Zeidan lay still on his bed. Ever since Lyne left, he had been miserable and fallen ill and his health was not showing any sign of improvement. He reflected on how it all started a week and some days after Lyne left him and was said to be dead. He collapsed after dinner one fateful night and the people around had rushed to call Stevenson, his royal doctor. He had such blackouts again weeks later. Stevenson advised him to stop brooding and said he needed to take a lot of things off his mind. He had adhered to this and had stopped every thought that bothered him. Still, he was not improving.

Lyne couldn’t have survived this long, even if he was to believe she was alive. It saddened him greatly and his doctor has been giving him syrup to help him get better. Sometimes, he feels better, some other times, he feels worse.

    He was sure he was losing the war with Shelbrooke now as his army was without their commander. Luana had stood in the gap most times and this had helped him to change his motif towards her. Before he fell sick, he was going to press a lot of charges against her for all the things she had done especially her conspiracy against Wikh. He had heard the noise outside and had inquired about it from Luana before she left him but he got no response from her. He managed to sit up in bed and made up his mind to go and check what was going on.

    Suddenly, the noise stopped and he began to wonder what it was all about. Luana was surely talking to them by now, perhaps they had somehow managed to win against Shelbrooke, or maybe it was Shelbrooke that was knocking on his door. Perhaps his army has invaded his city and is already forcing everyone to surrender. He felt so bad because there was nothing he could do about anything now due to his health. He was too weak and vulnerable. If it was the latter, then he has failed his people greatly. 

    He grabbed the bedside table and used it as a support to stand up from where he was. Slowly he walked towards the door in pain. He had not been outside the palace for months now. 

He got to the entrance to his room and stepped into the corridor that leads to the hallway. He grabbed the wall for support and walked into the palace hall. The noise outside now was louder than the first and it resembled a cry of agony. He walked towards his throne and then, Luana walked into the hall. 

    She ran towards him and supported him. She turned to lead him back inside but he gesticulated towards one of the chairs arranged around the long table in the hall. That was where his subjects sit while they talk about the affairs of the state. It was such a pity he has not been able to hold any of such meetings since his illness started.

    “What are you doing? You should be resting.” She asked.

“I needed to know what was going on outside the palace,” Zeidan said weakly as he squeezed his face in pain. 

“I told you not to bother. I already took care of it.” She said.

“Come, you need to go back to your room, you can’t sit here. You will not feel comfortable.” She said as she opted to lead him back inside. 

He hesitated for a moment but then agreed to go back inside. The screaming was dying down outside the palace by now as Luana led him back inside his bedroom. 

“Let me change your bed sheet.” She said as Luana helped him onto the sofa in his room. He watched her as she grabbed the clean sheets from where she placed them and took out the one that was on the bed before. 

She helped him get on the bed and she tucked him in. 

“Thank you.” He said as he breathed out sharply.

“You’re welcome.” She said with a smile as she folded the dirty bed sheet in her hands.

“What happened out there, Luana? I heard a lot of people shouting, and then I heard screams.” He said slowly. 

“At first I thought it was another attack, I thought it was Shelbrooke. He wasn’t, was he?” He asked with a worried look on his face. 

“No, he wasn’t,” Luana replied. 

“Then what was it all about? Is everything alright out there?” He asked.

“You need not worry about all these things for now Zeidan, I told you I have them all under control. Right now, you need to focus more on getting your strength back so that you can resume your duties as the king of Vampire City. Everything is fine outside. They wanted to see you and you know they shouldn’t see their king this way. I told them you were away.” 

She noticed the sadness on his face as she talked.

“It is not going to be this way forever Zeidan. Did you use your drugs this morning?” She asked

“Of course, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.” He replied with a smirk.

This made Luana chuckle lightly. 

“You are on the sick bed and you still got a sense of humor.” She said amidst her chuckles. Zeidan smiled back. 

“Well, you need to keep up so you can get better. I will go and give this to the maids for washing.” She said holding the bed sheet now folded in her arms high above her head. 

“I’ll also tell them to make you dinner.” She said as she stepped out of the room now leaving only Zeidan alone in the room.

Zeidan thought about all that Luana has been doing for him all over again, by the time he gets better, he will now be in a dilemma on whether to work on all the charges he had pressed against her prior to his illness or ignore it. Well, it would be hard to completely ignore it as others will speak up against it. She has been very helpful and had stood by him.

 Lyne made it very obvious that Luana could not be trusted, but this was the same Luana proving all of that wrong. She has given him every right to trust her, and he does now. 

During the bloody war, when he pressed a knee on a Werecat, about to strike him dead. Luana had come rushing to him.

"Zeidan! Shelbrooke has Lyne now. We've got to save her." 

He couldn't think of anything else but to run towards that bastard and make him pay. But thinking of it now, he wondered why Luana didn't fight Shelbrooke when she noticed it. Perhaps, he became too strong for her and she needed backup. 

Running towards the high mountain, he could see Shelbrooke beneath the dark clouds and rain, holding a figure on his shoulder with a white gown and blood stains. He just knew it was Lyne. His heart skipped a beat but before he could move closer, Shelbrooke had dropped her into the large waterfall. He had pounced on Shelbrooke and started fighting.

Tears pricked his eyes but he knew he had to think little of the past. Lyne was precious to him. True. But he has to find out so many things and plenty of formations to defeat Shelbrooke. 

Well, he was sure he would come up with something when the time comes for that. Right now, he needed to focus on getting better as Luana has said. 

Just then Luana walked back in with their baby in her arms accompanied by a maid. 

“Hello, Gabe,” Zeidan said as he tried to wave at the little boy.

As he looked at his son, he remembered how he had gotten intimate with Luana when he got drunk one night to forget about Lyne. She had come into his room, worried about his state and trying to tuck him in. But then, he was tipsy and missing his wife. He grabbed Luana's waist and made her fall on him. His sight wasn't blurry but his memory was numb. He just wanted to wash his sorrow away and Luana had taken good advantage of that.

“Let me see him,” Zeidan said and Luana knelt close to him, snapping out of his thoughts. 

He cooed with so many gleams in his brown eyes. He wished he was healthy to teach him a lot of things. Luana chuckled and rubbed his jet-black hair. 

“It’s time to have your bath,” Luana said. 

“Okay, Luana.” He replied. 

“I have to go and bathe Gabe now and feed him.”