Page 55 of Dark Rebel’s Mystery (The Children Of The Gods #92)

55

JASMINE

J asmine glanced at Ell-rom, who was walking just behind her, his hand resting on the handgun holstered at his side. He detested the violence even more than she did, and she wished she could whisk him away from it all.

Heck, she wished she'd had the foresight to insist that he stay in the village, but he wouldn't have agreed, and she needed to be here when they found her mother.

So far, the two prisoners they'd freed were men, and she prayed that the next door would be her mother's.

When they reached the third door, Jasmine moved up anxiously to be the one looking through the barred peep-glass at the top of it even before they got it open. "It's a woman," she whispered hoarsely.

When Max opened the door, Jasmine lost her nerve and did not dare enter the room for fear the woman was not her mother. The disappointment might undo her. But then she heard Max say her mother's name and still couldn't move a muscle.

Would Kyra recognize her?

Did she even want her abandoned daughter to find her?

Would she be disappointed in her like her father always was?

Ell-rom re-emerged from the room, placing a reassuring hand on the small of her back. His calming presence and touch finally got her moving into the cell, where Max was kneeling next to the bed.

Was it even a real bed?

It looked more like a torture device, and the chains lying in pieces on the floor weren't there for decorative purposes.

Ell-rom and Yamanu had freed her mother from the chains that had shackled her to the bed, but Max was still blocking her from view.

But then Max shifted.

A slim woman wearing a thin, stained shift lay motionless on the bed, her long dark hair spilled across a pillow that was the thickness of a pancake, the strands matted with dried sweat.

Jasmine's pulse quickened.

The woman turned and lifted her trembling arms toward Max. "Y-you… came for me…?"

It was her mother, exactly as she remembered her from her childhood. Well, no, not exactly. She was leaner now, more muscled, but still young. She hadn't aged at all.

"I came for you, Kyra," Max said softly. "You're safe now."

A ragged sob escaped Jasmine's throat. "So, it's true." She couldn't manage more than that, pressing a hand to her mouth to stifle a cry.

Her mother's ageless beauty had been frozen in time.

Jasmine's eyes flooded with tears, burning hot. She couldn't tell if they sprang from relief, shock, or the heartbreak of seeing her mother in such a state. She inched closer.

Max was murmuring something soothing, wiping hair away from Kyra's face.

Kyra's lashes fluttered, her lips parted in a silent gasp. Her gaze, dazed and half-lucid, skimmed over Max with a flicker of trust in her eyes—an instinct that seemed to tell her that she was safe with him. Then her focus wavered, drifting past him. Slowly, as if through fog, Kyra locked on to Jasmine's face.

Jasmine's whole body stilled under that faintly familiar gaze. A hundred emotions collided in her chest, jamming into a single heartbeat.

She wanted to gather her mother in her arms and never let go.

But before she could do more, Kyra's features crumpled with a wild, desperate confusion, and then, like a candle snuffed out, she passed out—head lolling sideways, body going limp in Max's arms.

A strangled sob escaped Jasmine's throat. "What happened?"

"She just fainted," Max said. "Seeing you must have been too much of a shock."

Ell-rom placed a supportive hand on her shoulder.

Jasmine could only nod, words failing her.

With gentle care, Max let go of Kyra and unclipped something from his tactical vest, setting it aside. Then he pulled his sweater over his head, leaving only his T-shirt. He carefully clothed Kyra, like one would a fragile flower, with the sweater. Jasmine's chest constricted at the gentle gesture.

And to think she'd thought he was callous when he'd been so unfriendly to her on the cruise, when he could manage such tenderness for a woman he'd never met, especially after the bloody battle he'd fought.

He tugged the sweater down to cover Kyra's thighs. It was big enough to swallow most of her, even though she was nearly as tall as Jasmine.

She turned to Ell-rom. "Can you please carry my mother?"

"Of course." Ell-rom stepped forward, but it took Max a long moment to move aside and allow him access.

As Max put his tactical vest back on, Ell-rom gently slid his arms around Kyra and lifted her off the bed. Her head rolled to rest against his shoulder.

Jasmine brushed her fingertips over Kyra's brow, swallowing back tears. "I can't believe she's real and that we actually found her."

As Ell-rom carried her mother out of the cell, Max and Yamanu followed them out into the corridor.

Max handed the keycard to Yamanu. "We need to pick up the pace." He glanced at his watch. "We barely have any time left."

Jasmine turned. "We can't just leave them here to fend for themselves. We need to help these people." She gestured to the corridor. "The older guy from the first cell could barely walk. Others might be in worse shape than that. There could be women in here."

A muscle in Yamanu's cheek twitched. "This isn't what we came here for, Jasmine," he said as calmly and gently as he could. "We have your mother—that was our mission. We don't have the time or resources to do anything else. Reinforcements are probably already on the way, and we can't risk being here when they arrive."

"We could take them with us," Jasmine said.

He looked puzzled. "And what? Leave them in Turkey? I said we'd bust them out of their cells. They'll have to figure out the rest. If we stay too long, we might lose everything. You understand that, right? We can't save everyone."