Page 130 of Tiger's Destiny
Ren felt my dismay at my failure. He knocked Sunil over and raced back to my side. I leapt on his back and without breaking his stride we circled widely and headed back to confront Lokesh again.
It’s okay. We’ll get him, but we can’t let Lokesh control Durga, Ren quietly insisted.We have to stop whatever it is that he has planned for her.
As we spoke, the goddess riding the black tiger appeared out of the mist. Amphimachus lifted a spear, ready to meet Kishan and Durga. Kishan fought him with heavy claws, but Durga seemed to be in a trance.
Ren headed toward them as I raised the Rope of Fire and whipped it around Amphimachus’ leg. The blue flame did its work. He screamed in terrible pain, clutching his head. Kishan leapt at his throat and finished him off.
“That’s unfortunate for him. He won’t be able to fully appreciate his transformation. When they’re dead it doesn’t hurt,” Lokesh sneered from behind me and yanked the real medallion from his pocket.
Suddenly, Durga came out of her trance. She touched the Scarf to her sword, gripped the blade with two hands, and formed a kite that lifted her into the air, away from Kishan. She dropped to her feet and drew her weapons, aiming them on me. I whipped my body to the side, barely hanging onto Ren as thechakramflew over our heads.
Kishan leapt toward us but he slid in a sudden pool of oil and fell hard as threads wound around his body, trapping him in a tight net. He kicked and struggled, trying to get loose while Sunil headed toward Kishan with a spear.
I raised my bow and arrow but threads shot toward me and ripped them from my hands. A rope tightened around my ankle while another slithered around my waist and I was yanked from Ren’s back.
“Anamika! Stop!” I yelled as I raised my sword to her throat. “I don’t want to hurt you!”
She knocked the sword from my hand and gracefully slipped the Rope of Fire from me and wrapped it around her own waist. She used the Scarf to tie me down. One by one, her eight arms grabbed mine and wrestled the other weapons from me. When she was done, she turned to Lokesh.
“What do I do now, Master?”
“Tell me, my girl,” he cooed in her ear, “what is the secret of your power?”
“Our power lies in the weapons,” she explained in a mesmerized voice.
“Does Kelsey have a power of her own?”
My eyes widened, and I gasped for air as she clutched my throat and squeezed.
“No more than I do,” Durga replied.
“Ah, then perhaps . . .”
Lokesh screamed as Ren sunk his claws into his back. The evil sorcerer fell to the ground and rolled but not before Ren slashed at him with his claws and bit his shoulder. Violently, Lokesh twisted back and forth and used his horn to pierce through Ren’s armor.
Ren got to his feet while blood dripped heavily from his side. His tiger limbs shook, but he gathered himself for another leap.
Lokesh rose and bellowed, “Today you meet your death, Prince Dhiren.” He raised his arms, and spears lifted into the air, shooting toward Ren.
I yelled and summoned the only power I had left: fire. I raised my hand and shot a flame at Durga but she didn’t even react when I burned her skin. Aiming my fire power at Lokesh didn’t work either. He immediately created a shield of stone. Ren leapt toward Lokesh, claws extended and teeth bared. The dark demon twitched his fingers to redirect the spears to hit Ren mid-flight.
“Ren!” I shouted.
I could actually feel the sharp pointed tips enter his body. Some of the weapons glanced off his silver armor, but one sunk into his hip, another penetrated near his neck, and a third pierced his exposed underbelly. Ren cried out and fell heavily to the ground. Lokesh slammed his cloven hoof down on Ren’s foreleg, and the bone snapped.
Pain flooded Ren’s mind and I screamed. A few seconds passed and I felt him shutting me out until all I could sense of him was a weak mental voice. I felt a surge of power enter my body and knew that he’d given me all the remaining strength he had. He strained to push one final thought into my mind.I love you, Kelsey.And then his voice was cut off completely.
The threads from the Divine Scarf tightened around my limbs as Lokesh approached. He leaned over me and ripped the crown from my head. My hair fell in waves and he picked up a lock and rubbed it between his thick fingers. He touched my cheek with a jagged, filthy nail and trailed it down to my collarbone, leaving a wicked scratch.
“You’ve deceived me, my dear. I can’t let that go unpunished.”
With a rough snap the last piece of the amulet was ripped from my neck.
“I’ve waited a long time for this.”
Tears slipped down my face. Anamika was under Lokesh’s power, Ren was incapacitated if he was alive at all, and Kishan was tied up somewhere. I was all alone.
A glint of gold wrapped around Durga’s upper arm caught my eye. Fanindra!
