Page 113 of Dark Shaman: Love Found
She was the most breathtakingly beautiful woman he had ever seen.
They descended into the basement, their footsteps silent on the stairs. The emergency lighting had been turned off and replaced with the regular illumination. However, the space still felt different after the day's events, and not just because of the dust that covered everything.
Their sanctuary was rearranged with clean sheets, courtesy of Tula and Tony, no doubt, and the curtains had been put back to create the hidden cocoon inside.
Tamira kicked off her shoes and crawled onto the bed, pulling back the covers and patting the space beside her.
Eluheed removed his shoes and joined her, pulling the covers over them both. The basement held heat even at night, but there was something about being under the covers that made their sanctuary feel even more private, more removed from the world above.
They lay facing each other, close enough that he could feel her breath on his face and see the gold flecks in her dark eyes that were illuminated from the inside. It was a reminder of how different she was from him, but not in the way she thought.
"It was a close call," she said softly, her hand finding his under the covers. "Too close for comfort."
He nodded. "It was unsettling, and I'm grateful to our jailer for saving the day. In a world run by monsters, it's better to have the scariest one on your side."
Tamira laughed. “I’d never thought of it like that before we were evacuated from the harem, but that's an excellent way to distill the situation. In there, I was glad to have Lord Navuh's protection from the island warriors that he had warned us about repeatedly, but I still resented him for my lack of freedom. Now I'm like the canary who has been let out of her cage, discovered that there are vicious, hungry cats outside, and rushes back for the protection of her gilded cage, locking the door behind her."
Eluheed didn't know what to say.
Captivity as a price for safety?
That's not what he wanted for her, but then what could he offer her instead?
She shifted closer, until their foreheads nearly touched. "When I thought the rebels were going to break through that door, all I could think about was how many things I've never told you. How many things I've kept hidden because it was never the right time."
The same thoughts had tormented him in those terrible hours. The weight of his secrets had become unbearable, but he hadn't known that she was keeping secrets as well.
He couldn't even ask her about those secrets because that wouldn't be fair. He couldn't demand what he himself was not willing to give. Some of his secrets were bound by oaths, and those he could never share. But there were many things he could tell her that he hadn't sworn to hide.
"I need to tell you something," he said, the words escaping before he could stop them.
Tamira smiled, her hand coming up to cup his cheek. "Are you going to tell me that you love me? Because I already know that, Elias. I see it in the way you look at me, the way you touch me."
"Yes," he admitted, even though he'd wanted to confess first and declare his love for her second. He took her hand and pressed it against his chest where his heart hammered so hard against his ribs that it felt as if it was about to break free. "I love you, Tamira, so much that I don't have enough words to express it. But there are things I need to tell you first. Things about who I really am."
Her expression grew serious. "I know you are full of secrets, Elias. I was waiting for the day you would trust me enough to tell me more."
"It's not a question of trust. It's a question of burden. If I tell you, you will be forced to carry my secrets, and they are not light. Are you willing to do that?"
"I love you." She put her hand on top of his heart. "Of course, I will carry your secrets no matter how heavy they are."
She'd just said she loved him, and he was still feeling as if he was standing on the edge of a cliff. Once he told her, there would be no going back.
He took a deep breath. "I'll start with the simplest thing. My name isn't Elias. I adopted this name because it didn't raise any questions, and the fewer questions people asked of me, the better. My real name, the one I was given at birth, is Eluheed."
"Eluheed," she repeated, tasting the syllables. "It's beautiful."
"The first part, Elu, is the name of the god my people worship." The words were coming easier now that he'd started. "The second part, heed, means 'dear' in my language. My mother wanted me to be Elu's dear or dear to Elu."
She frowned. "Is Elu a different pronunciation of El? The Biblical god?"
He shook his head. "You've never heard of that god. He's not worshiped by anyone on Earth."
"I don't understand."
Eluheed gathered courage for the next revelation. "I'm not from earth, Tamira. I come from somewhere else in the universe, and I'm immortal, as you've suspected all along, but not like you. I'm a different kind of immortal."
Her eyes widened, but she didn't pull away. Her hand remained pressed against his chest.
