Livia reached her hand toward Sera’s face.
Her fingernails were sharp enough to leave a physical mark.
Then, a low voice echoed down the stone corridor.
”What’s going on here?” Everyone froze instantly.
Theron Vale.
Golden eyes, sharp jawline, and a commanding presence that naturally made people step aside.
He had been passing by when the scene caught his attention.
Livia instantly pulled her hand back.
Her entire demeanor shifted in a split second.
”Sir Vale,” she said with a soft laugh.
A sweet smile appeared on her face.
Completely fake.
“It’s nothing, really.
Just talking to my little sister.” ”By hitting her?” Theron’s tone carried no mock, no anger.
Just cold, hard facts that sliced right through her lie.
A sharp flicker of annoyance crossed Livia’s face before vanishing just as quickly behind her persona.
”You’re misinterpreting things, Sir Vale.” Theron didn’t bother responding to her excuses.
He simply stared at Sera.
Sera looked down immediately.
Shame.
Frustration.
Humiliation.
All three emotion mingled violently in her chest at the same time.
She hated being seen like this—helpless and cornered.
”I’m fine,” Sera said quietly.
Her voice wasn’t strong, nor was it steady.
But she forced the words out anyway.
Livia scoffed under her breath, turning away with her group of friends.
They walked down the hallway, laughing loudly.
As if the entire interaction had been nothing more than a joke.
Sera was left standing alone in front of Theron.
The air between them felt strangely heavy.
”You didn’t need my help,” Theron said at last.
”No,” Sera replied, looking up at him in genuine surprise.
People usually either pitied her for having zero magic, or they completely ignored her existence.
This was the very first time anyone in this academy had spoken to her directly.
Without any added drama.
Theron gave a subtle nod and turned to leave.
Sera watched his retreating back until he disappeared around the corner.
Carrying an unfamiliar, lingering feeling inside her chest.
Night.
Sera sat alone on the edge of her creaky wooden bed.
Her room was located in the oldest wing of the building.
Assigned to her under the fancy guise of “special treatment.” But everyone knew it was where they shoved the failures.
Moonlight spilled softly through the narrow windowpane.
Casting long, pale shadows across the dusty floorboards.
She lifted her right hand into the moonlight and stared at it.
It was the exact hand that had touched the giant testing crystal earlier.
A strange, persistent tingling sensation lingered beneath her skin.
It felt hot, almost like something tiny was alive and breathing right under her flesh.
Maybe I’m losing my mind, she thought, closing her eyes.
Maybe the trauma of today finally broke me.
Then, a sharp pulse of heat radiated from her palm.
Sera snapped her eyes open.
A faint, luminescent mark was slowly surfacing on her skin.
It glowed with a delicate silver hue, shaped exactly like a fine dragon scale.
It pulsed once—bright and undeniable—and vanished right back into her flesh.
Sera’s breath caught in her throat.
Her heart slammed violently against her ribs.
That was no dream.
That was no hallucination brought on by exhaustion.
She stared at her palm again, rubbing it frantically with her thumb.
Nothing was left to see—just normal skin.
Yet, she knew exactly what she had witnessed.
A tiny, dangerous ember of hope sparked in her heart.
So small that she was terrified to even acknowledge it existed.
What if I’m not cursed at all?
What if a ‘zero’ on the crystal doesn’t mean I have no magic inside me—but rather that whatever I carry is too vast, too hidden for their system to measure?
She quickly shook the thought out of her head.
Hope was a dangerous thing in a place like this.
Hope only brought pain when reality shattered it.
She had hoped before, as a child waiting for her family to love her.
And every single time, it had ended in brutal heartbreak.
It was better not to think about it.
It was safer to stay numb.
The Next Day.
Walking down the grand stone corridor toward her morning lectures, Sera felt a persistent feeling of unease.
She kept her head down, trying her best to blend into the shadows.
But as she turned the corner toward the main library, a spine-tingling sensation hit her.
She glanced over her shoulder quickly.
