How proud I’d looked then. How happy and self-assured. Yes, I’d been worried about Ren but I was more concerned with the girl on my arm. Ana was right that my memories of Yesubai didn’t do her justice. Then, all I’d seen was her beauty. The kindness in her eyes. The love she obviously felt for me. Now, I could see the fear shimmering just under the bloom of her cheeks, the tremble of the glossy lips that marred her smile, and the unshed tears causing her eyes to glisten.
After they sat and Lokesh gave his final instructions, soldiers were given orders and Ren was escorted into the room. Ren had been battered, but it was nothing compared to the torture Lokesh had himself inflicted on Ren in the future. At that point in his life, Ren was still full of hope and defiance. Even when he saw me sitting on the throne with Yesubai and knew of my treachery and her disloyalty, his anger and sorrow were tiny things when weighed next to losing Kelsey.
Ren said, “Why have you—you, who are almost family—treated me with such…inhospitality?”
“My dear prince,” Lokesh answered, “you have something I desire.”
I winced, making myself listen again to every word Ren said. It was almost as if he were asking me the questions instead of Lokesh. Yes, Yesubai’s father had caused us pain, but now it was me doing this. I, Kishan, was actually the one who was going to make him, make us suffer for years.
“Nothing you could want can justify this,” Ren said. “Are our kingdoms not to be joined? Everything I have has been at your disposal. You needed only to ask. Why have you done this?”
Why, indeed? Though my brother couldn’t see me, I strode over to him and put a ghostly hand on his shoulder. Both of us stared at Lokesh as he rubbed his jaw. Being with Ren like that, standing next to him, was the way it always should have been. Brothers, side by side.
“Plans change,” Lokesh said. “It seems that your brother would like to take my daughter for his bride. He has promised me certain remunerations if I help him achieve that goal.”
The two went back and forth. My hands itched to do something. To stop Lokesh. Here. Now. But I wasn’t supposed to do that. I was there to make a decision. One that would affect not only my life but the lives of every single person I loved in the world.
My younger self hissed, “I thought we had an arrangement. I only brought my brother to you because you swore that you would not kill him! You were to take the amulet. That’s all.”
“You should have learned by now that I take whatever I want,” Lokesh answered.
Was that who I always was, a man who took? I’d taken Yesubai. I’d taken Kelsey. And now there was Ana. If I made the decision to keep the power of the amulet, would I be taking away her choices? Ren’s?
That’s when I heard it.
I will stand by you, brother.
Stunned, I quickly glanced up and saw Ren was looking directly at my old self and he was looking back. Was that my voice or Ren’s? Was it possible we’d always be connected somehow through the Damon Amulet, or was I just hearing the echo of thoughts coming from my younger self? There was no way to know.
Lokesh’s outcry diverted all eyes to him. “Perhaps you require a demonstration of my power. Yesubai, come!”
The poor girl whimpered and twisted her body on the golden chair as he approached. Before he could reach her, Ren, ever the hero, intervened and brought her father’s attention back to him.
My brother cried, “You are like a coiled cobra that has been hiding in his basket, waiting for the moment to strike.” He looked at Yesubai and then at my old self. “Don’t you see? Your actions have freed the viper, and we are bitten. His poison now runs through our blood, destroying everything.”
How ironic that it actually was a viper that was ultimately Lokesh’s undoing. If only Fanindra were here now.
“Do you want to hear her scream?” Lokesh threatened as the tiny hold he kept on his sanity extinguished. “I promise you she does it quite well. I offer you a choice one last time. Relinquish your piece to me.”
As Lokesh, face turning purple, threatened Ren, I thought about Yesubai. Now I knew firsthand what Ren had suffered at Lokesh’s hands. But what had she suffered? Ren had only been trapped with Lokesh for a few months, but Yesubai had lived with him for sixteen years.
“So be it,” Lokesh said and pulled a knife from his robe. He whispered words as he twirled a medallion, conjuring the blood spell to make Ren his slave.
As he worked, I noticed something I didn’t see before. Light grew around Ren and Lokesh as the spell progressed, but Yesubai was also glowing.
Do you see it, Ana? I asked.
The tiger stone carved from the egg of the phoenix shows us the truth, Ana answered.
It would seem I no longer needed to touch a piece of the truth stone to see into the hearts of others. I could see it through Ana’s eyes. Yesubai’s whole body seemed to shine with a golden luster that reminded me of Ana when she was in goddess form. I walked over to Ana where she watched quietly, her back to a pillar.
What’s happening to her? I asked just as my former self leapt from the dais to attack Lokesh.
Yesubai stood and her aura grew until she looked like a small sun about to explode.
It is a gift, I think, Ana said, her arms folded across her chest. She closed her eyes. Yes. When Lokesh killed Yesubai’s mother, Yuvakshi, she made a dying wish, one born of love. Her final plea echoes in my thoughts even now.”
What was it? I asked.
It was the simple wish of a mother. That her baby would know she was loved and that she would be protected from the threat of her father. Yuvakshi’s plea was heard and the universe granted her request. Yesubai has manifested two gifts because of this. To hide from her father, she has developed the gift of invisibility.”
You mean she can phase out of time like we do?
Ana pondered this. No. I believe it is simply a form of camouflage, like that of animals blending into their environment.
Then she could have left him at any time.
Ah, but young Yesubai loves her nurse and has often sent pleas to the gods on her behalf. She would never leave her nurse behind. Her father made sure the nurse was always nearby so his daughter would do as he asked.
Then what was the second gift?
It is the miracle of healing, both for herself and for others. It is this gift she gives you now.
What? What do you—
Ana took my arm and turned me back to the scene. Lokesh was grappling with my younger self while Ren struggled to get to his knees. At the same time, Yesubai, arms raised, was chanting, whispering a plea for divine intervention. Ana and I watched as the power lifted from Yesubai’s body in a golden cloud. It split in two, half of it shooting toward Ren and the other half to my former self. The princes’ wounds instantly began to heal.
You mean that’s why we can heal? I’d always thought it had to do with the amulet or with the tiger itself.
Ana shook her head. The healing was always a gift from Yesubai.
A sweet feeling of deep gratitude filled me. How often had I taken for granted our ability to heal? Ren and I would have died several times over if not for her sacrifice.
I glanced back at the girl, but Yesubai disappeared before my eyes. Ana pointed and I could just make out her ghostly form as she picked up a forgotten knife. She plunged the weapon into Lokesh’s back, but the strike wasn’t enough to kill him.
The brave girl, her cloak of invisibility falling away, then leapt in front of my old self to protect him as Lokesh came in for the kill. He used the power of the air and the earth to strike her a blow hard enough to lift her petite frame high into the air.
She came down and tears filled my eyes when I heard her head hit the edge of the dais with an unmistakable crack. Even if I hadn’t already known what happened next, both Ana and I had enough experience to recognize a killing blow when we saw it. Time froze.