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.”
“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.