Page 45 of Tiger's Voyage

“Kelsey … has Mr. Kadam told you anything else about the Star Festival? I mean, how it originated?”

“No. Why don’t you tell me?”

Ren urged me to sit and took a seat next to me, stretching his arm behind my back. Scanning the sky, he pointed up. “There. Do you see that star?”

I nodded.

“That one is Vega and the other one next to it is Altair. The Chinese version of the story is that Vega and Altair were lovers who were kept apart by the Sky King. He created a great river, the Milky Way, to separate them. But Vega wept so much for her lover that the Sky King took pity on them and allowed them to come together once a year.”

“On the seventh day of the seventh month.”

“Yes. So when the two stars come together, we celebrate their romantic union by placing wishes on a tree, hoping that they will look down upon us in their happiness and grant us our wish.”

“That’s a lovely story.”

He turned to me and lightly touched my hair. “I filled the tree with my wishes, which are all variations on the same theme.”

“What’s your wish?” I asked softly.

Ren twined his fingers with mine, though I knew it burned him. “My wish is that I can find a way to cross that river and be with you again.” He raised my hand to his cheek.

I brushed a strand of his hair gently away from his forehead. “That’s my wish too.”

Ren slid an arm around my waist, drawing me closer.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” I whispered.

“Don’t think about it,” he replied. He cupped my face and kissed me tenderly—just barely brushing his lips against mine—but I felt his arm tremble and gently pushed him away. “You’re getting sick. You can stay near me longer if you move away a little.”

“Don’t you want me to kiss you?”

“Yes. I want it more than anything, but if I have to choose, I’d rather have you near than kiss you briefly and have you leave.”

He sighed. “Okay.”

“You’ll just have to woo me with words instead of kisses this time.”

Ren laughed wryly. “‘As soon go kindle fire with snow, as seek to quench the fire of love with words.’”

“Well, if anyone can do it, you can, Shakespeare. May I read some of your wishes?”

Ren smiled. “If you do that, they won’t come true. Don’t you believe in wishing on a star?”

I stood, walked to the tree, and plucked a leaf. “Shakespeare also said, ‘It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.’ We’ll make our own destiny. We’ll shape our lives the way we want. I want you in my life. I chose you before, and I choose you again. We’ll just have to deal with the physical barriers. I’d rather be around you like this than not at all.”

He walked up to me and wrapped his arms around the fabric of my dress. I laid my head on his silk shirt.

“You may accept this now, Kelsey, but in the end you might choose differently. You will want to have a family, children. If I can’t get over this, we could never be together that way.”

“What about you?” I mumbled against his chest. “You could be with another woman and have those things. Don’t you want that?”

He was quiet for a long minute. “I know that I want to be with you. Kishan was right when he said that you are the perfect girl for me. The truth is we can wish all we want to,strimani, but there are no guarantees in this life. I don’t want you to sacrifice all those things, to sacrifice happiness, to stay with me.”

“I would be sacrificing happiness if Ileftyou. Let’s not talk about it tonight.”

“It’s something we’re going to have to talk about eventually.”

“But you don’t know what will happen. You could get your memory back when we find the next object or complete the four tasks. I’m willing to wait that long. Aren’t you?”