In the Shadows~zayn au~Completed ✅EDITING

~Chapter 42: Wolvecaster~

Hello everyone! As always, I begin with an apology for the length of time it took me to update. I'm terribly sorry. Things have been going nothing but wrong for me lately. After experiencing a 1/4th life crisis with @LaylaMonfradini and making several life-altering decisions, I haven't had much time to work hard on an update. I want these to be something worth reading and not just a creation spur-of-the-moment. I love you guys and I want to give you my best. Even my best is not up to my usual standards this time around, so you'll have to forgive me.

However, you will get to see a new side of Louis, never before viewed. ;) hope you like it!!

Dedicated to @aquarius1_d because she let me discuss future plot points with her and spill on some of the events coming up. Eternally grateful, love!

Kalysta woke the next morning without prompting. It was like a bell had gone off, waking her before she needed. When she looked around, she noticed that the other three were already up, readying to depart.

"There's some food by the fire for you," Zayn said, as he threw the saddle up onto his horse.

At his mention she looked and saw dried beef, a bit of cheese and some bread, which she was more than ready to eat.

Zayn acted as unconcerned as she did, but in a flash Kalysta remembered that her hair was down. She moved about frantically, looking for the hat, before finding it among her sheets. However, she knew she'd left it outside the light of the fire during her excursion.

Zayn coughed quietly and when she looked at him he simply winked and went back to packing. So, he'd put her hat back with her, realizing she had forgotten it and foreseeing an issue would arise. What a smart fellow.

They were on the road in the same order as last time. When their riding brought them to a pathway, Zayn turned his horse, leading them down the dirt roadway. This was the first time they'd used a public travel-way and it was then that Kalysta realized they would be arriving in the middle of the day, not at night as they had before in Cheshire. There would be more eyes on her and more people scrutinizing her identity.

That was not the only thing to ponder, however. The closer they got to the city, the more dejected Louis seemed. His shoulders drooped and after a while his head bowed as if in shame. Then, like he'd realized his actions, he sat up straight in his saddle and steeled himself, shaking his head almost imperceptibly.

Kalysta nudged Starling forward to walk next to him.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"I'm just tired."

She wasn't sure why she trusted this man with her identity when he was clearly so poor at deceiving people.

"Your discomfort doesn't have anything to do with the secret you're hiding does it?" she prodded. "There's something about Wolvecaster that ties you in knots. I noticed it before and it's clearly affecting you now."

Visibly he didn't respond in any way, but his voice was resigned when he said, "All in due time."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Contrary to what you believe, you don't need to know everything," he returned a bit harshly. "Everyone has secrets and I'd like to keep mine for a bit longer, if you can agree to it."

He'd rendered her speechless, so she moved Starling back into her designated spot.

At first there wasn't much movement on the road, but this quickly changed once the city came into sight. Other roads joined theirs and the press of people grew. The average person wasn't dressed quite as well as those in Cheshire, but most seemed to have enough to eat regularly and to be in good health.