Page 3 of Dark Rebel's Reckoning

"As real as you are, and I'm taking you to safety. No one is going to hurt you ever again."

He would make sure of that.

As a resident of the village, she would be protected.

Fenella exhaled shakily, and the tension in her face melted into exhaustion. Her eyelids drooped, and she slumped against his chest again.

"How does she know you?" Jasmine asked.

He chuckled. "Remember the woman I told you about? The one who you reminded me of? This is her. Her name is Fenella, and evidently she was a Dormant and I induced her transition."

As another wave of turbulence jolted them, the pilot came on the com, "We're about to cross the border into Turkey."

Max breathed out. "Copy that. Any sign we've been spotted?"

"So far, it's quiet."

He closed his eyes, letting the hum of the rotors wash over him.

In the darkness behind his lids, he could almost see the mission in fragments—the infiltration at dawn, Jade's savage strength, plowing through the corridors with her Kra-ell warriors who had been unstoppable in their bloodlust and fury. Yamanu and Drova getting shot. The metal doors behind which terrified detainees had cowered, not trusting that their salvation had arrived.

Max had barely had time to thrall the released male prisoners to forget details about their rescue and instruct them to walk toward the town. Hopefully, they would find people willing to help them and direct them toward the Kurdish rebels so they wouldn't get recaptured.

Across from him, Kyra suddenly twitched, and her eyes shot open in panic. "My pendant?" she rasped, voice barely audible. "Did you get it?"

Max raised an eyebrow. "What is she talking about?"

"Syssi saw it in her vision," Jasmine said. "An amber pendant." She leaned over her mother. "I'm sorry, but you didn't have any jewelry on you, and there was nothing in the room you were held in."

A tear slid down Kyra's cheek. "He took it," she murmured.

"Who?" Jasmine asked but got no answer.

A spasm of despair crossed Kyra's face, and as she slumped back again, another tear rolled down her cheek.

One of the guards must have taken the pendant, and there wasn't much Max could do about it other than to get her a new one, but he was pretty sure it hadn't been just a piece of jewelry. It must have meant something to Kyra for her to cry over it.

Jasmine caught his eye and gave him a brief nod, but he wasn't sure what she was trying to communicate. He and Jasmine had gotten closer during this mission, and he'd changed his mind about her.

She was a surprisingly resilient young woman, and he admired how unshaken she appeared despite the carnage she'd just witnessed. Then again, she might be putting on a brave facefor the sake of her mother and the other young women they had rescued. She was the only female team member on this helicopter, and the others looked to her for cues about what awaited them at their destination.

The truth was that Max had no idea.

He just knew they couldn't leave them behind to suffer even more abuse, and he wasn't sure they could leave them in Turkey either. Not until they could figure out why they had been taken and what had been done to them.

Max had a feeling that it had to do with Kyra and Fenella being immortal. Maybe the scumbag doctor thought he could turn these young women into immortals as well, and the big question was why he would think that.

The clan had yet to figure out how to identify Dormants, and there was no way the Doomers could know who could be induced to become immortal and who could not.

Well, they would know soon enough if the Doomer had discovered something the clan had failed to do despite centuries of effort. Once they revived him, Max would be the first in line to incentivize the minion of darkness to tell them everything he knew.

2

KIAN

Kian shifted his gaze from the proposal he was reviewing to glance at the clock at the corner of his laptop screen, but only a couple of minutes had passed since he'd checked it last.

Yamanu had already notified him that the team had boarded the helicopters, but it had been only to say that everyone made it out okay and that they had Kyra. The rest of the details would have to wait until they arrived at the airport in Turkey.

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