In the Shadows~zayn au~Completed ✅EDITING

~Chapter 91: Rumor Has It~

Helloooooo!!! Yes, I am aware that it's been 3-some weeks since I updated, but I have a good excuse: my reputation. You guys seem to like my writing and most of what I've written the last few weeks has been pure shíte. I don't want to update and give you guys shit you don't enjoy reading and if I think of it as such, you guys probably would as well. With that in mind, I'm sorry for the length of time it's taken. I love you all and thank you for checking in on me during the time!

Anyway, here is another chapter. Much much much more to come!!

Kalysta alternated between holding Zayn's hand and sitting back to ponder her predicament. He slept peacefully and she found comfort in that, hoping that perhaps it was her presence that aided in his slumber. She wanted that for herself, the warmth of his presence to calm her as she slept. That was impossible, though. He was watched intently and she doubted anyone would take kindly to her finding a lover so quickly after her husband's death. She wanted it anyway. If anyone could keep away the horrors that crept upon her dreams, it was he.

                  

"I thought I would find you here," Louis voiced as he pulled the curtain aside and stood at the other side of the bed. "Have you talked with him?"

"A bit," Kalysta responded carefully.

"How does he seem?"

"Pained, embarrassed, frustrated, unsteady."

"Is that all?" He sighed and crossed his arms. "There is some god watching out for him. No man should have been able to survive that."

"He's not entirely safe quite yet," she advised. "I meant it when I said he's unsteady. There's something wrong with his hands and his face. It's like his body won't cooperate with what he wants."

"That was quite an ordeal, Princess, you have to admit. He may never fully recover."

"Thank you for reminding me," she scoffed. "I've already tortured myself enough with that thought."

"No one is entirely sure what prompted Niall's anger and sentencing," Louis said next, veering the direction of their conversation. "Zayn would never be careless enough to be overheard discussing resistance plans, so I'm guessing you two were more indiscreet than you assured me you would be?"

"I suppose you'll want to say 'I-told-you-so'? If you do, you can stuff it right down your throat and sod off, because anything you say is nothing to how I am berating myself. I don't need your help to feel poorly for what has happened." She stared intently at Zayn's sleeping form, refusing to meet Louis' gaze.

"Of course not," Louis countered. "His sentence was the final push we needed, the impetus if you will, to get the other nations involved."

"I'm so glad you can look at it so positively," she said, a snide tone creeping into her voice.

"I have to see the positive, Princess," he countered. "I sense your anger, but I must confess that I don't understand the grounds for it."

"Your timing was stunningly perfect," she pointed out, allowing a niggling doubt to creep up. "Much longer and he would have been dead. Why couldn't you have come any sooner?"

"Would you rather I hadn't been out getting help?" he asked quietly. "I was rallying the kings, so I'm sorry that while busting my ass to rescue you from your stupidity I wasn't able to reach Elysium before your consequences caught up with my best friend."

His vehement response quelled her doubts before they could fully surface and she sighed, properly chastised. She didn't know what was going on with her, this readiness to lash out at anyone and everyone. "I'm sorry," she whispered sincerely. "I'm sorry to seem ungrateful. My head is a mess. I apologize."