Page 20 of Dark Rebel's Mystery

A wave of nausea rolled through her stomach. She wanted to cry, to scream, to hunt down everyone responsible and make them suffer, but more than anything, she wanted to understand why her mother had been taken and whether she was still alive.

Ell-rom's hand closed over hers, his touch warm and steady, his quiet strength helping to ground her.

"I'm so sorry," Syssi said softly. "I debated whether to share this with you, but you deserve to know the truth."

Jasmine swallowed hard. "No, I'm glad you told me. I wonder if any of it has to do with my father. If he knows."

"You will find out soon enough," Kian said. "The good news is that we know Kyra escaped and joined the resistance. Syssi's visions of her later in life prove that."

Visions were not proof, but everyone said that Syssi was exceptional and that her visions never lied. They could be misleading, though. She'd never seen Kyra's face when she had visions of her in the resistance. What if she was young in those as well, and the scene from the asylum had happened later?

"You should prepare for your conversation with your father," Kian said. "I want us to go over everything we know about Kyra."

Jasmine nodded.

"By the way." Kian put his empty cup down and reached for the plate with the cake. "I've chosen Max to accompany you and Ell-rom to handle your father's thralling."

Jasmine couldn't suppress her grimace at the mention of Max. The Guardian had made his disdain for her clear from their first meeting, treating her with barely concealed contempt just because she reminded him of someone from his past.

"I know you and Max didn't get along," Syssi said gently, "but I have a strong feeling about this. He needs to be the one to go with you."

Looking into Syssi's earnest face, Jasmine felt her resistance softening. "If you say he needs to come, I won't argue with your impeccable intuition. I'll do my best to show him I'm much nicer than that woman he compared me to."

"That's not your responsibility," Ell-rom said, his voice carrying an edge. "You weren't the one who wronged him, and you don't need to prove anything. Max is the one who needs to work on his attitude." His fingers tightened protectively around hers. "If he steps out of line, I'll handle it."

Warmth bloomed in Jasmine's chest at her mate's protective instinct, but she shook her head. "I appreciate that, my love, but I can handle Max. I've dealt with plenty of people who've prejudged and misjudged me, including bullies." She smiled. "Usually, they come around once they realize how charming and sweet I am." She batted her eyelashes at him.

"You shouldn't have to charm someone who is supposed to do his job and act professionally," Ell-rom muttered.

"No, but I choose to be gracious." She squeezed his hand. "It's easier than holding on to anger."

12

KIAN

Kian cleared his throat. "Let's focus on what we know about your mother. The more information you have going in, the better prepared you'll be to get answers from your father. It's best to get everything he knows about her in one go."

Jasmine straightened, looking relieved to shift to practical matters. "Most of what I know is from what Roni has gathered about her. Her original name was Kyra Fazel, and she changed it to Kira Orlova when she married my father in 1989. She came from Iran on a student visa in 1988 but dropped out of university after getting married."

"Do you remember her saying anything about her family?" Syssi asked. "Did she ever mention her mother or father?"

Jasmine shook her head. "I don't remember much. I was very little when she supposedly died." She closed her eyes for a moment. "The best memory I have of her is her singing to me at night. It was in another language, and I always assumed it was Persian, but now I wonder if it might have been Kurdish."

"We can find recordings of both languages," Syssi suggested. "See which one sounds more familiar."

"That's a good idea," Jasmine agreed. "I can do that tonight. I will search for lullabies in both languages."

Kian nodded. "We also know that there is no record of her being declared dead or her being buried anywhere. The divorce papers she sent from Iran looked legit, with all the proper seals and signatures. It could be a sophisticated forgery, or her signature could have been obtained while she was drugged, and then a notary bribed to authenticate it."

Syssi cut off a small piece of cake with her spoon. "Which means she was either alive to sign them or someone went to a lot of trouble to forge them convincingly, which doesn't make sense. Why bother, right?"

"Why indeed?" Jasmine rubbed her chin. "The divorce papers were an act of kindness, freeing my father to remarry. No one other than my mother should have cared enough to go to all that trouble."

That was a good point, one which Kian hadn't considered before. "I guess we will only find out who did it once we find Kyra, but that's one more indication that she's alive."

Jasmine sighed. "I wish that to be true. Regrettably, the jewelry box that she left behind didn't hold any mysteries other than the tarot cards that were hidden in a secret compartment. The rings and the gold chain were just simple jewelry."

William's team had put the box through an X-ray machine instead of taking it apart, but they hadn't found anything hidden in the lining or additional secret compartments. The one where the tarot had been hidden wasn't even that clever. It was just anempty space at the bottom that was revealed once the partitions were pulled out. Kian wasn't even sure that Kyra had intended to hide them.

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