Page 24 of Tiger's Voyage

“I hope so. I’ll miss you. Sorry to leave so abruptly, but I’m suddenly anxious to get this curse over and done.” I grabbed my backpack and headed out the door.

Kishan gathered his things quickly and caught up to me.

“Kells,” he started.

“Can we just walk for a while? I don’t feel like talking.”

His golden eyes perused my face until quietly he said, “Okay.”

Before I’d taken many steps the white tiger was walking next to me, butting his head against my hand. I refused to look at him, clutched the straps of the backpack, and purposefully moved to Kishan’s other side. Kishan looked at my tight expression and then at the white tiger, who fell back and walked behind us. Soon he was far back enough that I couldn’t see him anymore.

I relaxed my stance and hiked without speaking and without stopping for food or rest until I couldn’t walk another step. Creating a small tent with the Scarf, I fell on top of my sleeping bag, skipped dinner, and let the brothers fend for themselves. They left me alone, for which I was both grateful and disappointed, and I fell into a deep sleep.

I woke when the sky was still dark and checked my phone for the first time in days. No calls from Mr. Kadam. It was four in the morning. I didn’t feel like sleeping anymore so I popped my head out of the tent and saw the weak flames of a dying fire. Neither Ren nor Kishan were around. Placing a couple more logs onto the fire, I built it up until it was crackling again and wished up a hot chocolate. I sipped my drink slowly as I stared into the flames.

“Have a nightmare?”

I whirled around. Ren was leaning against a tree. I made out his white shirt but his face was in the shadows.

“No.” I stared into the flames again. “I just slept enough, that’s all.”

He stepped into the firelight and sat on a log across from me. The flickering flames made his golden-bronze skin glow warmly. I tried not to notice.Why does he have to be so good-looking?His blue eyes studied me intently.

I blew on my cocoa and looked everywhere but at him. “Where’s Kishan?”

“Out on a hunt. He doesn’t get to do it very often anymore, and he enjoys it.”

I grunted. “Well, I hope he doesn’t expect me to pick out the porcupine quills. If he gets those, he’s on his own.” I took another sip. “Why didn’t you go with him?”

“Because I’m watching over you.”

“You really don’t need to. I’m a big girl. Go hunt if you want. In fact, you probably should. You’re still too skinny.”

“Nice to know you’ve been looking. I was worried you’d forgotten all about me.”

I raised my eyes to his and sputtered with anger. “Forgotten all about you?Me?Forget aboutyou? I … you know what? You’re really starting to annoy me!”

“Good. You need to get it all out.”

I set down my mug and stood. “Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you? You’d love to have me profess my undying love for you while you laugh in my face and mock me!”

He stood too. “I’m not mocking you, Kelsey.”

I threw my hands into the air. “Well, why not? You might as well. You took away everything in the world that was important to me! You plucked out my heart, squeezed it in your hands, and gave it to the monkeys to play with. I shouldn’t have trusted you! What an idiot I was to believe that you actually had feelings for me. That you cared about me. That we belonged together. You’re just a … just a square pillow. And I’ve recently discovered that I like round ones!”

He laughed, which irritated me even more.

“I’m a square pillow? What does that mean?”

“It means we aren’t meant to be together, that’s all. I should have known that you’d trounce all over my heart. All those things you said, all those poems you wrote—they meant nothing to you. When we get home, I fully intend to give back every one of your poems.”

He stiffened. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, they don’t matter anymore. They might as well be thrown into the fire because that’s the only warmth they’ll ever offer me.”

“I don’t believe you’d do it.”

“Watchme.”