Grace only shrugged and put both feet back on the floor, turning fully towards Eve. The change in her roommate’s demeanor had her heart beating faster and she wanted to jump to her bed and hold her and tell her everything was going to be alright.
Instead, she remained where she was and watched her, waiting for her to speak.
“I just wish I knew more,” Grace finally said softly, her voice just above a whisper. “Henry’s speech yesterday just left me with more questions. What kind of magic did my dad do? Was he really gifted? Will I have to try to live up to him? You said I’m a legacy, but I feel like it’s anything but the truth. It’s more like they let me in here since their weird curse thing stole my dad from me.”
At that, Eve closed the distance between them and took a seat next to Grace on her bed.
“You wouldn’t be here if there wasn’t something special about you,” Eve said carefully, and even as the words left her mouth, she felt like a hypocrite for speaking them. There was nothing special about her for her to have received an invitation, but it was evident Grace deserved to be here. She’d already seen her do magic beyond anything Eve could comprehend, much less perform.
But Grace shook her head, her curls bobbing. “I just can’t help but feel it’s their way of making up for my shitty life.”
“If there’s anything they need to make-up for, it’s the horrible clothes they make their faculty wear. I mean, seriously-have you seen Henry’s top hat?”
Eve smiled at Grace’s reluctant chuckle and nudged her with her shoulder. “C’mon, let’s get through this and I’ll summon us coffee and cake.”
“You think you’ll be able to?” Grace asked, eyes wide.
“No.” Eve grinned. “But the cafeteria can.”
Eve and Grace walked across the bridge back towards the academic buildings, and this time they weren’t alone. In contrast to Eve’s arrival the previous day, it was almost looked like there had been a mass exodus from the dormitories across the campus. Students of every kind emerged and congregated-- gender, nationality, weight, height—showing there was no discrimination at Faust University. If only the non-magical realm could be as accepting, Eve mused as she meandered through the crowds.
They said their goodbyes as it appeared the tests were divided between the buildings, and as she watched Grace disappear into the building designated for the Summoning exams, she wished her a silent good luck.
On her way to the Magic of the Muses area, she was almost knocked over by a colliding force heading in the opposite direction.
“What the hell?” she exclaimed by default, only to discover the victim of her outburst was the same beautiful upperclassman she saw the day before.
“I am so sorry,” he apologized in an unexpected Irish lilt as he bent down to pick up the book he dropped. He looked up when her criticism stopped, and his eyes were such a piercing blue- a kind of bright blue rarely seen with such dark hair. Those same chocolate brown curls fell across his brow as he smiled at her. “Have we met?”
Eve realized she was staring and quickly rubbed at the flush forming on her cheeks. “I-- no. I just got here yesterday.”
“Well, that’s wonderful,” he said, dusting off his book. “Heading towards your exams then?”
“Yeah, how about you?”
“Oh no-- I’m well beyond my entrance exams,” he said with a grin.
“Oh. Right. Of course, you are.” He was an upperclassman, she reminded herself. He was probably close to graduating and would never come back again and it didn’t even matter what his name was or where he was from or if…
“You best move along then,” he said smoothly, cutting through her inner dialogue. “The last thing you want is to keep Professor Blade waiting. I hear he’s a beast if you’re late.”
“Which is ironic, seeing as it’s the Magic of the Muses he’d be proctoring,” Eve said lightly, trying to make things less awkward and failing miserably.
“Indeed.” He smiled again. “Best of luck, Evangeline.”
He began walking past her when two things clicked in her mind at the same time. First, she never told him her name. And second, he never told her his.
The former she’d figure out eventually, but the latter…
“Hey, what’s your name?” she called out before he could walk away.
She wasn’t sure he had heard her at first, but he turned around and as he walked backward, the smile on his face told her he had heard her well enough.
“Jonathan,” he yelled back, and with a wink, he turned on his heel and walked through the fountain gardens.
“Jonathan,” she murmured as she watched him.
If nothing else, now she had a reason to get through the entrance exams, if only to hang around Faust University and get to know Jonathan a little better.
“There will be no eating. There will be no drinking. There will be no talking. There will be no questions. Do I make myself clear?”
Professor Blade was everything Jonathan said he would be, and Eve wanted the tests to be over before they even started. Maybe that was why she lingered outside the doorway as she listened to him yell at the more punctual students already in their seats. It wasn’t her fault she got lost in the labyrinth-like corridors when there were no signs or maps to tell anyone what tests were taking place or where. At least she wasn’t alone, as there were three other students who seemed to have the same predicament. They, however, didn’t hesitate before entering the classroom, and Eve decided that was as good a time as ever to make her own way in, using them as a human shield as she found an empty seat.
What she didn’t plan on was the only available seat being in the very front row.
And Professor Blade honing his wrath directly on her.
“Who are you to think you can waltz into your entrance exams whenever you see fit?” he hissed as he stood over her.
