or maybe they were having some sort of fun fair. There had to be some sort of explanation for this. “Magic isn’t real,” I muttered to myself, shutting my eyes tightly. “It’s not. This is a prank. A highly delusional cult. Or maybe an anime fan convention?” I tried to bring up excuses for the sights I had just witnessed, coming up short of reasonable explanation. “Maybe, if I go see whoever is in charge, I would get an understanding of what the hell was happening,” I thought as I opened up the school layout in my hands, trying to figure out where the principal’s office was. My eyes were glued to the map, and I crashed into something hard. “Watch where you are going,” a voice drawled in front of me. I looked up. Way up. He was tall, broad-shouldered, and dressed in black with a crest I didn’t recognize embroidered on his chest. His hair was black. Eyes darker. There was something about the look in them, like he was built to hurt things. Or enjoy watching them break. “You walked into me,” I snapped. His brow lifted, but he still had the same bored expression on his face. “Careful, little human,” he hissed, “you are in our world now,” His sentence threw me off a bit. ‘Little human?’ ‘Our world?’ Weren’t we all humans? What the hell is wrong with this place? “Learn how to see a damn sidewalk,” I glared hard, catching myself. His smile was lazy, dangerous. “Talk like that again. And you’ll find out what happens to insects who forget they are crushable,” his eyes glowed. Like they glowed like freaking light bulbs. And that was a threat. A loud threat. And I don’t do well with threats. My fingers folded into fists, and I took a step towards him, glaring up at him. “Touch me, and I will make sure you regret it. I don’t care how many tricks you can do, light-bulb,” I warned, my voice dropping. For a second, the air seemed to hum between us, like it was waiting to explode. Then he smirked, stepped around me, and said, “I look forward to it.” I spun around to shout some profanities at his retreating back then stopped when a bolt of lightning arced across the sky and no one flinched. Like it was a normal thing here. What. The. Hell. With my heart pounding, I yanked up my suitcase and headed for the main building. I needed answers, and I was starting with whoever the hell was in charge of this godforsaken school. After a few minutes and a thousand weird stares from people, I found the office in was searching for. “I am not supposed to be here,” I said the moment the door creaked open. The woman sitting behind the desk didn’t even look up. Her quill hovered in the air, writing on its own. My lips parted a few inches, staring at it. That is most definitely not a prop. I thought as I stared. “You are Aeris Vale,” She said flatly. I blinked. “Yeah. I mean yes. But there has been a mistake—I am human.” She looked up then. Her eyes were golden. Not like ‘hazel with flecks’ golden, but literal golden. “We know,” she said flatly. “You know?” My voice rose with every syllable. “Then why—?” “You received the scholarship, did you not?” “I thought it was for some remote boarding school, not…” I gestured helplessly. “Some low-budget Hogwarts wannabe,” I cried out. Her eyes turned to slits, and for a moment I couldn’t breathe. “I understand your confusion about being here, but do not insult a prestigious school such as this,” she warned and I nodded my head meekly. Too scared to say a word. What in the hell did I walk into? Then she smiled, or attempted to. “Solarae Academy selects its own. Magic is not always inherited. Sometimes, it finds its way into the cracks of the world… and people.” My mouth went dry. “But I am not magic.” “Not yet.” She said. But you will be,” There was something off about her tone, but I couldn’t quite place a finger on it. “You will do fine, Miss Vale. If you learn quickly,” A timetable and a map flew into my hands from the shelves and I gasped. “Your first class starts soon, you should find the building before you miss it,” Nodding my head, I turned around and left. I turned a corner too fast, nearly running into a cluster of upperclassmen. I stumbled back to avoid them—and I slammed straight into something hard. Oh for the love of God. I barely registered his cold gaze before my foot caught on the uneven stone floor. And the world tilted. With a startled gasp, I flailed—arm shooting out instinctively towards the only person in reach. My fingers stretched towards him. Please catch me. Just a flicker of contact would do. Just one spark of decency. But he didn’t move. Didn’t blink. Didn’t even lift a finger. He simply watched me fall with an unreadable expression on his face. Like I wasn’t even worth the reflex. I hit the floor with a painful thud, hands scraping against the stone. The hallway echoed with low laughter. Someone muttered, “Told you humans don’t belong.” My face burned as I pushed myself upright, teeth clenched. “Next time, use the eyes on your head,” he said sharply, brushing past me. I bit my lips, forcing myself off the ground. “Why don’t you watch where you are going next time!” I screamed back at him and the hallway goes quiet. But he doesn’t even acknowledge my words, which annoyed me even more. Packing up my things angrily, I stormed away, searching for the class I was almost late for. When I stepped inside, every head turned. The buzz of the conversation died instantly, the silence slamming into me like a brick wall. I paused, heart hammering in my chest. Oh great. “That’s her,” “The human,” “Dead in a week,” The whispers followed me as I walked to an empty chair. My gaze met that of the light-bulb I had bumped into when I first came and he immediately looked away. I walked stiffly to the back row and slid into an empty seat. No one sat beside me, no one sat near me. And I didn’t seem to mind. This can’t go any worse, I told myself. But I was mistaken. The door at the front swung open with a bang and the professor stepped in. Tall. Pale. Raven- dark hair. I felt the blood drain from my face. Him. The man I had bumped into just now. He was my professor?! My breath got caught in my throat as I tried to make myself seem smaller. But he stopped dead in the center of the room, and his eyes found me instantly. He didn’t speak. Didn’t raise a brow. Didn’t smile. He just stared at me blankly for a while before he turned to the board and wrote his name on it. Sabastian. The tension I felt didn’t break, it only deepened. I was frozen in my seat, my pulse thundering in my ears. Of course, I thought bitterly. Of course, it's him. He glanced back at me. It was a second too long before he turned away and I swallowed hard. This year is going to kill me.