Nobody was there.
Yet, the feeling of eyes burning into the back of her neck refused to fade.
”You’re hiding something from me.” Sera flinched, stepping back instinctively.
Riven Ashford.
He stepped out gracefully from the deep shadow of a grand marble pillar.
Sunlight caught his striking silver hair, making it shimmer like spun glass.
His sharp violet eyes locked directly onto her, completely unblinking.
”I—” Sera paused, drawing a sharp breath to collect herself.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” ”Yesterday.
In the assessment hall.
When you touched the crystal.” Riven took a single, deliberate step closer.
”Something happened.” ”Nothing happened.” Sera’s heart beat wildly against her chest.
Her fingers curled into tight fists.
”You saw the numbers yourself—it was an absolute zero.
I’m a zero.” ”The numbers on the glass showed zero.” Riven tilted his head slightly, as if analyzing a fascinating puzzle.
”But my senses didn’t lie to me.
I felt something else entirely.
A ripple in the air that shouldn’t have existed for a magicless girl.” ”You must have felt wrong.” ”I am never wrong about these things, Voss.” Calling her by her last name.
It felt quiet, heavy, and strangely intimate in an intense way.
”I need to go,” Sera said, attempting to sidestep him.
Riven casually raised his arm and placed his hand against the cold stone wall beside her head.
He blocked her exit path completely.
There was no brute force involved.
He simply stopped her from leaving.
”Whatever secret you’re burying under that quiet persona,” he murmured, his voice dropping to a low hum, “I’ll find it out.
Sooner or later.” Sera’s breath hitched in her chest.
There was a dangerous, predatory edge in his violet eyes.
Yet, strangely enough, she didn’t feel afraid.
She felt…
seen.
”And what if you do find out?” she whispered back.
A faint, wicked smirk played on Riven’s lips.
A warning of trouble and a promise of protection all at once.
”Then you won’t have to carry that burden alone anymore.” He stepped back as smoothly as a shadow.
He slipped away so quietly down the hall that it felt as though he had never been standing there to begin with.
Sera remained pressed against the cold wall for a long moment.
Her fingers unconsciously tracing her own palm.
Someone saw it…
someone actually felt it.
She turned back toward the quiet wing of the building, lost in thought.
She didn’t even notice as the long hallway gradually emptied around her.
’Then you won’t have to carry that burden alone anymore.’ What burden?
She didn’t even fully understand what was trapped inside her own body yet.
All she knew was that something existed—something ancient, powerful, and hungry.
Something that had been sleeping for a very long time, and was now fighting to wake up.
Suddenly, a sharp, searing heat flared directly in the center of her right palm.
It wasn’t a subtle tingle this time.
It was a clear, undeniable burning sensation.
Sera froze mid-step in the center of the corridor.
She slowly raised her trembling hand to look at it.
A brilliant golden light burst through her skin.
The distinct, sharp outline of a dragon scale emerged, glowing brighter with every passing heartbeat.
This time, it was far clearer, larger, and more powerful than before.
As if whatever mark was etched onto her soul refused to stay hidden in the darkness any longer.
Sera gasped in sheer panic.
She quickly slapped her left hand over her right palm to cover the blinding glow.
It was completely useless.
The golden radiance was too intense, seeping right through the narrow gaps between her fingers.
Casting long, shimmering light patterns across the surrounding walls and floor.
”No, no, please…
not here,” she whispered frantically.
Her pace quickened into a full-blown rush toward the nearest exit.
The corridor seemed to stretch endlessly before her.
The light showed no sign of fading or dimming down.
A few nearby students stopped in their tracks.
Their conversations instantly died out.
”What…
what is that?” a girl asked in a stunned voice, pointing directly toward Sera’s glowing hands.
Sera pressed her palm against her chest even harder, trying to smother the light against her uniform.
Still useless.
Before she could reach the heavy doors at the end of the hall, someone shouted loudly for everyone to hear: ”Look at her!
There’s real magic coming out of her hands!”