Page 85 of Dark Rebel's Mystery

"She just fainted," Max said, lowering Kyra gently back on the bed. "Seeing you must have been too much of a shock." His eyes darted around the room, searching for a blanket he could cover Kyra with, but there was nothing, and her skin was ice cold. The only thing she had on was a dirty shift and he suspected she had nothing under that.

He took off his tactical vest and then removed the thick sweater he was wearing underneath, leaving just a white T-shirt. Gently, he pulled the sweater over Kyra's head and then guided her arms into the sleeves. The sweater reached her knees, but he had nothing else to cover her legs with.

He was about to lift Kyra into his arms when Ell-rom reached for her. "I'll carry her."

A wave of frustration mingled with longing coursed through Max. He wanted to hold Kyra, cradle her battered body in his arms, and offer reassurance, but he had no right to her, and Ell-rom was just taking care of his mate's mother.

Arguing about who was going to take Kyra to the helicopters was ridiculous.

Jasmine, tears glistening in her eyes, brushed her mother's hair from her brow. "Dear Mother of All Life, thank you for keeping her alive."

As Ell-rom carried Kyra out of the cell, a stab of jealousy—or something akin to it—twisted in Max's chest, but he beat it down and then strangled it for good measure. Now was not the time for weird, protective instincts to come out and cloud his judgment.

55

JASMINE

Jasmine glanced at Ell-rom, who was walking just behind her, his hand resting on the handgun holstered at his side. He detested the violence even more than she did, and she wished she could whisk him away from it all.

Heck, she wished she'd had the foresight to insist that he stay in the village, but he wouldn't have agreed, and she needed to be here when they found her mother.

So far, the two prisoners they'd freed were men, and she prayed that the next door would be her mother's.

When they reached the third door, Jasmine moved up anxiously to be the one looking through the barred peep-glass at the top of it even before they got it open. "It's a woman," she whispered hoarsely.

When Max opened the door, Jasmine lost her nerve and did not dare enter the room for fear the woman was not her mother. The disappointment might undo her. But then she heard Max say her mother's name and still couldn't move a muscle.

Would Kyra recognize her?

Did she even want her abandoned daughter to find her?

Would she be disappointed in her like her father always was?

Ell-rom re-emerged from the room, placing a reassuring hand on the small of her back. His calming presence and touch finally got her moving into the cell, where Max was kneeling next to the bed.

Was it even a real bed?

It looked more like a torture device, and the chains lying in pieces on the floor weren't there for decorative purposes.

Ell-rom and Yamanu had freed her mother from the chains that had shackled her to the bed, but Max was still blocking her from view.

But then Max shifted.

A slim woman wearing a thin, stained shift lay motionless on the bed, her long dark hair spilled across a pillow that was the thickness of a pancake, the strands matted with dried sweat.

Jasmine's pulse quickened.

The woman turned and lifted her trembling arms toward Max. "Y-you… came for me…?"

It was her mother, exactly as she remembered her from her childhood. Well, no, not exactly. She was leaner now, more muscled, but still young. She hadn't aged at all.

"I came for you, Kyra," Max said softly. "You're safe now."

A ragged sob escaped Jasmine's throat. "So, it's true." She couldn't manage more than that, pressing a hand to her mouth to stifle a cry.

Her mother's ageless beauty had been frozen in time.

Jasmine's eyes flooded with tears, burning hot. She couldn't tell if they sprang from relief, shock, or the heartbreak of seeing her mother in such a state. She inched closer.

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