Page 59 of Dark Rebel's Reckoning

She yearned to start with the biggest news that she was their aunt, but the damn Doomer hadn't provided her sisters' given names, just their married names and addresses. How could she prove to these girls that she was their aunt when she couldn't even tell them the names of their mothers?

Her own memories had been somehow erased by that monster, either with thralling or drugs or both, so all she knew was what he had told Toven.

She had four younger sisters but couldn't picture their faces or recall a single moment shared with them. The loss ached like a physical wound.

"Perhaps we should start with the background," Kyra said to Jasmine. "You did a very good job explaining it to me."

Jasmine regarded her for a long moment, as if she was reading all the things Kyra wanted to say but couldn't, and then nodded and turned to the girls with a gentle smile. "Do any of you know the stories from the Bible?"

Since owning a Bible was illegal in Iran, Kyra doubted the girls knew anything about it.

As she'd expected, the question landed like a stone in still water. All four girls stiffened, their expressions closing off. Kyra understood their reaction all too well. In Iran, religion wasn't just faith—it was law, wielded like a weapon to control every aspect of women's lives. The modesty police enforced dress codes with brutal efficiency, and defiance could mean execution.

"The Christian Bible?" Arezoo finally asked.

"The creation story is almost the same in the Quran as it is in the Bible," Kyra said. "But they have demons instead of the sons of gods. These demons unite with women to create the giants of the Bible, and in return for the union the demons teach the women magical spells. That's the closest it comes to the story you are referring to."

"Oh, well." Jasmine waved a dismissive hand. "That will make things both more difficult and easier. I can just tell it like a fictional story, only everything I will tell you is true."

Arezoo, ever the protective eldest, lifted her chin. "You can spin any tale you want. That doesn't mean we have to believe you."

The girl's defiance made Kyra's heart swell with pride even as it broke for what they had endured.

Jasmine glanced at Max, a small smile playing at her lips. "Max will later demonstrate things that will convince you of the veracity of my claims."

Kyra didn't miss how all four girls tensed at the mention of Max. Their gazes darted to him, a mix of fear and suspicion in their eyes. Even lounging casually, Max's masculine presence filled the room. They felt safe with Ell-rom, who projected a very mellow character, but Max was so male that even when he smiled and tried to look nonintimidating, he was still imposing, and the girls had a bad history with immortal males.

They might not have realized that their tormentors hadn't been human, but they could have picked up on the different energy.

Jasmine caught the worried looks the girls directed at Max and turned to him again. "Would you be a sweetheart and make tea for everyone? Some cookies will sweeten the mood as well."

"Gladly." Max pushed to his feet with fluid grace, heading toward the kitchen.

It was a brilliant move on Jasmine's part. In a culture where women were expected to serve men, having this obviously powerful male prepare refreshments for them sent the right message.

"I'll help," Ell-rom said, following Max to the kitchen.

Jasmine leaned forward, lowering her voice conspiratorially. "Did you ever wonder how humans came to be?" Her tone invited confidence, creating an atmosphere of shared secrets between women. "I'm sure you don't believe that we were created from clay, right?"

The girls exchanged glances before shaking their heads in perfect unison. The movement was so synchronized that Kyra had to suppress a smile. They were just adorable.

"We evolved from apes," Arezoo said hesitantly, as if speaking such words was blasphemous and rebellious, which they were.

"That's true," Jasmine agreed easily. "We did, but not in the way most people think." She settled back, creating a storyteller's atmosphere. "A very long time ago, and I'm talking millions of years, the first humanoids branched out. There are all kinds of speculations about how they became bipedal and why their brains grew bigger than those of other apes, but I won't get into that. The short version of the story is that without outside intervention, we would still be just a little smarter than apes. Evolution works very slowly, and the rapid growth of our brains and what they can do can't be simply explained."

Kyra watched the girls' faces as they absorbed this. Arezoo maintained her skeptical expression, but Kyra could see curiosity flickering in her eyes. Donya and Laleh leaned forward, drawn into Jasmine's conspiratorial storytelling. Even Azadeh, who had been the quietest since their rescue, seemed engaged.

Jasmine was truly a gifted actress, and it was obvious that she loved performing for a crowd.

"What intervention?" Laleh asked.

Jasmine's eyes sparkled. "Ah. Now we get to the juicy part of the story."

39

MAX

As Max filled the electric tea kettle, his movements automatic while his attention remained fixed on Jasmine's voice drifting in from the living room, it suddenly struck him that Kyra hadn't told her daughter that the girls were her cousins. She'd only told her that they were family.

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