Chris has also produced The Empire’s Corps series, the Outside Context Problem series and many others. He is also responsible for two fan-made Posleen novels, both set in John Ringo’s famous Posleen universe. They can both be downloaded from his site.
Website: http://www.chrishanger.net/
Blog: http://chrishanger.wordpress.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChristopherGNuttall
The Zero Curse
Caitlyn Aguirre is no magician ...
... But that doesn't make her useless.
After discovering her true talent and uncovering the long-lost secret behind Objects of Power, Cat returns to school intent on showing everyone what she can do. But her mere existence is a threat to the balance of power, convincing some to befriend her, some to try to use her ... and some to remove her.
And when she and her closest friends become the target of a deadly plot, she must use all her wits to save them and escape before she becomes the first casualty in a deadly war.
Excerpt
The Zero Curse
By Christopher Nuttall
Prologue
IT WAS A HOT SUMMER DAY when I realized - for the first time - just how vulnerable I truly was.
I was ten at the time and, despite everything, I hadn’t given up hope that I might have a spark of magic. It wasn’t uncommon for magicians not to show much - if any - signs of magical talent before turning twelve, when they would be schooled in magic. Or so my parents kept telling me, as they tried to teach me more and more arcane disciplines in the hopes of shaking something loose. My sisters were streaking ahead and I ...
... I hadn’t even managed to cast a single spell.
If I hadn’t been able to pick up the Family Sword - which could only be handled by my bloodline - I would have wondered if I was truly my father’s daughter. I could sense my father’s disappointment and my mother’s concern, even though they tried to hide it. They had to wonder if I, Caitlyn Aguirre, would bring down the whole family. Our bloodline was strong in magic. A child born without the ability to use it would shame us.
It was a hot month, the hottest on record. My sisters and I would have loved to spend it in the swimming pool or paddling near the beach. Our friends - Alana and Bella’s friends, more accurately - had already decamped, leaving Shallot for their country estates where it was cooler. We wanted to go with them too, but we hadn’t been allowed to leave. Great Aunt Stregheria had come to stay.
I still find it hard to believe that Great Aunt Stregheria was my father’s aunt. She was a tall dark woman, the tallest I’ve ever seen, her hair hanging down loosely in a manner that signified she was an unmarried woman. It was easy to understand why. I couldn’t help thinking that she looked rather like a vulture, with an angular face and dark eyes that seemed to glitter with malice as she peered down at us from her lofty height. She was one of those unpleasant adults who firmly believed that children should neither be seen nor heard and she hadn’t been shy about making her opinions known. She’d been scathing about my failings in magic. And she’d drilled my sisters in basic manners until even Alana was sick of her.
I didn’t know why she bothered to visit us. I still don’t. She complained about everything, from the food to the heat. We were in trouble if we didn’t curtsey just right when she saw us and when we deliberately stayed out of her way. She expected us to wear our formal clothes at all times, even though it was far too hot; she expected us to wait on her at table, as if we were common maids. She’d get up late, have a long breakfast and then spend an hour or two with Dad before ... well, we didn’t know what she was doing. We didn’t really care either. We just wanted her gone.
One day, the hottest day of the summer, we managed to slip away early. Mum didn’t say anything to us, let alone drag us back into the house. By then, I think she was sick and tired of Great Aunt Stregheria making herself at home. She had a home of her own. I rather hoped it was a cave somewhere high up a mountainside, but I doubted it. Why couldn’t she go back home and stop bothering us? Great Aunt Stregheria was the sort of person who gave magic-users a bad name.
There was a little marshy pond down by the grove, one we’d paddled in when we were younger. We thought it was just far enough from the house - while still being part of the grounds - to escape detection, at least for a while. Dad hadn’t given Great Aunt Stregheria any access to the wards, we thought. She’d have been summoning us all the time if she’d had control. We took off our expensive shoes and splashed through the water, enjoying the cool liquid against our feet. For once, even Alana was too relieved to be away from the witch to indulge in a little malice. We were, just for an hour or two, a normal trio of sisters.
It didn’t last, of course.
Great Aunt Stregheria came striding through the grove in high dudgeon, her face twisted with rage. I don’t think she was mad at us, specifically, but she was mad. We froze, fear holding us in place as solidly as any spell, as she stamped towards us. I had no idea where she’d been, or what she’d been doing, but ...
“You little brats,” she snapped. In hindsight, I suspect she wanted to take her anger out on someone. “Get out of there!”
Normally, we would have obeyed instantly. But we were hot and sweaty and very - very - tired of her. We didn’t move.
Great Aunt Stregheria lifted her hand and cast a spell. I saw a flash of brilliant greenish light, an instant before the spell stuck me - struck us. Alana screamed - I might have screamed too, I’m not sure - as magic flared around her. My skin tingled unpleasantly, as if I was caught in a thunderstorm. I had an instant to see my black hand turning green and warty before the world grew larger. I squeezed my eyes tightly shut as I splashed into the water, then jerked them open as my legs started to move automatically. The tiny pool - so shallow that it barely reached our knees - was suddenly huge.
I broke the water, just in time to see Alana and Bella become frogs. My head swam as I grappled with the sudden change. It wasn’t the first time I’d been transfigured, but ... but ... this was far worse. There were no safeties worked into the spell. I could feel the frog’s mind gnawing away at mine, threatening to erode my thoughts. The water was practically hypnotic, pulling at me. If I hadn’t been panicking, if I hadn’t managed to hop out of the water, I might have been lost.