Eve glanced up at the blond-haired professor wearing formal clothes not too different from Henry’s. His eyes, too, were blue, but were like ice and looked like they were going to pierce her heart and leave her for dead if she stared into them too long.
“Eve,” she said, then cleared her throat, sitting straighter in her chair. “Evangeline Revere.”
Something flashed across his eyes--recognition, maybe? Did everyone in this school know her before she knew them? Whatever it was, it disappeared faster than it appeared, and he instead glared at her as his frown deepened.
“Well then, Ms. Revere, do you believe you are so well-versed in the Magic of the Muses that you do not need to be here on time for your test?”
“No, I-”
“Or maybe you believe you’re so advanced that you don’t need to take any of these exams?”
The resounding chuckles of the students around her made Eve debate whether she should duck in her seat or run for the door. Instead, she remained silent, maintaining her stare at the professor.
“That’s what I thought,” he said smugly. “And because you’ve wasted my time, you’ve now wasted everyone’s time. So because of your tardiness, Ms. Revere, the remainder of the test has been cut short half an hour.”
“What?” Eve snapped, drowned out by the grumbles and protests of the other students, but Professor Blade walked away and droned on about time limits and the importance of punctuality. She tried her best to focus on the test booklet in front of her and ignore the death stares from her peers on either side and was more than grateful when he finally announced it was time to begin.
There were words on the written test that made no sense. Vibrational Equality, Muse Generator, Path of Creativity. What the hell was this supposed to be anyway? Was she taking a test on magic or a test on electrical activity?
She quickly found that the written test was the least of her worries. When she was called to the front, Professor Blade placed a device which looked like a cross between a guitar, a flute, and a gas meter in her hands.
“Make it play,” he said as he stood with his arms crossed against the roya
l blue of his suit coat.
She stared at the instrument for a moment before gently plucking one of the corded strings.
“Not with your hands, Ms. Revere,” Blade said coldly. “Act like you have some sort of common sense. You are, after all, at a university for the most gifted and intelligent people in the world. Was this a mistake on the part of the admissions board?”
Eve grumbled and tried again. She closed her eyes and tried to think the stupid thing into playing. Nothing happened.
Blade, his sour demeanor inflated by her inability to perform, sighed and took the device from her hands. “Sit down, Ms. Revere.”
She slowly walked back to her seat, head hung in shame even though Magic of the Muses wasn’t the type of magic she was most excited about. Still, she couldn’t help the nagging feeling that there was nothing magical about her. That this was to be the first of many failures.
Chapter Eight
The remainder of the week was just as miserable. Eve made a point to be at each test at least fifteen minutes early, but Professor Blade was monitoring each and every one, finding some reason or another to embarrass her in front of a room of total strangers as if he had a personal vendetta against her.
Lunch was her reprieve, and each day she sought out Grace to update her on the status of her failures and inability to pass anything.
“It can’t be that bad,” Grace assured her on Thursday after the Elementalism test finally came to a close. It was one Eve had actually been looking forward to, but with Professor Blade looking over her shoulder every five minutes, she was barely able to complete the test.
“The worst part is that I don’t even know what he actually teaches,” she mumbled as she chewed a piece of cafeteria sandwich. “If he’s not proctoring the written tests, he just stands there watching the field exams and it’s so unnerving.”
“Just make sure you don’t light him on fire this afternoon,” Grace mused between sips of her soda. “That might be an automatic failure.”
With a groan, Eve laid her head on the cold Formica table, considering the lesser of the evils.
As much as she was looking forward to the Elementalist tests, she quickly discovered that the Elements were not working in her favor. She was further discouraged when she watched the professor giving the field exam frown as she marked her assessment on her clipboard.
Dejected and degraded, Eve was one of the last ones to leave the training grounds through the fountain gardens back to the dormitory quad. She walked alone as none of the other freshmen in her testing schedule had taken kindly to her thanks to Professor Blade and his constant goal of making her look like a fool. She hoped Grace had a better day at her training, and that she wouldn’t be too tired or busy studying to get dinner with her. Lately, neither of them felt like doing much when the day was done-- Eve never thought she’d ever felt so drained. Who knew after a day of trying to use a source of power within her she never knew she could tap into before would render her so exhausted? Some were easier than others, but none of it was easy and she was beginning to wonder if she was going to be that fifty percent that flunked out before.
“Hello, Evangeline.”
The cheerful cadence of the Irishman before her made her heart cheer before she even saw him. Jonathan was walking towards her, the same book from earlier cradled in his arms.
“Hi,” she said, trying to straighten her unruly brown hair that had come loose from its ponytail over the course of her exams. Her white t-shirt was stained with the dirt that refused to build itself into a castle at her command and instead exploded across the training grounds and anyone within standing distance.
Jonathan, on the other hand, looked incredibly well-put-together in his blue button-down shirt and jeans, and his curls were perfectly arranged around his perfect face. “How did your exams go today?” he asked, and he sounded as if he was genuinely curious.
It caught Eve off-guard, and she almost burst into tears at the question.
