Page 42 of Dark Rebel’s Reckoning (The Children Of The Gods #93)

42

KYRA

K yra dabbed at her eyes with the back of her hand, unaccustomed to such an intense display of emotion. The girls seemed equally affected, but the ferocity of their reaction puzzled her.

These girls had clung to her as if she were a lifeline in a storm, yet they'd only just learned of her existence.

Was it simply a release of tension after the nightmare they'd endured? Or was it the profound relief of discovering they weren't alone in the world, especially when they believed returning home was impossible?

Max and Ell-rom slipped out onto the terrace through the sliding glass doors, which gave them privacy for the uncomfortable conversation to come. She appreciated their understanding that some things were easier to discuss in a women-only space, particularly given what these girls had been through.

She needed to learn more about her sisters and the rest of her nieces and nephews, but she didn't want to start by telling the girls that their families were in danger.

"Tell me about your families," Kyra said, settling back on the couch. "Do you have any other siblings? Are your mothers very religious? How do they get along with your fathers? Are they happily married?"

As she'd expected, Arezoo regarded her with that penetrating gaze that seemed too old for her nineteen years—a familiar wariness that Kyra recognized from her own reflection.

"Are you asking just because you are curious or for some pragmatic reason?" the girl asked.

Perhaps she shouldn't dance around the truth, especially given that she was leaving tomorrow, and they deserved to know why she was abandoning them so soon after finding them. "Both," she admitted. "I don't even know my sisters' names." The words tasted bitter on her tongue, a reminder of everything that had been stolen from her. "The other reason is that the fake doctor told us his minions are going to abduct more of our family members. Your other cousins. They might even take your mothers if they think they are attractive enough."

Arezoo paled, her olive complexion taking on an ashen hue. "Why does he want more of our family? Is it because he thinks all of them can turn immortal?"

Kyra nodded. "He thinks that he can have immortal children with you and with us. As Jasmine explained, immortal males can't have immortal children with human females. The only way he can have immortal children is with immortal or Dormant females." She waved a hand over the group. "That's me and Fenella because we are already immortal, and you because you are Dormants. Luckily immortals, males and female alike, have a very low fertility rate, so the chances that he got any of us pregnant are very low, but just to be sure, the clan's doctor is arriving this afternoon, and she will conduct some health tests to check that no permanent damage was done to us, and she will also check for pregnancies."

The girls exchanged glances, some silent communication passing between them, but they didn't panic as she'd expected.

Arezoo chewed on her lower lip. "He didn't do what you think he did to us. We are still intact."

That caught Kyra off guard, a wave of relief washing over her so intensely that it left her momentarily speechless. But it was highly improbable, given what she knew of the Doomer's intentions, and she suspected that the girls were either in a state of denial or that they had been heavily drugged while the unspeakable had been done to them.

"Are you sure?" she asked, unable to keep the skepticism from her voice.

Arezoo looked to her sisters and cousin, who all nodded in confirmation. "Unless he did it when we were drugged, but we would have known, right? We would have been in pain and there would have been blood."

Kyra exchanged looks with Fenella, who had joined her on the couch and appeared equally perplexed.

"How is that possible?" Kyra asked.

Fenella shrugged, her expression contemplative. "Who knows what that crazy son of a bitch was thinking. Maybe he didn't want them to transition and thought about inseminating them just to get them pregnant." She turned to the girls, her voice softening. "You were probably injected with fertility drugs like me and Kyra."

"We were injected with all kinds of things," Donya said. "We felt sick most of the time."

"How long did he have you?" Fenella asked. "I was so heavily sedated that I didn't notice anything going on around me. I didn't even know that you were there."

"I'm not sure," Donya said, twisting a strand of hair around her finger. "We were also heavily drugged, but I don't think it was more than a week. We were taken on Saturday afternoon."

"It's Friday now," Jasmine said. "That means that he had you only for a few days. He might have been just prepping you with the fertility drugs."

Arezoo nodded, her hands tightening into fists in her lap. "I didn't know what he was pumping us with, only that it was bad."

Something didn't add up in their story, and Kyra leveled her gaze at Arezoo. "If you are all still virgins, why did you say that your families will kill you for ruining their honor?"

The stark question silenced the room. Even Fenella, who rarely seemed fazed by anything, looked uncomfortable.

Arezoo sighed, her shoulders slumping. "It doesn't matter what really happened. The fact that we were taken and held by men is enough to put a stain on our honor. No one will believe us that we weren't violated." She swallowed audibly, her voice dropping to barely above a whisper. "Besides, he touched me. He just didn't...you know. I was drugged, but I still knew what he was doing." She swallowed. "I was sure that he wouldn't stop at that, but for some reason he did."

It occurred to Kyra that he could have thralled the memory from their minds and gotten rid of the evidence of blood, but there had been no logical reason for him to do so. He wasn't merciful, and the only reason to make the girls forget the violation would have been to spare them the pain, which he surely wouldn't have bothered with.

Donya nodded, wrapping her arms around herself as if suddenly cold. "He touched me too. I thought it was a nightmare, but it must have been real."

Laleh and Azadeh shook their heads as if to say that nothing like that had happened to them, but the haunted look in their eyes told Kyra they feared the worst.

The realization sent a surge of rage through her.

She took a deep breath, suppressing her anger. The girls needed her to remain cool and collected, to support them, and to maintain control.

"You don't have to go back if you fear for your lives. You can stay with us here. But you might be wrong about your families. Perhaps they will be more understanding than you give them credit for."

Arezoo shook her head. "I don't want to risk it. I'd rather stay here with you." Uncertainty filled her expressive eyes. "If you want us, that is."

