Page 27 of Dark Rebel's Reckoning

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 todiscuss 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."

19

MAX

After securing the Doomer in the cargo bay of the bus, Max bounded up the bus steps, his hand clutching the pendant in his pocket.

Regrettably, he couldn't sit next to Kyra because she was sitting next to Jasmine, so he had no choice but to deliver the good news standing next to her.

Yamanu, who got in behind him, passed by on his way to Mey, who was saving a seat for him.

"Look what I found." He pulled the pendant out and held it up. "The scumbag had it on him."

Kyra's eyes went wide, her hand flying to her mouth. "My pendant!" She reached for it, and as he let go of the chain, she clutched it to her chest. "I felt like a piece of me was missing." Tears welled in her eyes. "Thank you for bringing it back to me."

"I cleaned it thoroughly," Max assured her quickly. "That bastard was wearing it under his shirt, and I didn't want you touching anything that had been against his skin. I scrubbed it with a wet washcloth."

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