I Sold My Soul for Chocolate

Chapter 10

“Hm, you seem pretty beat up.”

A young woman, perhaps thirty years old, was looking at me from the other side of the room. She had ear-length chestnut hair and a sharp, inquisitive gaze. She was sitting at a desk in what appeared to be an office, but an office from the eighteenth century.

I was back at the mansion.

My heart skipped a beat. “Did I fail the exam?” I asked fearfully. The woman’s mouth twisted into a grin.

“Of course not! You’ve simply reached the third task. Congratulations, by the way. Out of five hundred and thirty four candidates, only a hundred and twenty have reached this point.” She pointed towards a chair on the opposite side of the desk. “Have a seat, please. You must be the candidate who got mauled by a bloodlusted vampire. I apologise on the behalf of the Academy. That team has been disqualified as soon as we got feedback on what had happened.”

I took a seat and cleared my throat awkwardly. I had no idea what was going to happen. Just watching her sit there in silence was making me nervous. I hated interviews of any kind with all my heart. I had had a couple of job interviews in the pasts, and I always froze from fear and said utter bullshit every time.

The woman’s eyes were on the pile of papers in front of her during the whole conversation. I couldn’t make out what they were about, because she kept shuffling them and going on to the next too quickly.

After a couple of seconds, she smiled, and placed her hand on some document before looking up at me.

“Sorry for the wait, I was looking for your file. So, judging by your skills so far, it seems that you are a worthy candidate. But tell me, why should you be accepted into the Academy?”

The question caught me completely off guard.

“Well, I love magic. I’ve always been fascinated by it, and I had always wanted to use it, but my powers appeared just a few days ago, it seems. I was raised in the magical world, but with one foot in the normal, human world. I know both sides, and I believe that that’s a beneficial skill to possess.” The woman nodded in approval, scribbling something onto my file. “Anyways, yeah. I already got a hang of my powers, I was able to use them during the first trial and lead my team to victory. And I survived getting mauled by a vampire. That’s pretty impressive, if you ask me. I’m also pretty stubborn, so I can guarantee that I’ll do all the school work necessary, and later, all the work of a non-student.”

I was spewing bullshit again at that point, and each word I uttered made me more nervous. The woman gave another nod, and then looked back up at me with a smile.

“See, that wasn’t so bad. You did well, considering interviews are your greatest fear. A girl before you had to fight off a bunch of spiders.”

I stared at her in confusion. “You mean the final task was facing our greatest fears?” I was pretty sure my greatest fear was Raum.

“No, not your greatest fears. If that were so, than most of you would be facing death. Your greatest irrational fears.”

“Oh. Right. Well, this interview wasn’t really that scary,” I said. I felt a bit dizzy and light-headed, and talking seemed to help.

The woman looked at me with narrowed eyes. “After this, you should get some rest, maybe take a healing elixir. You might have gotten a concussion from that fight. Not allowing you to use powers was a bit harsh, but it had to be done to subdue that demon.”

“Ah, yeah. He’s pretty strong. He saved my life, you know, from the crazy vampire.”

The woman smiled. “I am aware. I know what all students went through. I’m one of the supervisors of the events, you know. I was in the middle of disqualifying another team for breaking the rules when I saw that you were getting killed. So I apologise for that.”

I nodded. “No worries.”

“Well, Kay Frost, I enjoyed our chat. However, it’s time for you to go. You’ve successfully passed the entrance exam!” I grinned, feeling as if a stone had fallen off my chest. Raum wouldn’t t*****e and kill me now. And I’d get to go the Academy, to fulfil my childhood dreams!

“Thank you. I’m feeling kind of dizzy, do you have some water?” I said, and then the world faded to black.

Sharp pain over my throat, head, and arms greeted me as soon as I opened my eyes. A blinding light shone at me from above, illuminating the room with red and golden tapestries and the couch which I was lying on, as well as the now-empty desk at which I had had my final task on.

I snapped my head towards the sound of footsteps approaching. It was the supervisor, and she was holding a vial of purple liquid in hand.

“I’m glad you’re awake, Kay.” She approached me and handed me the elixir. “Drink this. Do you have anyone who can escort you home?”

I nodded. “I made plans with my friend, Liney. She’s also taking the exam.” I opened the bottle and gulped down the blueberry-tasking liquid as fast as I could. I wasn’t very fond of healing elixirs. They made instant changes to the body, and it made me feel like I had worms crawling around my veins and stomach.

“Ah, Liney. She’s the girl who had to fight of those spiders. Yes, she passed, I think she’s down in the main hall. You can leave as soon as you’re ready-”

I shot to my feet and only got a sharp sting in my head. I smiled at the supervisor and handed her the empty bottle.