Jonathan stopped, and assessed her with concern as his brows furrowed. “Is something wrong?”
With a sigh, she shook her head, willing the emotions back beneath the surface. “Other than Professor Blade making my life a living hell--”
“What’s Sebastian doing to you?” His tone was surprisingly serious.
“He’s, uh--” She cleared her throat, trying not to sound like a whiny freshman, and more like a student who hated the injustices of the system.
There was something about Jonathan that made her want to tell him everything. Paired with the day she had had, she was just about ready to throw all cares to the wind.
Perhaps that’s why she found the guts to ask him, “Would you like to get a coffee?”
Jonathan didn’t seem surprised by her invitation, and she immediately knew it was a bad decision. He probably had people asking him out for coffee all the time. Most likely more than coffee. Eve suddenly felt extremely foolish, especially when he still hadn’t answered.
“I’m sorry, it was a stupid question.”
“No, it’s not that,” he said with a smile. “I just have a long day ahead of me tomorrow and should probably rest. As should you, don’t you think? You still have Summoning to take, correct?”
She let out a dramatic groan. “The professor might as well just flunk me now. Blade probably already told them about me and they’re just waiting to see me fail.”
“I highly doubt that,” he said. “And even so, not everyone is so keen on Sebastian. Trust the professors here; they may surprise you.”
“I hope you’re right,” she said, shoulders slouching.
“Trust me,” he said. “And when you pass your Summoning exam with flying colors, you can tell me all about it tomorrow over coffee.”
Eve wasn’t sure she heard him correctly. She was no stranger to asking men out, or women for that matter. She had no qualms about being the one to make the first move, usually. And the ratio of people that took her up on her offer versus those that declined was remarkably in her favor. But, still, there was something about Jonathan that set him out from the rest. Something that made even meeting for meeting for coffee feel like she was batting out of her league. The way he held himself, the combined air of indifference and superiority, the way everyone else in the school seemed to stare in awe as he walked by.
He must have been somewhat of the school’s local celebrity, with the way she watched them all move out of his way as he walked and leave their gaze on him for a beat too long.
“Best of luck with your exam, Evangeline,” he said as he gave her a slight bow before he excused himself and walked towards the academic buildings. She could only imagine what the upperclassmen must endure in their studies and didn’t envy him one bit.
Just as she was certain he didn’t envy her having to take the entrance exams.
Grace was passed out in her bed by the time Eve returned to their dorm room, and she had to take the textbook off her face and turn out her light before climbing into bed herself. The next morning, both had slept past their second time hitting snooze. Conversation and breakfast were non-existent as they rushed to get dressed and then raced across campus to their respective testing locations.
Eve was so distracted that she barely heard Professor Blade insult her eagerness to fail another test. She just needed to get through the written exam, suffer through the field test, and then she could tell Jonathan all about it when it was over. Chances were it was going to be the last weekend she’d be at Faust University, but it would be worth it.
Much to Eve’s surprise, the written test seemed… simple. Even as the questions magically appeared only when she was ready to read them, her answers flowed as if something supernatural guided her pen. Meditation, Study, and Intentions were terms that seemed at home within her mind and drawing a diagram of the proper placement for a summoning circle was as natural as drawing a peace sign.
“Time,” Professor Blade announced just as Eve placed down her pen after completing the final que
stion.
And she was smiling.
“So certain of yourself, Ms. Revere?”
“Yes, in that that this is the last time I need to sit for one of these tests with you.” She beamed despite the surprised gasps of the students around her.
She didn’t care. Not even as Blade gave her the harshest glower she’d seen from him yet. “With that attitude, Ms. Revere, you’ll never have another test in Faust University again.”
“That’s the idea,” she said as she slid out of her chair, dropping the test book on the front desk. She walked out of the room without a glance behind her.
“Did you really tell off Professor Blade?” Grace asked her as they met up outside of the testing buildings.
“Word sure travels fast.”
“It’s all everyone is talking about. I guess no one has ever talked to him like that before. You do know you’re going to have classes with him eventually, right?”
“That’s if you’re assuming I actually passed any of these tests,” Eve reminded her as they went to get lunch at the cafeteria. “One out of two, remember?”
“Eve, will you stop that?” Grace hissed, pulling on her arm to keep her from walking away.
With everything else going on, despite being roommates, Eve and Grace hadn’t had much time to spend together with their exams taking priority that the feeling of Grace’s hand upon her arm was enough to make her skin tingle like it had the first night they met. Eve tried to ignore it then, but there was something about it that she couldn’t ignore now.
Yes, she expected to leave Faust, and sure, she was looking forward to spending time with Jonathan before she left, but she hadn’t considered it also meant leaving Grace behind.
“Look, you have to give yourself more credit,” Grace continued, her hand still on Eve’s arm. “You are going to pass your tests, get placed in the school that deserves your talent, and graduate from Faust with the best of them.”
“But what about--” Eve started, but Grace wouldn’t let her get any further.
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