Page 67 of Dark Rebel's Reckoning

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.

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