“Thank you. Goodbye!” With those words, I waltzed out of the door, the awkwardness of the interaction making me go red in embarrassment.

I quickly found my way down the stairs and towards the meeting room. There were only a dozen or so beat-up students there, each minding their own business and probably waiting for someone to pick them up.

Liney was talking to Jeff, who seemed intimidated by her frantic hand motions.

“Hey, losers!” I called out to them as I approached, and Liney’s face it up. She ran at me and hugged me tightly, sending a wave of dizziness over me, but I managed to ignore it.

“Okay, okay, chill!” I said, managing to peel her off me and grin at Jeff. He was smiling despite the fact that the bottom part of his pants seemed to be burnt off.

“So, all three of us passed?” I asked, suddenly aware that Raum was gone. That discovery made a huge stone fall off my heart.

“We did!” Jeff said happily, wiping a bead of sweat from his tar-stained forehead.

“Let’s go, my mom’s outside. She’s taking us to Zehna’s, we can talk there, and you can tell me how exactly you survived that demon,” Liney said, pulling me away. I saw Jeff’s smile falter, so I dug in my heels.

“Hey, Jeff,” I said, and Liney finally realised what I wanted to do. “Wanna come with us? My mom has a sweet supernatural coffee shop, we can talk and help you out with all this magic stuff.”

A huge smile appeared on the short boy’s face. “Yeah, sure! I’d love to!”

“He’s so sweet,” Liney whispered to me before grabbing Jeff’s wrist with her other hand and pulling us both outside.

Liney’s mom was just a grown-up version of Liney. She talked constantly, found everything amazing and always smiled.

“Wow! I can’t believe they allowed that demon to participate!”

“Yeah,” the three of us replied for the fifth time.

Luckily, we had just pulled up into my street.

“Goodbye, misses Flauer!” I yelled out and leapt out of the car, basically running towards the cafe, simply unable to contain my newfound excitement.

I swung the doors open, located Zehna, and ran towards her with a grin. She quickly placed the cup she was carrying on the counter and ran towards me, pulling me into a hug.

“Ha, I knew it!” She said, smiling at me as we broke apart.

“Come sit with us a for a bit, I’ll tell you all about it!”

Zehna’s smile disappeared, and so did mine. “I’m sorry, cupcake, it’s busy right now. I’ll come by later, alright? You have fun with your friends, I’ll bring you anything you like.”

“It’s fine,” I said, forcing a smile and trying not to be disappointed. I waved my friends over to a table in the corner, which always had a reserved sign, because it was always reserved for me.

It took Jeff a very long time to order, as he was fascinated how beverages could be infused with magic. We ended up each taking something different so that Jeff could try a bit of everything.

“How can Liney do other types of magic but you and I can only do one? I can only control fire. But Liney can control every element, and also do rituals. How?” Jeff asked after a while of talking about magic and the entrance exam, after Liney explained how she roasted some spiders.

“Most mages can only use their own type of magic, but there’s a lot of them who can use every type or most types, to an extent. Typically, if you can only use one type, you’ll be really strong at it. You’re stronger at fire than I am, although I’m an elementalist.”

“Oh, that makes sense, I guess.”

“What did you guys get for your second task?” I asked. Both of them grinned.

“We were against another team, like everyone else. We had to get some ring before they did. I blew them away and Jeff burned down the obstacles, so we got it easily.” She high-fived Jeff before turning towards me again. “Which reminds me, what was yours? How did you get along with the demon?”

“Oh, it was fine. We couldn’t use magic, but the other team could, which kinda sucked.” I retold the events which had happened, but making the opponents seem way scarier than they were, because I was slightly embarrassed that I went down so quickly and that Raum had to save me.

“Woah. I guess he came in useful after all,” Jeff said. He was clutching the edge of the table intensely.

“Well, I assume that if I was with someone else, we would have been allowed to use magic. That rule certainly wasn’t there because of me. I don’t even know if he passed the third task. I heard the headmaster say that most demons don’t pass it, so it’s probably made to be nearly impossible.”

“Yeah, could be,” Liney said, and then turned towards Jeff, changing the subject to parties, while Jeff timidly explained that he had never gone to a party.

I tuned out of the conversation as a sense of dread set over me. I was seated so that I had a clear view of the rest of the cafe, while the other two could only see me and the wall behind me.

And I was terrified because Raum had just walked through the front door, with dishevelled hair and a torn sleeve. Only with his hair that way did I realize that he had an undercut.

Luckily, everyone in the cafe seemed to be too preoccupied with themselves to notice a demon nobility enter, apart from me.

And he noticed me, too. Almost instantly, his gaze met mine, his eyes as cold and calculating as always. He looked away and sat down a table further, pulling up the menu impatiently.