Page 121 of Ours
Dmitri noticed it first. He froze, his head snapping toward the horizon. “Do you hear that?”
Lev straightened immediately. “It’s a drone.”
Roman frowned, squinting into the glare. “Revenant’s?”
“I don’t think so,” Dmitri said as he climbed out of the pool, scanning the sky as he did so. Lev followed him out of the pool and looked out with him.
The hum grew louder. The water in the pool trembled slightly, concentric ripples spreading from the center.
Roman swore under his breath. “We can’t have one peaceful moment, can we?”
And then I saw it—just a flicker at first, a dark shape slicing through the sunlit air. It came in fast, angling low over the balcony.
“Get down!” Dmitri barked.
It shot at us and the glass edge of the upper pool shattered like a mirror. For a heartbeat, it was beautiful, sunlight caught in a thousand fragments of glass and water suspended in the air. Then gravity took over.
The world dropped out from under us.
Water surged downward in a violent rush, dragging Roman and me with it. I barely had time to gasp before the current pulled me through the collapsing surface. The noise was deafening, the force slamming into me from every direction. I couldn’t even scream before gravity pulled me under.
“Kara!”
Lev’s voice cut through the chaos, raw and desperate.
I broke the surface of the water below a split second later, gasping. Miraculously, the lower pool caught us, the water surging as the cascade from above poured down like a waterfall. The upper pool’s glass wall collapsed completely, shards raining into the lower level, but at least we were still alive.
“Kara! Roman!” Dmitri’s shout echoed from above.
“I’m fine!” Roman called back, coughing.
“Me too,” I yelled, sputtering a little.
Lev was at the edge, looking down. Dmitri appeared beside him a second later, scanning the sky.
The drone hovered above us, silent now. Sleek, black, and too serious looking to be designed for anything but violence. Then another joined it. And another.
Roman pulled himself out of the pool, dripping and furious. “Someone really doesn’t like us.”
Dmitri’s jaw tightened. “No. Someone wants to make a point.”
The first drone tilted forward, its lens focusing. A small speaker clicked to life, crackling with static.
Then a voice—cold, mechanical, and inhuman—filled the air.
“Kneel,” it said. “And put your hands up.”
The words echoed across the ruined terrace, mixing with the sound of water still spilling from the broken pool.
Roman looked at his brothers, then at me.
Lev’s jaw flexed. Dmitri tensed.
No one moved.
The drones hovered closer, their red lights blinking in rhythm. The sky glowed gold, the city stretched endless below, and the robotic voice spoke once more.
“Kneel.”
To Be Continued…
