Page 111 of Tiger's Destiny
I’d fought hard for them, I rationalized. I had almost been killed many times. And all Anamika had to do was become a beautiful goddess and take the man I love as her consort. I thought about the Kappa bite, the monkeys, the giant shark, the Kraken, and the Stymphalian birds. Then there was Lokesh himself.It isn’t fair.
I knew it was wrong, but I couldn’t help feeling cheated sitting at the other end of the table. It was like I’d been summarily dismissed. Used. My perspective of the goddess shifted. As I mulled it over in my mind, I thought back to all of our meetings in the temples. When she’d promised to protect Ren, it wasn’t for me at all, my resentful heart shouted. It was for her! She made him forget me.Me!If I’d only known that her plan was to take him for herself, I would have stayed in Oregon and let her go after her own gifts.
“Learn the lesson of the lotus flower,” she’d said. Well, if I was a lotus flower, then she had essentially plucked me from the water and ground me into the dirt under her feet.
My eyes were captured by a flash of gold from Kishan’s tunic. Durga’s brooch. I sighed and remembered that she didn’t have everything. I still had my golden bow and arrows, the Fire Amulet, the Pearl Necklace, and Fanindra.
I repeated over and over as I pushed the food around my plate, “This is why we’re here. This is why we’re here.”
The glorious goddess and her power washed over me from the other side of the table like heavy waves, leaving me feeling as pale and as dank as rotten seaweed.
That’s what I am, I mused darkly.I’m as rotten on the outside as I am on the inside. I’m a power-hungry girl from the future who craves the love of two brothers and wants to keep all the magic too.There was nothing I wanted more at that moment than to cheat Anamika of her destiny and take it all for myself.
Then she touched Ren and whispered something into his ear.
Ren bowed his head as they conversed quietly, intimately, together, and I realized that there was something else I wanted more than the Pearl Necklace, more than the Golden Fruit and the Divine Scarf. More than Durga’s destiny, Fanindra, and more than the Fire Amulet.
I wantedRen.
The force of the emotion came on like a hurricane. I’d been jealous before when Ren had danced with Nilima and all of the girls at the beach party, but even then, a part of me knew that it wasn’t my Ren doing those things. That Ren had lost his memory of me. Now I was faced with the sight of a man who was very muchmyRen being close to another woman. I couldn’t stand it. I felt like I was being torn into two. My world was unraveling even faster than the Scarf could.
I sank my head into my hands and stared at the uneaten food on my plate. The scent of cinnamon and saffron wafted to my nose. Kishan asked if I was feeling well, and when I shook my head, he rose and led me back to my tent.
Kishan stayed for a while, but I told him I needed to be alone to think. I rubbed a pearl on the Necklace between my fingers and realized I’d been doing that since dinner started. Just because I could, I filled a cup with water using the Pearl Necklace. Then, in a vengeful mood, I soaked all of Anamika’s clothes and filled her boots with water. Next, I created fog and made it rain on her bed. After her side of the tent was dripping, I got rid of all the water. I was surprised and slightly disappointed that her cot and her boots were completely dry.
When Anamika finally entered the tent several hours later and sank into a chair across from me, I was playing with my cup of water, draining and refilling it over and over using the Pearl Necklace.
Anamika watched me for a time and asked what I was doing.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?”
I’d tried to muster a snarky, sarcastic tone, but it came off as sad and pathetic.
“What is wrong with you?” she asked. “Are you ill?”
“Maybe. What if I was?”
“Bah, you are not sick, except perhaps in the head.”
I rose and pointed my finger into her face angrily. “If anyone here has brain damage it’s you. Why were you showing off your powers to those men? Did you need some more followers? Is that it? What’s wrong? Ren isn’t enough for you anymore?”
She folded her arms and stared at me. “I thought the point was for me to impersonate a goddess. That is difficult to do without showing them powers.” She angled her head. “This is not really about the Fruit or the Scarf, is it?”
“Partially,” I grumbled moodily.
“You are the one who told me to do this, Kelsey. I didn’t ask to take on this role.”
I pointed out glumly, “And yet you fill it so well, don’t you?”
She sighed. “Is this about Dhiren?”
I froze and stammered, “Why do you think that?”
She considered my question. “It is natural to be concerned for your brother. You wish him to be happy. If my brother brought home a woman, it would be difficult to see her take my place at his side.”
“Ren isnotmy brother.”
“You are betrothed to Kishan, and Ren obviously holds you in great esteem. You are close. He is like a brother to you, and you want to see to his welfare.”
