Page 182 of Tiger's Dream
“Are you real?”
“Yes. I am real,” she said, touching her fingers to a nearby whip and wincing. “I promised Kelsey I would watch over you.”
My poor brother wept in gratitude. “Then you’ll help me escape?” he asked, a pleading sound in his tone that I’d never heard from him before.
“No,” Ana whispered, her voice tinged with regret. “But I can offer help.”
“What kind of help?”
She looked over at me for guidance but I just nodded encouragement. “I can…take your memories,” she said.
Ren jerked in his cage. If he was shocked, he had reason to be. “How exactly would taking my memories help me?”
“Lokesh has been questioning you about Kelsey, hasn’t he?” she asked.
I hadn’t thought of that. Leave it to Ana to consider every angle. She wasn’t wrong in taking this tack with Ren. He would do anything to protect Kelsey. And maybe she was right that Lokesh would have broken Ren eventually. I didn’t think so. I knew from his own mouth that he’d suffered to death for her, literally. Not once but twice. I didn’t know if Lokesh had already cut out his heart, but if he hadn’t yet, he was going to do so soon.
Ana went on. “I can take your memories of Kelsey so that he will not be able to discover where she is.”
“But my memories are all I have left of her.”
“Dhiren”—Ana knelt in front of the cage and touched her fingers to his—“if you don’t agree to do this, I believe that Kelsey will suffer gravely.”
That much was true. I certainly didn’t want Kelsey’s death on my conscious and I knew Ren didn’t either.
“It must be your decision,” Ana said. “Think on it and I will return tomorrow.”
Backing away from him, she phased out of time and I held my arms out to her.Can we not at least prevent some of his suffering? she asked as her tears wet my shirt.
Now, none of that, I warned.Your tears are lethal.
She sniffled and glanced around for signs that something deadly was happening around us. Finding nothing, she said,Perhaps that only happens when you cause my tears.
I frowned, looking around. A teardrop fell from the tip of her lashes but never hit the ground. It disappeared like our footsteps when we were phased out of time. Interesting.
We stood there, the two of us, our arms around each other while Ana fast-forwarded time. In horror, we watched as Lokesh entered the room and had Ren’s tiger form hauled out of the cage. Impatiently, he jolted Ren’s body with electric shocks until he shifted back into human form. Ren had healed as a tiger but he was starved. Weak. It hindered his body’s natural recovery process.
Lokesh gave Ren an injection and asked question after question. Most of them about Kelsey. Ren screamed in agony as Lokesh plunged a knife into his body and twisted it. Ana lifted a finger and I noticed that Ren’s eyes cleared, his body sagged in relief. She’d taken his pain away.
Lokesh grabbed Ren’s face, turning it toward him. “I promise you, my proud prince,” he spat, “you will tell me the location of the other two amulets. It’s just a matter of time.”
Once he was back in his cage and the compound became quiet as night crept across the sky, an interesting thing happened. Kelsey appeared. Ana caught my hand as I stepped forward and drew me back, shaking her head.
How can she be here? I asked.
It must be their connection, Ana answered, pressing my hand to the carved tiger truth stone hanging about her neck.Can you see the strength of their auras?It is like ours.It draws them together. I could indeed see the brilliant light that surrounded each of them.
“Kells?” Ren said, his voice barely a whisper.
“Yes. It’s me,” Kelsey answered, grasping the bars of the cage.
“I can’t see you,” he said.
Kells got down on her knees and pressed her face against the bars. “Is that better?”
“Yes.” Ren touched her hands with shaking, distended fingers, and the light surrounding them bloomed exponentially brighter.
I slid my hand over to Ana’s shoulder and drew her closer, pressing a kiss against her temple as I held her.
