Page 115 of Tiger's Dream
The shouted words swam around my brain.
Hunter.
Dangerous.
Predator.
“Watch our trainer carefully as he risks his life to bring you…Dhiren!”
Ren ran down the ramp and entered the large cage, roaring his dislike to the crowd. I jumped at the crack of the whip and tears sprang to my eyes. Soft fingers stole around my heated neck. A cooling numbness washed through me at the touch. Ana pulled me gently closer to her and murmured in my ear, “Hush now, Sohan. I am here with you.” I felt the press of her lips on my wet cheek and nodded.
I reached for her hand, wrapping mine around it, and kneaded her fingers nervously as I watched. It was like being trapped in a nightmare. I knew what Ren had gone through. He’d described it to me often enough. As the act continued, I watched Kelsey instead. She sat there enraptured by the whole thing. When the man with the whip placed his head in Ren’s mouth, my fists tightened. “Bite it off,” I whispered savagely.
He didn’t, of course, though he’d practically unhinged his jaw just to make sure his teeth didn’t accidentally hurt the man. I thought if the man was foolish enough to put his head in a tiger’s mouth, he at least deserved a scratch for his trouble. I couldn’t breathe at all until he left to the uproarious cheers of the crowd, Kelsey’s included.
It felt like a betrayal watching Kelsey sitting there, clapping. She didn’t know any better. I knew that. But to see her so caught up in what, to me, was such a humiliating display was disheartening. Ana sat quietly beside me, as aware of my mood as I often was of hers. I felt melancholy. Wrong. How many times had he performed like that? How often had he been beaten, whipped? It was too much. I was the one responsible for his capture. It was my fault.
“Sohan,” Ana said and wrapped her arms around me.
I buried my face in her neck and didn’t realize at first that she was using her powers. It was a natural, mindless sort of thing on her part. Ana sensed my tension and wanted to soothe me in her own sweet way, and the world around her responded. A light breeze stole into the tent, carrying with it the scents of her garden, which was one of our favorite places. People turned one way and another, wondering if it was some trick of the circus, but I knew what it was. It was the unconditional love of the goddess.
Just as Kelsey was turning toward us, I channeled the power of the Damon Amulet to turn us invisible.
We sat there, Ana’s arms around me, as the crowd began to disperse. Since we weren’t visible, Anamika told the scarf to switch us back. I felt the tingling on my body as my physical form shifted, but it did nothing to ease the anxiety pooling in my gut. Kelsey got up and began working. She was apparently on clean-up duty. It was amazing how quickly everything was broken down and how much of a mess a couple hundred people could make. When we were finally alone, Ana asked, “How are you feeling, Sohan?”
I laughed sadly. “I feel…I feel sorry. He went through so much and I was the one who did it.”
“Yes. You did. But he told you he trusted you. Did he not?”
“Yes. He trusted me.”
“Would he not go through it again to be with Kelsey?”
I didn’t answer for a moment. The girl in question entered the building and started moving boxes from one part of the building to another. As she struggled with her burdens, I waved a hand and made half of the boxes disappear and reappear in position on the other side. It shocked me that I had the ability to do it with a mere thought. Now that I considered it, the boxes that moved were full of food, so it must have been the scarf and the fruit combining to do the work. “He would,” I said finally.
Kelsey stopped and turned, hefting a box under her arm and scanning the benches as if she could hear us talking.
When Kells moved on, Ana said, “This is what you spoke of before. The barrier to romance. Ren and Kelsey were separated by time and physical location. Of course, in their case, they were also kept apart due to Ren’s tiger nature. Was this the third thing you spoke of?”
The corner of my mouth lifted. Ana had a way of distracting me from my sour moods. It wasn’t always something I liked, but it worked regardless. “No,” I said. “Most romances aren’t thwarted by one person shifting into an animal.”
“Then what is the third thing?” she asked, rising and waiting for me to follow. “Is it the approval of the family?”
“That was true in past times,” I said, following her down the rows of seats. “But not so much during this time. Children date who they like for the most part.”
“Date?”
“A modern term for courtship.”
“Oh. Did you…date Kelsey?”
“After a fashion. We had dinner together.”
“Eating is courtship?”
“It’s not so much the consuming of food as it is being alone together, getting to know one another.”
She puzzled this out in her mind as we waited for Kelsey to return so we could follow her to Ren. Ana told me that Ren couldn’t transform until she touched his head. I’m not sure why that was important. It just was according to Mr. Kadam’s notes. We watched Kelsey all afternoon and evening, but she never approached Ren during that time.
