“Kishan! This isn’t right! He wouldn’t leave you. They’ll torture him. They’ll kill him! We have to do something! We can’t let this happen!”
Kishan changed to a man and sat on the side of my bed. He nodded to Nilima, and she left us alone.
He picked up my hand and spoke quietly, “Kelsey, there was no choice. If he hadn’t stayed behind, we wouldn’t have made it.”
I shook my head in denial. “No! We could have waited for him.”
“No, we couldn’t. They shot me with tranquilizers too. I only got hit once, and I barely made it to the plane despite my ability to heal. He’d been hit at least six times. I was amazed that he could still stand. He fought bravely and well and bought us time to get away.”
I grabbed his hand as tears dripped off my chin. “Is he . . . ?” I sobbed, “Did they kill him?”
“I don’t think so. None of them had weapons other than Taser sticks and tranquilizer darts. It appeared their instructions were to take us alive.”
“We can’t let them do this, Kishan. We have to try to help him.”
“We will. Mr. Kadam is already working on locating him. It won’t be easy, though. He’s been searching for Lokesh for centuries, and the man has kept hidden well. There is one thing in our favor. Ren doesn’t have the amulet, so Lokesh may be willing to offer a trade: the amulet for Ren.”
“Fine. We’ll give him the amulet if we can get Ren back.”
“We’ll worry about that when the time comes, Kelsey. For now, you should rest. We’ll be in India in a few hours.”
“I was asleep that long?”
“You were hit twice and were knocked out for about fifteen hours.”
“Did they follow you to the plane?”
“They tried. Luckily, the plane was ready to take off. Jason probably saved our lives.”
I thought about Ren being engulfed by enemies while we ran away, and I choked on a sob. Kishan leaned over, wrapped me in a hug, and patted my back.
“I’m sorry, Kelsey. I wish it had been me, not Ren. I wish I’d had the strength to carry both of you out of there.”
My tears dripped on his shirt. “It’s not your fault. If you hadn’t been there, we both would have been captured.”
I sat up, sniffed, and wiped my eyes on my sleeve.
He ducked his head to look in my watery eyes. “I promise you, Kelsey, that I will do everything in my power to save him. He’s still alive. I can feel it. We’ll find a way, and we will defeat Lokesh.”
I wished I felt as sure as Kishan that we could save Ren. Nodding, I squeezed his hand and whispered that I’d be all right. He asked if I’d like to eat something, and even though I felt knots twisting my stomach, I said yes. He looked relieved as he rose to look for Nilima.
I wondered if he was right. Could Ren still be alive? Since the day I first saw Ren at the circus, there was a strange connection between us. Tentative and wispy at first, it grew stronger. When I went back to Oregon, the link stretched and pulled like a rubber band.
It tugged me and tried to draw me back to him. And, in the last few months as we became closer, the connection solidified and tightened, forming a steel connection. We were part of each other. I felt his absence, but the bond was still there. It was still strong. He was alive. I knew it. My heart was still tied to his. It gave me hope. I resolved that I would find him, at any cost.
Nilima invited me to eat something. She set out a dinner with a glass of lemon water that I sipped slowly while I thought about what I could do to help Ren. Kishan had changed back to his tiger form before resting at my feet. His golden eyes watched me sadly, and I leaned down to pet his head, reassuring him that I would be okay.
By the time we landed, I still didn’t have a clue as to how I would find Ren, but I knew that I would never let myself be so unprepared again. The next time something like this happened, I would fight. Now that I knew I had this . . . this lightning bolt power inside me, I would practice it. I would also ask