Page 18 of Dark Rebel’s Reckoning (The Children Of The Gods #93)

18

KYRA

T he bus engine hummed, keeping the interior warm while they waited for Max and Yamanu to finish whatever task had required everyone else to clear out. Kyra had a good idea what that task was—the Doomer's body had to be scanned as well—but she pushed the thought aside.

She'd see him again when the time came for answers.

New clothes made a world of difference to how she felt. She'd kept Max's sweater, but now she was wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt underneath, soft cotton leggings, and a pair of thick socks inside snow boots that were a size and a half too big but kept her feet wonderfully warm.

The other women looked equally transformed in their fresh attire, though their eyes were still haunted. The four humans looked incredibly young, and her heart ached even more, knowing that they had been robbed of their innocence. Fenella was holding up better than the rest, but that was no wonder given that she was much older, older even than Kyra, and immortal.

Syssi settled into the seat across the aisle, her kind face creased with concern. "Perhaps we can use this time to get introduced properly?" She motioned with her head at the four young humans sitting behind Kyra and Jasmine.

"Good idea." Kyra rose to her feet and Jasmine followed suit.

She stood next to the first two. "We haven't been properly introduced yet. I'm Kyra, and this is my…sister Jasmine. What are your names?"

The oldest, who couldn't have been more than eighteen or nineteen, straightened her shoulders. "I am Arezoo," she said, then gestured to the girl sitting beside her. "And this is my sister Donya. That's my sister Laleh and next to her is our cousin Azadeh."

Kyra's heart clenched at how young they all looked. Donya and Laleh had the same delicate features as their older sister, while Azadeh had slightly darker coloring.

"How old are you?" Kyra asked gently.

"I'm nineteen," Arezoo said. "Donya is seventeen, Laleh just turned sixteen, and Azadeh is eighteen."

Kyra exchanged a pained look with Syssi. Just children, really. Still, in Iran they were all considered old enough to marry, and they were all pretty girls. The fact that they weren't married indicated that they were from an urban area and members of an upper socioeconomic class. Those tended to marry their daughters off at an older age than those in rural areas.

"What happened to you?" Kyra asked. "How were you taken?"

Arezoo twisted her hands in her lap. "We were home, doing homework. Someone knocked on the door..." Her voice cracked. "Then we woke up at that horrible place. None of us remembers how we got there."

"One moment we were safe at home," Azadeh said softly. "The next..." She shuddered.

"We need to call our parents," Laleh burst out, her young face pinched. "They must be so worried about us."

Syssi leaned forward, her expression gentle but firm. "I know you want to contact your families, but it's not safe yet. The people who took you might be monitoring your family's phones, waiting for just such a call."

"It doesn't matter," Arezoo said, tears glistening in her expressive eyes. "We can never go home anyway. We would be killed for bringing shame to our family."

"Not true!" Donya grabbed her sister's hand. "Our parents love us. They wouldn't do that. Besides, we don't have to tell them what happened. We can say we were kidnapped but were rescued unharmed."

"They won't believe us." Arezoo's voice cracked.

"We can help you," Syssi said. "Don't despair. We will find a solution."

It was an empty promise, especially if the girls were Dormants, but right now they needed reassurance.

Kyra had so many questions she wanted to ask about what had been done to these girls, but the bus was too public. The Kra-ell warriors who had settled in the back of the bus all wore earpieces like the ones Syssi had brought for the girls, so they might understand what was being said, and it wasn't fair to the girls to discuss what had been done to them in front of these strangers, even if they had been their rescuers.

That reminded Kyra that she should thank each one of those fighters for coming for her. They didn't know her, and they had risked their lives to save her. That made them good people no matter how strange they looked. In her book, they were better people than a hell of a lot of humans.

She turned to Syssi. "Do all the earpieces translate Farsi and Kurdish?"

"I'm not sure," Syssi admitted. "Those languages were only recently added to the system, and mine were already updated with the latest version, but I don't know if all the devices were updated. I can check." She shifted her gaze to the back of the bus. "Jade? Can I bother you for a moment?"

One of the impossibly tall, thin females made her way forward. Up close, her alien features were striking. Her dark eyes looked disproportionately large in her delicate face, but she was still beautiful in a very alien way.

"Go ahead," Syssi motioned for Kyra. "Say something in Farsi."

Kyra offered the female her best friendly smile. "Thank you so much for coming to rescue me. I owe you a great debt of gratitude." She made a fist and thumped her chest. "Sisters."

The female returned her smile. "Sisters." She thumped her own chest. "Fellow warriors." She dipped her head, turned on her heel, and returned to her seat next to a younger version of herself.

A daughter?

Given the body language between the two, they were mother and daughter, but it was very subtle.

"Jade is a female of few words," Syssi whispered. "But she's the deadliest warrior you will ever encounter. She saved my husband's life."

If Jade heard Syssi's whisper, she didn't acknowledge it in any way.

"And now she's saved mine," Kyra said. "Not on her own, but still. I'm in her debt."