Page 49 of Tiger's Voyage

“Ren? Is that you?”

The tiger purred in response.Ren.

I smiled and kissed the top of his head on my way to the bathroom. After brushing my teeth and putting on proper pajamas, I headed to bed and saw a pair of golden eyes staring at me from the veranda. Opening the door, I petted the black tiger.

“Thanks for carrying me to bed. Goodnight.” I kissed the top of his head too and went back to sleep.

The next morning, I heard a knock on my door and muffled words. I promptly fell back asleep until I felt Ren’s light touch on my forehead.

“Time to wake up, sleepy girl. We’re going to the yacht.”

I rolled over and mumbled into my pillow, “Five more minutes. Okay?”

“I’d love to give you five more minutes, but Kadam is ready.”

I groaned and shook my head as Ren smoothed the tangled hair away from my face. “You’re so cute when you’re whiny. Come on,iadala. We need to be on our way.”

“Ren? You never call meiadalaanymore, which proves I’m still dreaming. Let me sleep.”

“Okay,strimani, then.”

“Nuh-uh. I likeiadalabetter.”

“Okay, meet you downstairs.”

By the time I’d showered, dressed, and grabbed my bag, everyone was already packed into the car. Mr. Kadam was behind the wheel next to Kishan, and Ren was in the back. When I threw Kishan a puzzled expression, he smiled sadly, indicating I should sit in the back. Ren was all grins as I hopped in. He pressed a quick kiss on the top of my head, morphed into a tiger, and put his head in my lap.

Mr. Kadam looked back to check on us. “Is everything alright, Miss Kelsey?”

“Sure. Did you happen to bring breakfast to go?”

“I have the Golden Fruit in my bag,” Kishan said. “Wish for whatever you like.”

I made a blueberry smoothie for myself. Ren looked at my smoothie, interested.

“No way, Tiger. Last time was a sticky, tiger-saliva mess. Is there something else you’d like?”

He huffed and lowered his head again.

“Fine. If you get hungry later, let me know.”

Mr. Kadam, Kishan, and I talked about the prophecy the entire way, and I was so engrossed in the conversation, I was surprised when we merged into Mumbai traffic. Ren softly purred and slept on my lap. It was nice to be able to touch him even if it was just his tiger half. I stroked his head and buried my fingers in the soft fur at his neck, massaging lightly, which put him into a kind of tiger trance.

I rolled down my window and smelled the ocean and the spicy scent of Mumbai. Mr. Kadam navigated his way through a fisherman’s market, and I rolled up the window quickly as several vendors started making their way to our slow-moving vehicle.

“Keep your head down, Ren.”

His reply rumbled through his chest and into my thigh. We drove through the market to the dock, passing pier after pier and several large boats. I asked Mr. Kadam which one was ours.

“None of them, Miss Kelsey. Ours is farther out.”

“Oh.”

The boats got bigger and bigger the farther we went.Surely we’dcome to ours soon. We were running out of dock.

Finally, Mr. Kadam slowed near a gated area, so Kishan could flash a card at the security box. The gate swung open, and we drove past a sleek building with uniformed workers tending the extensive grounds.

“What’s that?” I asked.