Dark Faïz ( Book 1 ) [ COMPLETED]

Chapters 5-8

The hair on my arms rose. Was I talking to a fallen Fairy? A Banshee? A shiver ran through my body. If that was the case, the one sitting in front of me had come to predict my death. The pieces of the puzzle began to fit together. Everything was real. If this Banshee was here when I was awake, it was because The Maestro had indeed come into contact with me. I had seen him.

— "Am I in danger?" I hastened to ask her, alarmed.

— "Not now, not here, but yes, Zoe, you're in great danger..."

She stopped herself, hesitating to continue. Suddenly, her grief-stricken gaze plunged into mine.

— "Like all of you," she said with difficulty.

Her breathing, calm from the beginning, began to accelerate. She was taken at that moment by an uneasiness, but she was fighting to finish her sentence.

— "Trust only yourself! The world is changing. We were so strong, we were..."

The Banshee suffocated. I didn't know what to do. Feeling that the situation was slipping away from me, I insisted on gathering as much information as possible that would help us in this war against evil.

— "Where...Where is the tomb?"

— "Under...your eyes," she whispered.

Disoriented, I put my face in my hands. I didn't understand anything.

— "Is that a metaphor? A clue? Show it to me!"

She turned to me with a look full of distress. Her eyes were of supernatural beauty. Her purple rings indicated how exhausted she was, exhausted from no longer believing in what she had been created for. I had always imagined Fairies with wings, but that was not the case. Suddenly, she began to convulse, twisting in pain. Her forehead was sweating.

— "No! What's going on?" I panicked.

I stepped back as she struggled with the pain, totally helpless in the face of this chaotic spectacle. Then she violently flung her head back. Her irises had disappeared, only the whites of her eyes showing. Then the Banshee opened her mouth wide to let out a strident, powerful and unsustainable scream. Instinctively, I put my hands over my ears while seeking refuge in a corner of the room, pressing my eardrums with all my strength. A dazzling light emanating from her body filed the space. My eyes closed in the face of this blinding radiation.

When I reopened them after a few minutes, everything became dark and peaceful again, as if nothing had happened. There was nothing, no more screaming, no more radiation, and no more Banshee on the edge of my bed. My heart, which was pounding in my chest, was trying to get back to a steady rhythm. Emptied of all my strength, I could not get up again. My ears were ringing and I couldn't hear anything. The door of my room exploded against the wall. Faïz appeared, running towards me, his features twisted by anxiety as he discovered me curled up on the ground. I felt his arms close around me. He was moving his lips while shaking me.

— "The Banshee," I whispered, without succeeding in articulating one more word.

My body was lifted off the ground. Faïz carried me without any difficulty, holding me so tight that I felt every movement of his muscles. Exhausted, my eyes closed again.

After a few moments, sound came to me again little by little, like a distant echo. From then on, I recognized the familiar voices of Charles, Victoria, and Lily, which nevertheless seemed to reach me from very far away.

— "I asked you to go check her room!" barked Faïz.

— "I found nothing! There's nothing!" defended Victoria, apparently annoyed.

— "You must take her to the temple of the Seventh Earth as soon as she gets better," Charles intervened. "She must consult the Callis."

— "I will take her as soon as she is strong again. Until then she will sleep here for the rest of the night."

Footsteps went away and a door closed. I tried to open my heavy eyelids and immediately recognized Faïz's room. He was there, kneeling by the bed where I was lying, as if he were watching a dying woman.

— "Hey," I whispered. "Everything's fine."

I lifted my hand, which seemed to weigh tons, and gently stroked his face to reassure him.

— "Yet you seem so weak. The dimness of your eyes proves it," he confided in a fragile voice.

— "Stop blaming yourself. It's not your fault!"

— "I should have walked you home, not left you alone, or—"

— "No, Faïz, stop! Rachelle needed you. I'm really sorry about what happened at the ball, for my behavior. It was childish. As for the rest, you won't always be able to protect me. I'm the guiding principle, and it's up to me to take care of you."

I really meant what I said. I didn't like Rachelle, but no one should have to watch such a difficult thing in silence during those few minutes of the slow dance, not even her. I imagined that a big argument had broken out between those two after I'd hugged him on the dance floor.