Page 66 of Dark Rebel's Reckoning

"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 therehad 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 motherwouldn'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."

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