Page 181 of Tiger's Dream
“But in this case, he made an exception.”
She sat down on the window ledge and patted the spot next to her. The assemblage of bulbous jellyfish bodies behind the glass cast a flecked purple light over us that danced on Ana’s arms and face.
“He must have known we’d balk at this,” Ana said, “so he left a short note.”
“What did it say?”
“He said Ren’s memory needed to be taken so that you might have a chance to love Kelsey.”
“But…why? What difference would it have made? Ren’s forgetting her caused Kelsey great pain. I would not wish that on her. Besides,” I added, reaching for her hand, “maybe if I’d never gotten a chance with Kelsey, my mind and heart would have been more prepared to accept—”
“Someone else?” she murmured.
I nodded. I wanted to declare myself right then. To tell her everything I felt in my heart, but one second ticked by and then another, and then the moment was gone.
“What would you have done,” Ana asked, “after you passed through Shangri-La, growing closer to Kelsey every day, then assisting her in saving Ren only to see them reunited upon his return? How would you have reacted?”
“I…I suppose I would have been happy for them. Or at least tried to be.”
“Yes. But then what would you do? Would you follow after them on the next journey to find the necklace?”
“I might’ve gotten on the boat,” I said.
“But you would have distanced yourself.”
“Wouldn’t you?”
“Yes. When two people couple together, it is only natural to give them time apart.”
Heat crept up my neck. “Right, but Ren and Kelsey weren’t…coupling.”
She waved a hand. “Regardless, Kadam believes that without the hope of a relationship between you and Kelsey, you would have eventually left them to their own devices, preferring to remain a tiger in the jungle. You would have abandoned their quest, and as a result, Kelsey would have died.”
I stiffened. “How do you know this?”
“Kadam. He said that one of the mostly likely outcomes in the timeline where Ren kept his memory was you leaving them. Kelsey died in several instances. Once she perished in the jaws of the shark. Another time she expired when she fought the Lords of the Flame. In one scenario, she became one of the walking corpses in the Cave of Sleep and Death. The rakshasa queen changed her into something unhuman—”
“Yeah, I get it,” I said, stopping her from continuing. “So, what you’re saying is they needed me.”
“Not only them, Sohan. If you didn’t have a chance to love Kelsey, then I would never have had the chance to…to…”
“To love me?” I picked up her fingers, twining them with mine. I saw her mouth had fallen open, the words escaping her. “It’s okay,” I said. “You don’t have to say anything. In fact, please don’t. Not yet.”
“There’s more,” she said. “Ren is very persistent in fighting the goddess’s touch on his mind. He struggles with it and nearly overcame the memory block several times. We will have to thwart his progress at different points in his timeline to reinforce it.”
I blew out a breath. “Okay. Let’s go.”
One moment we were under the ocean, and the next, we were bent over double in a sweltering room inside Lokesh’s compound, adjusting to the change in pressure. The scent of hot tiger, sweat, and mildew permeated the area. The floor was damp with water and chemicals and blood. The two of us had arrived phased out of time but Ren must have sensed something.
“Kelsey?” his weak voice whispered from the confines of the cage.
We stepped closer and Ren wrapped broken fingers around the bars. His eyes were black and one of them was swollen shut. The breath wheezed in his lungs. Anamika twitched her hand, and the power of the scarf remade her in a glowing gown of gold and amethyst. Light gathered around her form and gleamed from her skin. I stepped back in the shadows, obscuring my scent.
“No,” Ana replied softly. “Do you recognize me, Dhiren?”
He gasped in pain as he slid closer. “Durga?” he whispered.
“Yes.”