"Of course, I do."

She didn't know where she stood as far as the clan was concerned, but she felt Kian wouldn't say no to her hosting the girls.

"It's our father," Donya said quietly. "He's very traditional and he's a commander in the Revolutionary Guard. Our mother wouldn't…" A sob escaped her throat. "At least, I hope she wouldn't."

"We intend to save your mothers and aunts as well, but only if they are willing to come with us without their husbands," Kyra said. "We're mounting a rescue mission." She touched her pendant, drawing strength from its solidity. "I'll be leaving tomorrow with a team to find them."

"You're leaving?" Arezoo's voice sharpened with alarm. "But we just found you."

"I know," Kyra acknowledged. "I'd rather not leave you either, but I need to save my sisters if I can, and the team needs me. I know the territory, I speak the language, and most importantly, I'm family. Your mothers might trust me when they wouldn't trust strangers."

"How will they even know who you are?" Donya asked. "You look too young to be their sister."

Kyra hadn't fully worked that part out yet. "I'll tell them that I'm your cousin, Kyra's daughter, and that I'm searching for my mother." She shifted her gaze to Jasmine. "It will be easy to pretend to be you now that I know your history."

Jasmine nodded. "We need all the information we can get from the girls about your sisters and their families. That will help convince them as well."

Kyra turned to the girls. "The fake doctor didn't remember the names of my sisters or their addresses. He only provided us with the name of the neighborhood your family lives in. I need you to fill in the blanks for me."

Arezoo hesitated only for a moment. "Our mother's name is Soraya," she said. "She's the eldest. Well, eldest after you, and the three of us are her only children. She's married to Fareed."

"My mother is Rana," Azadeh offered quietly. "She's the next oldest. My father's name is Hamid. I'm their only child."

"And the other two?" Kyra prompted.

"Yasmin and Parisa," Arezoo said. "Aunt Yasmin has three daughters and two sons. Aunt Parisa has four sons."

Kyra absorbed the information, these names that should have been familiar but felt like those of strangers. Soraya, Rana, Yasmin, Parisa. Her sisters. Women who shared her blood but not her memories. Women who might not even want to see her, given what their father had done to erase her.

"You named me after your sister," Jasmine said, a tone of accusation in her voice. "You told my father that I looked like Jasmine from Aladdin and that's why you named me after her."

Kyra sighed. "I wish I remembered that. I also had a rebel friend named Parisa, but that had nothing to do with my sister. It's just a popular name."

"What if our mothers don't want to come with you without our fathers?" Laleh asked suddenly. "Our mother will miss us, but she will miss Father too."

Arezoo shook her head. "We can't bring Father here. He's a loyal Revolutionary Guard officer." She looked at Kyra. "He's gone a lot, and our mother is alone. She might not be as opposed to the idea as Laleh thinks."

It was a hint that things at home weren't as peachy as Laleh believed, but Arezoo wanted to protect her youngest sister from ugly truths.

"We will respect your mothers' choices," Kyra said. "We'll warn them of the danger, offer them protection, but ultimately it will be their decision. But your cousins deserve the same chance you're getting, the girls and the boys are Dormants. They could become immortal."

"How?" Arezoo looked at Jasmine. "You keep saying that the gods found a way to activate the dormant genes, but you didn't tell us how it is done."

Kyra wondered if they should tell the girls now or wait until later. They'd already absorbed too many revelations.

Fenella snorted. "That's a conversation for another day, girls. Trust me."

Kyra shot her a grateful look. "Fenella is right. This can wait. Tell me more about your mothers and your aunts. Are they happy? How do they get along with their husbands? How religious are their households?"

"Why does that matter?" Arezoo asked, that suspicion creeping back into her voice.

"Because it might tell me how receptive they'll be to what I have to tell them. And whether they'd consider leaving their homes or are they too deeply entrenched in their lives there."

The girl nodded. "My mother is not happy," she said bluntly. "My father is away a lot, which is good because when he comes home, he expects her to serve him." She cast a quick glance at her youngest sister. "She smiles when he's around, but it's fake." Her jaw tightened. "When he's gone, it's like she's a different person."

Kyra suspected that Arezoo was censoring the description for Laleh's benefit.

"My father isn't as strict as Uncle Fareed," Azadeh said. "But he doesn't love my mother. She cries a lot when she thinks I can't hear her. I think he blames her for not being able to have more kids and that the only one she gave him is a girl." She looked down at her hands. "I also think he has a mistress."

"Is that a thing in Iran?" Jasmine asked. "I thought that with the morality police and everything, people didn't fool around."

Fenella snorted. "You'd be surprised. It's do as I say but not as I do. There are different rules for those with power and those without."

Kyra's heart ached for these women she couldn't remember. Had her sisters been forced into these marriages as their father had planned to force her?

"What about Yasmin and Parisa?" she prompted. "Are their situations similar?"

"Aunt Yasmin got lucky," Donya said. "Uncle Javad is kind. They're always laughing together when they think no one is watching."

"Aunt Parisa is a widow," Arezoo said. "Uncle Hasan was in the Guard like our father and got killed. She hasn't remarried."

A widow with four sons; Kyra filed that information away. Of all her sisters, Parisa might be the most open to the truth because she wouldn't need to leave anyone behind. She could be the most willing to explore a different path.

"What about your cousins?" Kyra asked. "How old are they?"

As the girls began describing their cousins, ages eight to fifteen, with personalities as varied as the stars, Kyra felt a growing connection to this family she couldn't remember and an increasing sense of urgency.

Hopefully, they wouldn't be too late.