Chapter 66: "Stay with Me"

I'm so tired, I think I'll sleep like a baby after this😴. Hope you enjoy!

Also, leave me some comments to read when I wake up, pwease?

October 28, 2021

"You . . ." Zayn breathed out but then his mouth just moved wordlessly as he continued to gape at her.

Salma figure he had forgotten how to blink. Her heart sank. His stumped expressions made her dread his reactions once he had gathered the wits to react.

"You . . . You – I, just - How?"

Salma swallowed uncomfortably.

"How what?" she asked.

"You're the . . ." he whispered, still looking at a loss for words. "You're the Guardian of the Zamarud?!"

Salma chewed on the insides of her cheek nervously. Her stomach knotted painfully. She nodded.

Salma's heart sank as heavily as Zayn head that came to in his hands. He stayed quiet for a while, hunched over, unable to come to terms with the shocking revelation. Salma glanced at him out of the corner of her eyes, fidgeting with her hands.

"Please tell me you're kidding," she heard him whisper.

Salma said nothing. She swallowed as the tense silence stretched and pressed to her eardrums. She had started to feel queasy with the anxiety building up. Zayn looked up to her and just shrugged, shaking his head.

"I don't know how to take it. I don't!" he cried, standing up. "Guardian of the Zamarud! . . ." He threw a hand in frustration. "Guardian of the -- That's like the president or the Queen, right?"

Salma just looked at him helplessly. She did not know what to say. Technically he was right. She was like someone on the sidelines, a symbol of authority, someone who could step in, under certain circumstance to control the affairs of the state, like the president in a bicameral legislature, or the Monarch, in a modern-day monarchy, but literally, she was neither the Queen, nor the president. There was no constitutional body that elected her, nor a ruling family that passed her power down the line through blood. She was just chosen by her Grandma, in consultation with her close aides, to safeguard what made the nation of Sthooriy.

"I . . . I just – I need a minute to process it all!" Zayn stepped away from the swing. "This is too much to process! I need a minute!"

Zayn gave her his back. Watching him walk away from her stabbed her heart in a manner so painful that she could not quite explain. Her throat clogged up as the grim reality got printed in the fabric of fate with his receding footsteps. She was not a Queen, or a president. She was a target. One to hunt down, shoot and murder. She was a threat.

Salma bit her cheek, hard, stiffening her quivering lip and sucking up her tears.

This is no reason to cry! She scolded herself as Zayn halted near the fire. No one has an extra life just hanging in their closet to throw around. Woman up to your problems!"

Turning to the stars above, Salma took in a few deep breaths to calm down. Her people were called 'Sthooriy', literally stars. She was a Sthoorey, an Oochath Sthoorey from the house of Zamarud Zai. As the Guardian of the Zamarud, she was to live as one of the stars, by the stars, for the stars. She had to twinkle bright in the dark even if she was to do it alone.

As the gentle breeze blew, her welled-up eyes dried down. The twinkling pin-pricks in the heavens calmed her rowdy emotions, renewing her conviction for who she was and what she was to do. In her periphery, Salma saw Zayn lower himself to one of the rugs and lie down.

The silence stretched between them, one that was laden with many mysteries and questions.

"How does this change things with us?" he asked after a while.

Salma tore her gaze away from the stars and turned to him.

"How does this affect me?" he continued, sensing her confusion.

Salma wondered if he meant how they were going to continue with their relationship, but she dare not word it out like that.

"Meaning?" Salma asked.

Zayn sat up, resting his arms on his propped up knees.

"Meaning, what am I now?" he asked. "What do I become once we get married?"

"We are married," Salma pointed out, slightly amused that he still pretended the whole thing was a normal pre-marital arrangement.

"On paper, yes," Zayn said. "I mean, here." He tapped his head. "When you and I accept and live like we're married, what then? What am I?"

"You're the spouse of the Guardian of the Zamarud?" Salma shrugged.

"Right, but is he like the prince? What status does he have? A Duke, a Knight, a Royal guard? In this situation, what am I?"

"Nothing," Salma said. "You're just you."

"Just me?" Zayn scoffed, looking incredulous. "What? Like there's no title?"

"No, there isn't." Salma threw her hands up. "We don't do it like that in Sthooriya!"

"So, the way you do things in Sthooriya basically does not affect me at all."

"You're a target now," Salma said bitterly. "You like that? Congratulations, you'll probably be capped."

