Page 13 of Dark Rebel’s Reckoning (The Children Of The Gods #93)

13

MAX

M ax hadn't expected Kyra to react so strongly to the newsflash that her daughter was mated to Annani's brother. It wasn't Ell-rom being a half god that had impressed her so much. It was that he was related to the clan's royalty.

When she realized that he couldn't hear them, she turned to Max and whispered, "How is he as a partner, though? Does he treat Jasmine right?"

"He adores her, and he's a very gentle and mellow fellow until you threaten someone he loves."

She frowned. "What happens then?"

He couldn't tell her, and even if he could, it was better that she didn't know. "He turns into a beast." He chuckled. "Not literally. Just, you know, he becomes the protector. It's a good thing to have in a son-in-law, right?"

Kyra nodded and then sighed. "I haven't lived a normal life, so I don't have personal knowledge, but I've watched movies and heard people talk, so I'm not entirely clueless."

His heart clenched for her, but he knew instinctively that any show of pity would offend her, so he changed the subject. "What about books? Do rebels have time to read?"

She laughed. "Time is not as much of a problem as is space. I lived in tents most of the time, or in half-ruined buildings. I got to watch stuff on my phone."

"How did you pay for things? If you don't mind me asking."

Kyra tilted her head. "How do you think?"

He was about to hazard a guess when the bathroom door opened and Fenella stepped out, wearing a dark green T-shirt that covered her like a short dress.

Jasmine handed her the blanket, which she tied around her hips, and then the two walked over to their seats.

"That took a long time," Kyra said.

Fenella lifted her hands. "I didn't finish the water, if that's what you are implying. I just used the time for some self-care."

"I wasn't implying anything." Kyra glanced at Ell-rom, who was still watching his movie, and then leaned toward Jasmine. "You didn't tell me that your guy was related to the Clan Mother."

"I didn't tell you many other things as well. There just wasn't enough time."

"True," Kyra conceded. "But that should have been part of the introductions. I should have been more deferential to Ell-rom."

Jasmine snorted. "He would have hated that, so don't even think about it. Just treat him like any other guy who's about to marry your daughter."

Kyra's eyes brightened. "Did you set a date? Is there a wedding on the horizon?"

"Relax." Jasmine put a hand on her mother's arm. "There are no plans and we don't need any. Ell-rom and I are truelove mates which means more than any human marriage tradition. Immortals who are lucky enough to find their one and only sometimes choose to celebrate their good fortune with the clan and sometimes they don't. Matrimony is optional."

Kyra pursed her lips. "I'm a modern woman and a fighter for women's rights, but I still believe in the importance of family. Marriage is a contract two people enter into not only to share their lives with each other but also to raise their children together."

Poor thing had no idea what her own family had done to her, but she would eventually find out.

Jasmine shook her head. "Unbelievable. I just found my lost mother, who I believed was dead, and she right away lectures me about marriage."

Kyra's face turned ashen. "You thought I was dead? Why?"

"Because that's what my father told me, and I had no reason to think he was lying since I never got a sign of life from you."

"I'm sorry." Kyra rubbed her temples. "I don't remember anything before the asylum. I don't know how I got there or what was done to me."

Jasmine's expression softened. "You came to the US to study, and you fell in love with my father. You knew that your family would never approve of you marrying a Christian, and you told him so. You changed the spelling of your name to Kira, assumed his last name, and you thought you were safe. But they found you, somehow got you back to Iran, and instead of killing you for dishonoring the family, they put you in an insane asylum, where I assume the so-called doctor was tasked with erasing your memories of the life you were forced to leave behind."

For a long moment, Kyra gaped like a fish out of water, and Max wanted to grab her and fold his arms around her to protect her from Jasmine.

What had she been thinking?

She could have waited with that information for when Kyra was better or delivered it more gently.

"He drugged me and thralled me and did unspeakable things to me," Kyra said. "He was an immortal. Did my family know the kind of monster they hired?"

Jasmine's expression turned remorseful. "I don't know, and I'm sorry for dumping this on you like a bucket of ice water. I should have done that with more finesse. This is all speculation based on what we finally got my father to reveal. He believes that your family came for you, and the proof was the divorce papers he received from Iran. We also have what the seer saw in her visions. But that's all. The rest is guesswork."

"I see." Kyra deflated. "It was a shock to hear you say that, but I'd rather have it over and done with than get it delivered piecemeal."

"Perhaps you should rest a little," Jasmine suggested. "We don't have to cover everything at once."

Kyra sighed. "I'm getting a little tired. But there is one thing you promised to tell me that you haven't yet. You said that I can have children despite not having my monthly visitor, and I want to know how that is possible."

Max stifled a chuckle at the antiquated reference to a woman's monthly cycle.

"Immortal females don't get cycles," Jasmine said. "After you transitioned, you stopped menstruating in order to preserve your eggs. It's an on-demand kind of system so we don't run out of them. The flip side is that it's very rare. Every birth is celebrated in the clan because there are so few."

"Well, that's good to know," Fenella said. "But what happens with us next?"

Jasmine looked at Max. "Maybe you should cover that part."

"When we land, we will be met by a doctor, a real one who is very nice, and he will check all of you for hidden trackers. You might not be aware of them being embedded under your skin."

Fenella looked at Jasmine. "Is that possible?"

Jasmine nodded. "It's not very likely with you because immortal bodies reject foreign objects, but the human girls might have them. Still, it's better to go ahead and check you as well than to lead the enemy to our home. Right?"

"Of course." Fenella released a breath. "So, the doctor checks us for trackers and then what?"

"Then you will be hosted in beautiful penthouses overlooking downtown Los Angeles. Mostly, because we don't know what the deal is with the other four ladies and what the Doomers wanted with them. If not for them, you would have been taken straight to our village, but we need your help with them. Also, our doctor needs to figure out what kind of sedative was used on you. It's very difficult to keep an immortal sedated for as long as you have been. But that doesn't necessitate you staying in the penthouse. It's just a super fancy halfway house."

For a moment, a hush fell over their small group. The plane continued its soft rumble, and somewhere in the back, Max heard faint murmurs—probably the Kra-ell talking quietly among themselves.

"What did he want with us?" Fenella asked. "Were we just a plaything for a sadist?"

Max shuddered at the casual way she said that.

"We will find out when we interrogate him," he said. "We suspect that he was trying to find a way to identify Dormants. We haven't found a way to do that, and we've been researching the issue for a very long time, but perhaps he got lucky. If the other women are Dormants, that will prove it."