Page 86 of Dark Shaman: The Lost Treasure
Eluheed chuckled. "He's so intense and constantly worried about people betraying him."
"With good reason," she said. "But what does he expect you to consult him on? How to be nicer so his subordinates don't plot his murder?"
It was uncanny how insightful she was, despite being in the harem and having no idea what was going on outside the island.
Eluheed chuckled. "I told him to eat exclusively in the harem because he can trust the food here."
"Good advice, and speaking of food, everyone's still at dinner." She took his hand and tugged him toward the door. "You need to eat."
In the hallway, she linked her arm through his, the gesture both possessive and supportive. "I'm surprised that you are actually helping him."
She didn't need to qualify who 'him' was.
"The devil you know, and all that. We are safe as long as everything stays the same."
She nodded, her intelligent eyes expressing her understanding. "I'm not worried. Someone who has maintained power for so long is not easy to topple. But whatever happens, I want you to know that this week we had was magical. It's worth whatever price either of us might have to pay."
The words sent a chill through him. Did she sense something? Or was it just the fatalism of someone who'd lived long enough to know that happiness was always temporary?
"Don't talk like that."
She squeezed his arm. "I'm not naive, Elias. I know this can't last. Nothing good ever does in this place. But that doesn't diminish what we've shared."
He wanted to tell her she was wrong, that he'd find a way to free them both, but the words would be lies, and he'd told her too many of those already.
So instead, he raised her hand to his lips, pressing a kiss to her knuckles that tried to convey everything he couldn't say. She smiled, sad and beautiful, and he thought his heart might break from the weight of what he couldn't give her.
The dining room welcomed them with warmth and chatter, the other ladies greeting them with smiles.
The conversation resumed, covering similar topics that they had already discussed numerous times.
All of it was so normal, worth preserving even though they were all prisoners in a despot's luxurious dollhouse.
Eluheed ate without tasting, smiled without feeling, and contributed to conversations he'd forget within minutes. All the while, his mind was working on two problems that seemed increasingly impossible to reconcile.
How to escape and complete his duty to his people, and at the same time, free Tamira and take her with him.
The walls were closing in, just as he'd feared. Navuh's suspicion, his own growing attachment, the seeming impossibility of freedom—all of it pressed down like a boot on his neck, gradually cutting off his air supply.
Like his treasures, who were buried beneath millions of tons of rock, waiting for him to free them.
The meal ended, and they returned to Tamira's quarters as had become their custom.
"I wish..." she began, then stopped.
"What?" he prompted. "What do you wish?"
"I wish I believed in happy endings," she said. "Just once, I'd like to see the Fates being kind to people who deserve it."
He pulled her into his arms, pressing his face into her hair and inhaling her scent.
He wished the same thing, had wished it for centuries, but in his experience, fate was neither kind nor cruel.
It was indifferent to human and immortal suffering.
29
TAMIRA