"Alright, that's nice, but give me some sort of an honor too," he said. "I shouldn't be made to face threats just like that. I can't be prince, I get it. But ya'll can at least give me something like, 'Lord Zayn Harris'?"

Salma stared at him, absolutely bewildered by his nonsensical priorities.

"What?" she cried.

"There's a Pukhto word for 'Lord'? I'm assuming there is?"

Salma shook her head in disbelief.

"Don't tell me you don't know?" Zayn cried, disappointed. "Look, I'll have to tolerate and keep up with a very difficult person – I mean, just look at her titles, Guardian of the Zamarud, Queen Tomato Bee, from the House of Zamarud Zai of the Oochath tribe of Sthooriya! I should at least deserve a 'Lord'!"

Salma just gaped at him, unable to comprehend the absolute blabber that came out of his mouth.

Was he for real?

Sighing at her lack of a response, Zayn got to his feet.

"If the fact that you're the Guardian of the Zamarud doesn't change anything, why was it so important to tell me about it?" he asked quietly, a small smile tugging at his lips.

Salma looked away when he blurred from her vision by her tears.

"Come on, Bee," Zayn said as he walked back to her. He helped her up and hugged her.

Overwhelmed by the warmth of his embrace that she was getting a bit too used to, too fast, Salma continued crying silently into his shirt. Zayn rubbed her back to comfort her.

"You're still my Queen Tomato Bee –"

"Stop!" Salma whispered through her clogged throat. He chuckled.

"Yeah well, it is true, with or without your other titles," he continued. "And I'm still Zayn - A man of many talents." He smiled when he heard the smallest watery laugh from her at his lame joke. "It changes nothing. Except that, now I know maybe you trust me a tad more?"

Salma wiped her eyes, turning to look at him. He smiled at her.

"And I'm totally over the moon over it," he whispered earnestly.

Salma sniffed, wiping her eyes again.

"Does it not scare you?" she whispered.

"Um, maybe a little," Zayn replied then laughed. "I'm super brave like that."

Salma rolled her eyes.

"Never miss a chance, do you?" she muttered to herself.

"Okay, maybe a little less brave than super brave but, come on, so long as you aren't the ice-cold dragon Queen of the Himalayas that's going to condemn me to some cave in the mountains, I'm going to look forward to being a knight, or was it 'Lord'? I think I was –"

"You know how they murdered my grandparents," Salma interrupted him, desperately fighting against a fresh set of tears. She was not to be humored so easily. "You know what happened to my uncle, and how they blew up the journalist who was investigating their drug cartel. You've seen the attacks on me. Zayn, this isn't –"

"Shh!" Zayn pulled her closer. "I know and I've seen it, but I'm willing to believe it can be turned around. You've had quite a nice, normal life here in the U.S, have you not?"

Salma said nothing as she wept.

"Look, things aren't always the same," Zayn began. "I know you're carrying a whole generation's trauma but it doesn't have to stay like this. Your side is putting up a good fight. I've seen what your father can do. I trust him. As for me, it's not like I've stayed completely sheltered from the bloody scum of this world. Derek literally took an aim to blow our skulls open on his way to get to one teenager!"

Zayn turned to her, putting a hand under her chin to make her look at him.

"You think I'd be safer if you weren't with me?" he asked, his eyes flitted between hers.

Salma looked away.

"You'd at least have less murderers to fight off," she whispered.

"I'd rather focus on the life they want to snatch away from me, literally and." He kissed her forehead, smiling at the way she blushed despite her distress, "Figuratively. If they're calling shots on my life, Bee, I'm not really living even if I protect myself against the shots in their guns."

Salma sniffed then cleared her throat.

"I see, you really aren't into poetry."

Zayn laughed, hugging her as she snuggled into his embrace.

"I'm staying with you, Bee," he said, then checked to see if she was blushing again. "Queen Tomato Bee."

Salma groaned, hiding her face that was getting hot again. He chuckled, but then Salma felt him get more serious.

"Please stay with me," he said so softly she barely heard him.

Salma felt her heart explode again. She slipped her arms around his torso, hugging him back.

"I will," she promised.

***

"Did you kiss?!" Claire jumped on him the moment Zayn stepped out of his car.

This time, she had waited out on the steps for him to come back from his date with Salma and tell her if they had finally kissed.

