Zoé is a young immortal. She is only 186 years old. Currently, she works in an incredible library of the occult, located in Budapest and curated by a very old immortal called Ikshan. Unfortunately, one day she stumbles upon a terrifying monster in a...
After we've arranged to meet with Carlos, the ex-husband ex-sorcerer, when we will return with the amulet to perform the ritual, we took the train to Avignon. Zoé, far more relaxed in a train than a plane, spent nevertheless the whole two hours and fifty minutes of the trip listening to music and looking at the landscape through the windows in silence. In her defense, the promiscuity of the TGV did not exactly leave us the possibility to talk about our mission.
Me, I read a very compelling novel telling a complicated and seemingly impossible love story that was dramatically reaching towards the most expected, but emotionally satisfying, happy ending. I almost cried twice. Okay, I indeed cried. Twice. Okay, three times.
But now we're installed in a rented car, on our way to Uzès, and she looks at me with this judgmental gaze that is typical of her.
"You really like him," she finally says.
"I do."
"But you don't know anything about him."
"That's not exactly true."
She rolls her eyes. "Don't serve me the bullshit speech about how you looked into his eyes and now you know him."
The winter sun shines on the vineyards we're crossing by. I let my eyes contemplate the landscape before answering.
"Well, it's not just that. I may not have a lot of information about him, but when you get older as an immortal, you have these instincts about people. Of course, I don't mean that I read his mind. I would not do that. It's just I can feel there is a lot of good in him. A lot of pain also. And fear, but bravery too. It's hard to explain."
"Elise did say we could trust your instinct," she admits.
"You trust her but not me?" I ask, in a tone that I realize too late seems ridiculously whiney.
She sighs emphatically. "Of course not. I trust you, okay. Happy?"
I smile. "Happy."
"It's just, I've read about all this stuff Elders can do, but it's still kind of abstract to me. I'm not even near experiencing it myself. I'm not going to be a thousand years old before a very long time, thank you very much. And, as you know, I've never really been around old immortals apart from you. It's the same thing with magicians and sorcerers. All this, I studied in books but I don't know most of this world firsthand."
"I know," I say in an encouraging voice, surprised that Zoé would confide in me like that.
"What I'm trying to say is... I don't want you to be hurt, okay?"
I turn my head toward her and smile. "Awww, Zoé. The truth is, you're such a big softie."
She blushes and scowls at me. "Stop it."
I smile even more. "What would you think about finding a nice restaurant with a sunny terrace before going to our hotel?"
She doesn't even think about it twice. "Great idea, I'm hungry."
"Let's do that then."
She goes back to looking at the countryside. And after a few minutes. "Okay, I'm convinced now. I trust you. Let's save your ex-monster/soulmate."
"He's not my..."
"Whatever," she interrupts.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
