Dark Awakening: Echoes of Destiny (The Children Of The Gods #88)

59. Drova

59

DROVA

D rova shifted uncomfortably on the lounge chair, the early morning dew seeping through her clothes. She had spent the night in Pavel's backyard, hidden from view by the lush vegetation that surrounded the house.

Her phone was off and hidden inside a planter outside the café, so they couldn't find her by the signal, and she'd made sure to avoid all the monitoring cameras on the way, so they couldn't find her by looking at the feeds.

She didn't know what she hoped to achieve by hiding out here. Eventually, they would find her, but for now, she would enjoy a few more hours of freedom and maybe come up with a strategy.

What if she claimed it was all just a prank?

But that would defeat the purpose of everything she had worked for. Pavel and his buddies talked big about how living in a village was unnatural for pureblooded Kra-ell, but none of them suggested any viable solution.

They didn't want to admit it, but they were comfortable living in the village without having to do anything unless they wanted to. Some had volunteered to join the Guardian force and help rescue victims of trafficking. It was a worthy cause, but the truth was that helping humans clean up their scum was never the Kra-ell's job, and it wasn't the immortals' either.

They should focus on their own communities and train to protect them from the other immortals she kept hearing about, who were more numerous and had been taught to hate their cousins in Annani's clan with rabid fanaticism.

That alone should be reason enough for the Kra-ell to leave and form a community of their own. Jade and the others thought there was strength in numbers, but that was a mistake when they acquired the immortals' powerful enemies in exchange for the questionable fortification of their force.

The other immortals were not looking for the Kra-ell because they didn't know they even existed, but they were looking for Annani and her clan.

With a groan, Drova turned on her back and brought her knees up.

Why was something so clear to her, and not clear to everyone else?

Were they all less intelligent than her?

Her small acts of rebellion were a test of her ability, but they also proved to Pavel and his buddies that it was possible to resist the immortals without doing harm to them. She set out to reveal the immortals' weaknesses, not to harm them.

But as her abilities grew, so did her ambitions. The thrill of compelling others to do her bidding, of sowing chaos in this perfect little community, had been intoxicating, and she had gotten slightly carried away.

Well, it had been fun.

Drova smirked, remembering the looks of confusion on the faces of the immortals as they tried to make sense of the malfunctions and thefts plaguing their precious village.

Now they were coming for her, but they wouldn't find her.

Her mother hadn't even noticed her absence last night, which was as it should be. According to the Kra-ell tradition, Drova was old enough to fend for herself. To Jade's credit, she'd always treated her as such, almost never questioning her comings and goings, but sometimes Drova wondered if it was out of respect or neglect. Jade asked Phinas where he was going and when he was coming back because she cared about him. Didn't she care about her own daughter?

Whatever. Drova had exploited her freedom to the fullest.

Now, as she lay on the uncomfortable lounge chair, though, Drova knew that freedom was coming to an end.

After Parker hadn't shown up at the playground last night and the girls told her what they had seen, she'd gone snooping around his house, or rather as close as she'd dared, and she had seen Onegus, Kian, Toven, and Mia come out. They'd looked grim, but she hadn't been sure whether they had cracked Parker until she'd heard the lock engaging on the front door of Magnus's house and, a moment later, the lock on the door leading from the kitchen to the side yard had been activated as well.

No one ever locked their doors in the village. The only reason a senior Guardian like Magnus would lock his doors was to keep her out.

They were afraid of her, which gave her a small measure of satisfaction.

Still, she needed to confide in someone, and Pavel was the only one she could think of. She needed to boast before they came for her and arrested her so he would at least know what she could contribute to the resistance.

Maybe he could help her?

When the living-room sliding glass doors opened, and Pavel stepped out, she sat up and smoothed a hand over her hair. It was probably a tangled mess right now.

He frowned. "What are you doing here, Drova?"

"Waiting for you to wake up. I need to talk to you."

Pavel glanced at his watch. "I need to be in class in half an hour, so make it quick."

His stupid Guardian training could wait. The guy was too dumb to realize that it didn't make sense to talk about resistance while serving on the immortals' Guardian force.

So why did she crave him so much?

Just because he was handsome and could make her laugh?

Yeah, he wasn't the stupid one. She was.

"You might want to be late for this." She pushed to her feet. "Can we talk inside?"

Pavel moved aside, letting her in.

"Where are your roommates?" she asked.

"They have gone on ahead."

"Good." She pulled out one of the kitchen stools, sat down, and motioned to the other stool. "Sit down."

She might have unintentionally laced her voice with a smidgen of compulsion because Pavel obeyed immediately.

Taking a deep breath, Drova began to explain. She told him how she'd tested her power on Parker, an immortal compeller, and on Lisa and Cheryl, his human best friends, whom he hadn't been able to free from her compulsion. Then she'd finished with her biggest triumph, resisting Toven's compulsion and fooling even the great god himself.

As she spoke, Drova's voice grew more animated, a hint of pride creeping in. "Don't you see, Pavel? I'm the key to your resistance. Whatever you and the others dream up, I can make it happen." She searched his face for the admiration she hoped to find there but encountered only wariness. "But now that they've cracked Parker and gotten him to snitch on me, they're probably looking for me as we speak. But with your help, and with the resistance behind me, we could?—"

"Stop," Pavel cut her off. He smoothed a hand over the top of his head, taking a deep breath. "That was an incredibly stupid thing to do, Drova, and coming here instead of turning yourself in was even worse. They will think that I'm your accomplice, and I can't let that happen."

Drova felt as if she had been slapped. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. Pavel was supposed to understand, to see the potential in what she had done, to appreciate her and see her as more than a female too young for him.

"Come." Pavel extended his hand. "Let's go to Kian's office and try to sort this thing out. Thank the Mother of All Life, you didn't commit any serious crimes, so they might let you go with a slap on the wrist and maybe a cuff to follow your movements. "

Hurt and anger surged through Drova. Without thinking, she lashed out with her power, her eyes flashing as she snarled, "Eat dirt, Pavel!"

She watched with satisfaction as Pavel's face contorted, his body fighting against the compulsion. For a moment she thought he might resist, but then he stepped back outside and bent down, his hand reaching for the ground.

A cruel smile twisting her lips, Drova shoved past him and then turned and fled, pushing through the back gate and out into the village proper.