Page 60 of Dark Rebel's Mystery

Kian cast him an amused smile. "I suggest that you get a crash course and Jasmine a refresher. You have a few hours, and it's not as difficult as it sounds. But if you prefer not to carry, you don't have to. You are a weapon yourself."

Ell-rom nodded. "I keep forgetting that."

The poor guy wanted nothing more than to forget what he could do, but his ability might be needed to protect the lives of his team members.

"Let's continue," Onegus said.

As they ran through the final details, an uneasy sense of finality settled over Kian, and he laid his hand flat on the table, glancing around at his people. "This mission is personal. Syssi's visions have pointed us toward Kyra, and we hope to find her in that compound. Let's offer a prayer to the Fates and the Mother of All Life for a successful retrieval of Jasmine's mother and everyone returning unharmed."

After a short moment of silence, Onegus rose to his feet. "I think we've covered everything. Let's head out."

After everyone left, Kian turned to look outside, but night had fallen and the automatic shutters had come down, so he didn't know whether it was raining.

He walked over to his desk, pulled out the bottle of whiskey in the bottom drawer, and poured himself a shot.

His mother had set a broad mission for her children to advance humanity and protect it from the twisted manipulations of Navuh and the other followers of Mortdh, but they were nowhere near achieving their goals. Perhaps rescuing Kyra would have ripple effects that none of them could imagine that would somehow bring the clan closer to eradicating evil from the world.

It was an absurd thought that one woman could be the key to salvation, but with so many of Syssi's visions centering on this one person, that person had to be of vital importance.

But how?

Maybe Kyra would help them find Khiann, and he was the key to eradicating evil?

From his mother's stories, he seemed like a good guy, but he hadn't been a formidable god like Ahn or a genius like Ekin, so that wasn't likely.

It was still up to Kian and his clan to eradicate evil, and it felt like a Sisyphean effort.

All the lives the clan had saved from trafficking networks and twisted Doomer-run operations were small victories that chipped away at evil. But each time they cut off one head of the Hydra, another slithered forward.

Toven's words drifted into his head.We need to cut off the entire serpent, not just a piece.

But how to do that? Navuh's structure of darkness was anchored in centuries of cunning, infiltration, and cruelty, and every time Kian thought their archenemy was defeated or even just slowed down, he discovered that Navuh had managed to outsmart him once more.

Evil thrived in too many corners of the world, and the clan stepping in to rescue one woman was a drop in the ocean.

Yet that one life might matter immeasurably.

41

KYRA

As the rustle of her tent flap pulled Kyra out of her shallow sleep, she bolted up in bed with the dagger she always kept under her pillow.

"Don't kill me!" Zara threw her hands up in the air.

"Zara? What's going on?"

"Sorry about giving you a scare." The woman crouched beside her cot. "The supply run was successful. No ambush. But we've heard through the grapevine that new prisoners are about to be delivered to the compound. I thought you would want to know right away."

Kyra was immediately wide awake. She'd been expecting the current prisoners to be shipped out but not new ones to be delivered, not before the higher-ups' visit that had the entire staff in a flurry of cleaning activity.

Unless the higher-ups were arriving with the new prisoners, then it would all make sense.

Most of the cells were occupied, though, so if they were bringing in new people, they had no choice but to take the old ones out, and hopefully not with a shot to the head, but to transfer them somewhere else. The cells in the compound were meant for interrogation and not for long-term incarceration.

"When?" Kyra asked.

"Tomorrow. That's why I'm here instead of hitting the shower. They will most likely arrive in the evening because that's how long the drive from Abjid takes. We didn't get any information about who the prisoners were or who was bringing them in, but there is only one road they can take through the mountains, and we can stage an ambush there."

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