Dark Path to Heaven [Demon Romance]

Chapter 12

Chapter Music: "Wild Woods" by Brandon Fiechter

I just turned around on my heel and left, holding on to the little honor I had left.

Thanking God for the fact that my apartment was on the same floor, I rushed inside, avoiding to be seen as much as possible. By then, I had lost myself in tears of embarrassment and, before I knew it, I had fallen into a deep sleep. When I woke up, the sky was a bit dark. Dawn.

Damn! In the end, I had failed to apply for another job and specialty on time. Once I had entered my room, I had climbed on my bed and cried my eyes out. I didn't know why exactly. Maybe because I was humiliated again. Maybe because I was I was sick and tired of my inability to fit into this new world I'd been dragged into. Maybe because Mr. Astar was indeed a bad person. Perhaps I'd started to have feelings for him. In the end, I couldn't prevent myself from doing so. He was so easy to like. At least, to a twisted person like myself.

No. I would do my best to root out every sentiment that had begun taking shape inside of me. It was not me who had the problem. As always, this thought gave me some peace of mind. He was the one who had refused to discuss and explain himself. The fact that he was a professor might justify his judgment about my capacity but that wasn't all there was to it. I still believed that although we were from different worlds, although our essences weren't the same (me being a human and him a wizard), our core was still similar. From what I had learned up until that moment, I had deduced that our minds worked in harmony. How different could our abilities be?

I squeezed my eyes shut, in an attempt to put everything behind me. It didn't matter anymore. I never chase anyone. No matter whether they're worthy or not. I loved myself more.

I took my time to get ready and left the room. I had breakfast in the cafeteria – which, thankfully, was open 24/7 – and, when the time was right, I first visited Mr. Hibbert's apartment. He was polite and caring and I had to admit that I had kind of missed that. It seemed to surprise him when I told him that Mr. Astar had rejected my requests and had gladly accepted to cooperate with me. That was it then. From now on I would be Mr. Hibbert's assistant and his courses would be where I would specialize.

Next stop was the administrative office. Luckily, they too appeared to be understanding of my special situation and accepted both of my applications. And, surprisingly, when I asked them if I could take a break from the courses for a while, they accepted under the condition that I would continue to assist Mr. Hibbert and that I would keep studying on my own in the meantime. I only needed to write a short report after the end of that period. Of course, I was more than willing to accept the deal. I couldn't believe it was that easy.

"One more question," I said.

"What is it?"

"Is it possible not to attend a professor's lessons at all?"

"Normally no. But since your situation is an exception, yes you can attend his courses whenever you want. You're talking about Mr. Astar, right?"

Wow. She seemed to have no doubts. I actually didn't think they'd be so understanding. Would they be so from the beginning or had something changed?

I nodded at her question. "How did you know?"

"It's not the first time we've heard of such a request. As I mentioned, it is obligatory for the rest of the students. But it's not implausible for a human, new in the academy, not to be able to keep up with him at all."

So, in the end, his discipline was more difficult than Mr. Stanwood's and Seraphina's. I couldn't see how that could be but since I hadn't attended one of his classes, I didn't have much of a right to insist.