DEVIL'S HIGH

CHAPTER 29

KIARA’S POINT OF VIEW

I never, ever imagined myself to be at this ease with Samael. His reaction to sensing my presence behind him was hilarious and the last time I laughed this carelessly was with Rachel, when we were at the end of the realm. He literally jumped like a scared rabbit and his wide eyes were kind of cute.

Samael must have been so embarrassed as his negative aura dropped a notch and he completely avoided making eye contact.

I cut him some slack and made my way near to the window, where I have set up the mini working space for us and placed all my belongings on the table before taking a seat.

Samael followed my actions, except he didn’t have any books or bag, but only the can of drink that I gave him, which he opened expertly and chugged down as much as the fizz allowed.

He stared out of the window, and a playful smile graced my lips. He must be afraid that I would make fun of him. But honestly, I was glad I saw that side of him. It showed me that he wasn’t all rough and tough and, just like the others, he has his weakness too. Maybe that realization will help me work with him without feeling much resentment.

“Don’t worry, I get scared too. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. If you are that embarrassed, then I will keep this as a secret.”

I reassured him and took out the notepad and my class schedule from my bag. I thought he was still looking out, but was surprised to see his curious eyes on me.

“Embarrassed?”

He asked, as if he didn’t even think about it. Then what was the reason for his silence?

“Wasn’t that why you were avoiding me?”

Now I was confused. Why else would he act weird? Did I miss something? Samael blinked his eyes a few times and curved his lips for an awkward smile.

“You think I would admit it to you. Just don’t go around blabbering.”

Ah, so he just didn’t want to admit that he was scared. Quite understandable.

I nodded my head and pushed the paper to him, which he roughly grabbed from my hand. He studied my schedule for a few seconds and then folded it before tugging it inside his pocket.

“I assume you have a spare.”

I did, but shouldn’t he at least ask my permission. And here I was thinking I could actually spend some quality time with him.

“I see that all your lessons are beginner’s level, so there shouldn’t be much problem understanding. Since you have many free periods, I will arrange classes accordingly and if you miss any of them, then we will have to compensate it by staying back or spending extra time after school. I dislike leaving out any portions and I want you to put your maximum till the last day of the exam is over. Do you get me?”

Wow, he was indeed good. There was not a hint of the Samael I was used to, and he looked extremely professional and sophisticated with that hard gaze and thin lips.

I nodded my head again and bit the inside of cheeks, not knowing how to properly respond.

Samael opened the new notepad and pen before scribbling on the lines fastly. It took him almost five minutes and by the time he finished; he looked satisfies. He extended it for me to see, and I recognized it as a study plan chart.

“You have six subjects and correct me if I am wrong; Sins, History, Geography, Languages, Basic Demonology, Religions.”

He raised his eyebrows at me, and I shook my head in acceptance.

“Okay. Which all subjects are you familiar with?”

I thought about it for a second and took the pen from him before circling the words.

“Geography, languages and some parts of religions.”

Then he asked me what the toughest subject for me was, and I replied with Demonology. Most of the illustrations were gruesome, that it made me hard to concentrate on the textbook for more than straight fifteen minutes.

He noted it on the paper and came up with random numbers against each subject.

“This is the minimum marks I expect you to get. If you manage to score this much, then you can get into the rank list and may even be promoted to the average level. For advance level, you will to work hard thrice, but I do not want to put more stress on you.”

Is he worried about me? His energy did not change, and I was really surprised to realize that he actually meant what he said. Maybe this wasn’t a bad coincidence after all.

“Thank you.”

I mumbled, looking at the two-digit numbers. I have heard from Mr. Zekiel that the exam questions will most probably be practical types than what is given in the syllabus, and by the looks of it, Samael knows his way around these subjects.

We spent the rest of the hour coming up with a schedule, giving more importance to the subject I find difficulty with and I must say I already feel less scared about the upcoming exam than before.

Once the first bell rang and only ten minutes was left for the next period, we wrapped it up and agreed to meet the next day on the same spot.

I bid him good bye and was arranging my things when Samael cleared his throat to grab my attention.

“Kiara, if you achieve your target on this exam, then I want you to pay me back.”

I looked at him with a raised eyebrow. I knew that it was too good to be true and Samael would never offer someone something for free.

“How?”

I was afraid to hear what he wanted as I assumed he would want me to leave the school or anything like that. And once I give a promise, I can never break it or else I will lose my abilities.

“It has nothing to do with you leaving, so do not think too much. And I don’t want you to get hurt or do something for me.”

Okay? Then what does he want from me? Money? Maybe I can ask Azazel to help me with that.

“Then what do you want?”

I felt like standing on nails as I waited for his answer, but it was nothing like I imagined. What was I supposed to do?

…………………………………

“He wants to take you out on a date? Are you kidding me?”

Keres shouted and even Asher had a doubtful look in his eyes, both of them staring sitting opposite me on the balcony. I was swinging on the metal swing, my hands holding the notepad tight.

“Hmm…”

“And what did you say? You must have sensed that he was lying, so you rejected him, didn’t you?”

This was the part I was dreading to tell Keres, and that’s why I asked her to wait for the details till we reached my house. I somehow assumed that her reaction would be similar to this and did not want to cause a scene in front of others.

On seeing my lowered gaze, she gasped and covered her open mouth with her palms dramatically.

“You didn’t.”

She said, more to herself and I just shrugged my shoulders to let her know that it was not such a serious issue.

“I told him yes. But...”

“But, what?”

Asher had his curious eyes on me as well, and I thought the two of them looked like siblings.

“But only if I get into the advance level.”

Keres just stared at me for a few seconds and then sighed as if she just lifted the entire weight of the worlds from her shoulder.

“F**k, you had me in the first half, woman. Getting into the advance level is almost impossible, especially with your current knowledge and skill and I do not think he will be able to train you for that in such a short time.”

Exactly my opinion. However, he accepted the challenge after some thought and made me promise that I will keep up with his pace and will not purposefully not study. Of course, I was not going to do that and promised him instantly. Even if I could master all the other subjects, demonology was a literal obstacle, and I knew my own capacity.

………………………

The next month went in a blur with all the studies and renovating the basement. Samael and I shared a strictly student teacher relationship, and he has never once mentioned about the date thing. He also did not teach me demonology with the other subjects and just told me to wait till I was thorough with all the other portions.

Samael was an amazing teacher and I can’t help but thank him for teaching me with such sincerity. He literally shared every important question with me and made sure that I understood that day’s session without any doubt. He conducted surprise tests and without even me knowing; I was getting the logics instilled in my brain and I was amazed to actually remember everything, even without any recent revision.

I copied his method and taught Keres the exact same way, who spent double the time to learn as she lost touch with studies. Her previous friends made her believe that being studious would tarnish their cool girl image and forced her t fail in the exams. Now that she was back on track, Keres was adamant to make it to the average level with me and I couldn’t be more proud.

Asher has grown significantly over the past weeks and he stopped coming to the main building. He spent all his time in the forest with rabbits and swans, which were a gift from Azazel, and we have converted half of the basement as their sleeping place and the other half for our leisure activities.

It was the final week before exams and I eyed at the Demonology book with disinterest. All the other subjects were covered, and he informed me that we will only focus on this one till the day before the first exam. I was sitting in the library, waiting for him to come, and was surprised to see him outside the window.

“Get your things and come outside. Today’s class is somewhere else.”

...............................