I stared at Eli over the rim of my cup, deep in thoughts. Breakfast was delicious and I savored every bite but that still didn't change the fact that Eli had an explanation to do.

"Speak your mind, little Flame." Eli said calmly, staring at me after placing down his own cup.

"What's your connection to the Silver Strangler, Eli?"I asked, throat clogging up at the reminder of the serial killer who nearly took my life.

I watched as he tensed up, his beautiful dark eyes flickering with emotions. Vulnerability and guilt, the most prominent ones.

"I.. I'm not really who you think I am. Professionally speaking. I'm not just a glass artist or sculptor."Eli started, voice low, quiet.

I stilled, mind jarring as I processed his words."Then what are you? And I want the truth. Eli. Fully." I uttered with as much firmness as I could despite the fact that the best friend I thought I knew was someone who has been keeping things from me for so long.

Eli stared up at me with sorrowful eyes. Debating but he eventually sighed. And with each word he uttered from then on, my heart broke a little. I wasn't just breaking for the realization that the man I thought I knew had been living a double life all this time. I was breaking for how utterly exhausted he looked from carrying the weight of it alone. All this time..

As he confessed the reality of his childhood training, his father's cold demands, and the brutal truth behind how Landon became his adopted brother, the puzzle pieces finally clicked. Landon was always distant, rarely spoke and never engaged much on the occasion we met. He was softer with Elysium but other than those instances, he never spoke much. Now it made so much more sense. I had always known that Landon's past was a sensitive topic. When Eli told me in the past that Landon's parents met an unfortunate death and he didn't speak much since then, I had respected his boundaries and never pried again. Never tried to form a close friendship with Landon when I understood he probably had a difficult childhood. Losing your parents at such a young age was definitely difficult.

Still, I never could have imagined this. Landon's parents and Eli's family were assassins. A bloodline of killers. Which meant their profession had undoubtedly caused that tragedy, one way or another. That Guild had claimed Landon's parents. What if one day... It took Eli from me, too?

Worse than that, Eli was after the Silver Strangler and this put a target on my back. Next time it could be Elysium.

Fear gripped my heart like a vice at that thought and I could only stare at him after he finished telling me everything about his life. The illicit money from the hotels, his great grandfather's philosophy, the fact that he shouldn't even be telling me those things, his mother's support of glass art, trying to give him a better childhood which only made me realise that without his mom I most probably wouldn't have met Eli.

That possibility made my heart ache because no matter how much I was completely overwhelmed right now with the onslaught of information I just learned and the knowledge that the man I was in love with was heir to a bloody empire, I couldn't fathom the idea of letting him go or rejecting him for that.

Eli didn't ask for this. He never wanted it. It's clear from the lines of fatigue etched on his handsome face and the tension in his shoulders when he laid everything bare to me that he didn't want it. His secretive and private nature suddenly made so much more sense.

And the reason why he didn't confess to me all those years. His great grandfather's philosophy meant we couldn't be together. That's why he kept his feelings buried. The suffocating pain in my heart from thinking for years that he didn't love me the same way must have been ten times worse for him. He loved me. But he couldn't embrace it. He held back all those years until that faithful night where everything must have been wearing him down and he confessed thinking I was asleep.

God.. I should have noticed it. His occasional bruises here and there that he told me was from boxing with Landon, his exhaustion and weariness whenever Monday came and he would go back to his life. The toll on his shoulders whenever his father called him home.

"Say.. Something" Eli said, muscles taut. Eyes tormented.

I blinked through the haze of my own mental warfare and stared at him. Heart aching. He probably believes I'm going to reject him. How could I?

"Je t'aime aussi, Eli. Je t'ai entendu ce soir-là. Je n'étais pas couchée. Je comprends mieux maintenant pourquoi tu m'as jamais dit que tu m'aimes. Mais je t'aime aussi. Je t'ai aimée pendant des années et je ne cesserai jamais même si je sais qu'on ne peut pas être ensemble. Ce que tu viens de me dire me rend les choses plus claires mais ça ne change pas le fait que je t'aime. Tu es mon soleil. La lumière de ma vie. Comment pourrais-je t'abandonner ou te détester alors que tu n'as jamais voulut cette vie que tu mènes?"I poured out my heart in each word, each of them coming from the depths of my soul. In the language I watched my dad whisper I love you to mom countless times. A language Eli had learned for me.

(Translation : I love you too, Eli. I heard you that night. I wasn't asleep. I understand better now why you never told me you loved me. But I love you too. I've loved you for years, and I never will stop, even though I know we can't be together. What you just told me makes things clearer, but it doesn't change the fact that I love you. You are my sun. The light of my life. How could I ever abandon or hate you, when you never wanted the life you're living?)

Eli's eyes flickered with so much relief, peace, love, happiness and so much gratefulness my heart nearly splittered in my chest. I immediately stood up and went straight in his arms, hugging him tightly as he held me instantly, head buried in my neck, breath stuttering.

"For the barest moment.. A small thought crept into my mind. What if she leaves.. What if she tells me she doesn't want me.. But I didn't want to give in to this devil seed in my head.. I still never thought I would ever get to hear you say those words back.. God.. I love you more, Little Flame. I knew deep down you weren't asleep that night and I think a part of me just wanted to finally give my heart to you"Eli said, voice strained from the emotions gripping him.

I clung to him tighter, running my fingers through his hair as tears gathered in my eyes. He held me as if I was his lifeline amidst the storm that was his life. As if.. If I let go of him right now, he would be taken by the storm and lose his direction. His anchor.

"Je t'aime aussi. Je t'ai aimé dès le premier jour que je t'ai vue. Tu étais tellement belle ce jour-là. Tu l'ai toujours, tu es aussi brillante que les étoiles dans la nuit et ton âme brûle aussi fort que le soleil avec tellement de vie et de passion que je me demande parfois, comment est-ce que j'ai pu être si chanceux?"Eli whispered, placing soft kisses against the marks on my throat. His soft spoken voice and french words filled with so much love and adoration undid me.

(Translation : I love you too. I loved you from the very first day I saw you. You were so beautiful that day. You still are; you shine as brightly as the stars in the night sky, and your soul burns as intensely as the sun-filled with so much life and passion that I sometimes wonder: how did I get so lucky?)

I continue running my fingers through his hair in a soothing rhythm. "My El. My precious El. No matter what, I promise you, you will always have me"

Eli pulled back at my words and stared into my eyes cradling my face with his hands gently. "Why? Why would you stay despite everything I just said?"

"Because you said it yourself yesterday, remember? You're my Eli. And I'm your little Flame. Despite what you kept from me. What we shared all those years was real, is and will forever be. I understand why you stayed quiet and the fact that you went against your great grandfather's words to tell me everything the moment I asked it of you instead of lying tells me everything I need to know. You're a good man Eli. To me you're the only man I want"I responded, staring at him with a soft gaze.

The moment his lips touched mine in response, my eyes closed, my soul coming alive at the touch of his soft lips against mine. Lips I have yearned, craved and desired to feel for years.

I buried my fingers in his soft smooth dark hair and pulled him closer, kissing him back with all the love I kept buried in me for years, conveying in my very first kiss what words couldn't.

My heart didn't just love him.

My soul itself was infused with his. I was as attuned to him as he was to me. Our bond transcended our bodies, it was something powerful, intense and all consuming. Now that the well of our love for each other was finally opened, there was no going back.