"Where's Brownie?" Zayn asked, wrapping arms around the excited human jumping up and down on the balls of her feet.

"Inside – but, tell me, did you guys kiss?" she hastened after him as Zayn pecked her forehead and headed into the house.

"Brownie --" Zayn called.

"Did she kiss –?"

"--Is Alex here?"

"—you or not?" Claire continued.

Niall blinked as he saw the two siblings hurry in, one after the other, both talking over each other.

"I, uh, no. Who?" he blabbered a confused jumble.

"Alex. Agent Wickfield, man."

"Zayn!" Claire tried to grab his attention once again. She was getting annoyed now.

"No," Niall replied, frowning. "Why? Weren't you on a date with Salma?"

"I was –"

"How did it go?" Niall asked, his eyes gleaming with curious excitement.

"Did you kiss?!" Claire spelled it out again.

Zayn sighed. Is this all they cared about? Nosey bunch of brats.

"It went well," he replied, noticing their faces falling. He turned to Claire. "No, we didn't kiss." Then back at Niall. "So Alex isn't around?"

Niall shook his head in a distracted sort of a way. He looked just as crestfallen as Claire sensing that his date with Salma was not exactly how they wanted it to go.

"No," he muttered. "I didn't see her."

"I'm in the kitchen," replied a third voice, making Niall and Claire jump. They heard a chair scrapping against the tiled floor before the agent appeared in the sitting room with a bottle of chocolate milk in her hand. "Sorry! I got bored so I decided to help myself to a snack."

Claire and Niall exchanged a look, their mouths agape.

"H-how? When –?" Niall struggled with his words.

The agent chuckled.

"Must you always act so surprised and terrified?" she asked Niall before turning to Zayn. "Also, poor you? Didn't get kissed again? Was the date another train-wreck?"

Zayn rubbed a hand over his face.

"The date was perfect and none of your damn business. Also, there's bigger fish to fry than a kiss. I'll be upstairs. Come around when you're done," he said as he starting taking his shoes off.

"Sure," Alex replied, taking another swig from the bottle of flavored milk. "Business?"

"As usual," Zayn replied, getting rid of his jacket. "Hot tips, leads, and a lot information. I don't think you can handle it, though."

Giving her cocky smile, he raced upstairs.

"Oh, you have me curious now," the agent sang. Finishing her drink in one go, she tossed the empty bottle into the trash can and followed after him. "If it meets the expectations, tell you want, I'll make it up to you for the kiss you missed on –"

The door closed shut as she entered Zayn's room, cutting her voice down to a barely audible mumble.

Niall glanced at Claire. She turned to her feet, chewing on her lip, looking troubled.

"Does he even love her?" she asked, her frown deepening.

"Makes you think, doesn't he?" Niall laughed humorlessly. "Tell you what, I don't even know what to think anymore."

"This was supposed to be their first, most romantic date!" Claire turned to him. "He was supposed to be excited. Instead, he's just totally indifferent."

"This agent gal unnerves me." Niall shuddered. "Something isn't right about her."

Claire scowled at the top of the stairs.

"Why does she have to meet Zayn all the time?" She narrowed her eyes, thinking.

Niall eyed her carefully, not sure if she was thinking what he thought she was thinking?

"Do you think Zayn's cheating on Salma?" Niall whispered, looking scared. "With the agent?"

Claire scowl darkened.

"I don't know about that. But I'm quite certain a few explosions would have already happened if it was Salma that was casually meeting up with some agent alone in her bedroom," Claire said angrily. "Besides, he's Muslim now, like her. Shouldn't he be abiding by the same rules and not cozying up with girls alone?"

Niall did not know what to say. Nothing made sense. Zayn was evidently excited to take Salma out on their first official date and had been planning it meticulously for days. He could not understand why he would come back claiming it to be a perfect date, with no kisses shared and be completely cold and unbothered, least of all, his keenness to attend this arrangement with the agent. It made no sense that he had to run back from his date with Salma – someone he claimed to love passionately – to hurry on to meet the FBI agent – someone he had been at daggers drawn with, more often than not.

Everything about the situation was shady. He had a feeling Zayn was double-crossing someone and it made his stomach ache with nerves to think, that someone was probably Salma.

Author's Note:

Oh, you don't say Niall! Now there's more questions than answers!😱 Wonder what is happening around here?

We're going to have to wait for the next chapter to find out, won't we? 😭😂

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Lots of Love

J.