In the Shadows~zayn au~Completed ✅EDITING

~Chapter 72: No Apologies~

Hey everyone!! An update in less than a week, whaaaat?? How about that? Lol. Could you ~VOTE~ for that at least? Also, you might have some incentive at the end of this chapter to vote and comment ;) 

Thanks to everyone who has voted for my chapters so far. I'm serious; I see all of the votes and the comments and it makes me so freaking happy when people get excited or tell me what they like about the chapters. Love you all so much!

Dedication to @Nialls_obsession because she's smart and made a good prediction last chapter. Hahaha

The video is for Tori Kelly and Ed Sheeran's "I Was Made For Loving You". Absolutely beautiful and fitting for Zalysta, I think. You can listen if you want. :)

Without further ado:

Kalysta fairly flew to her room. She burst in and Emily shrieked in alarm. Delia was more composed in her response, but she too was surprised.

"Milady, are you alright?" she asked.

Kalysta caught her breath and said, "The Ambassador has returned. We meet tomorrow to discuss the marriage treaty." She barely kept herself composed in front of Emily. Her heart hurt. They had been that close, but they'd had to fake hatred, hatred when all she wanted was to feel the way he held her in his arms.

"Emily, you have the night off," Delia spoke quickly. "Go see your friends and enjoy a night together."

"Thank you, Miss Delia," the girl answered, curtsying and barely holding in her curiosity.

When she was gone, Delia moved forward. "How do you feel?" she asked. "Are you alright? Did you do anything to reveal yourself with him?"

"No, of course not," Kalysta protested. "Neither of us is a fool. He's a good actor and I know how to keep unruffled, for a time at least."

"Will you be able to keep up the charade?"

Kalysta nodded, suddenly seized with an idea. "I could go see him," she whispered, "dressed as Lyra."

"Didn't you just brag on not being a fool?" Delia snapped. "That's the most foolish thing I've heard! You absolutely cannot do that! The more you flaunt this, the more likely someone will figure it out!"

"I'm not flaunting anything!" Kalysta was being childish, she knew, but the desire to see Zayn, to see the man she knew him to be, was more powerful than her rational self. Anything involving him was certain to win against logic, not that she was proud of it. "If I'm going as Lyra then no one will suspect a thing."

"How long are you going to delude yourself, Milady?" Delia's voice was somber. "You have to be done with the man. Whatever you shared in the past must be just that: the past. You've got no business going to him now. It was too dangerous then and the danger has increased ten-fold."

Kalysta sat on the bed, defeated. "I can't help it. I just want to see him, not the Ambassador persona, the real man that he has to hide to protect himself."

"Dear, I want that for you." Delia came to join her in sitting on the edge of the bed. "I want you to be happy, but it can't be with him, not now especially."

Kalysta swiped away the petulant tears that had welled in her eyes. "You're right. I know you're right, and I hate it."

"I don't like it either. But we don't get to decide. All we can do is make the most of the hand we've been dealt in life."

Kalysta sighed and nodded. She had to be mature about this. Whatever spell she'd been under while on the Partheos was gone and she couldn't excuse that kind of behavior anymore.