He smiled. "I'm here. I said I'd never leave you again. Even if you stab me, you can't get rid of me that easily." He tried to laugh at his own lame joke and coughed up blood.
I willed the sphere to work faster. "You didn't leave me, you're right. You came for me." I couldn't believe it—the man he'd become in such a short time.
Even after everything I'd said and done, he'd stayed. He'd been willing to die for me in order to save me. His thoughts and memories flowed into my mind as I held him, playing a movie of everything that happened while I'd been under Steele's control—how he'd put aside his fight with Darren to help me; how he'd just wanted the best for me, even if that meant letting me go; how he'd still be the man he needed to be, even if I didn't choose to stay with him.
Susie had been right: trust could be earned back.
I just wished he hadn't had to almost die so many times for me to see it. "I trust you, Drake. I trust you with my life, and with Ana's."
I pulled the chain I wore out of my shirt. "Look."
He opened his eyes, and I slid his engagement ring off the chain and onto my finger. "Yes, I will marry you. So don't die."
Chapter 133 - Lucy
Lucy sat on a rock next to Luke and threw pebbles into the lava. Her mind couldn't quite settle on the fact that they'd won. For real. All the bad guys were either dead, turned good, or in custody. Emotions bubbled in her, like the lava below her had, and she couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry, or both.
Everywhere she looked, IPI agents ran around doing something useful, but Lucy couldn't move. Hunter had called in IPI support, and they'd finally listened once they heard about Steele. Darren and his team had been freed of the rock prison and were being treated for injuries. The businessmen Steele had hung over lava were in custody, awaiting arrest and indictment of some kind.
Panic filled the streets of Honolulu, according to reports she'd overhead—ironic that they would freak out after the threat had been neutralized. Diamond Head would never look the same. Its guts had been exposed by the expulsion of power, and instead of dirt and shrubs littering the top, it now showcased a sea of hardened ballast, the cooled black lava that remained from the fiery hell it had been not so long ago.
Two agents pulled Simmons away. Her face contorted in a mix of madness and rage and she screamed out obscenities, followed by denial. "They disobeyed my orders. They were helping Steele. It's all a trick. I've been framed!"
She kicked, punched, and even bit one of them, but they finally got her into the helicopter and cuffed to the seat.
Lucy sighed in relief.
With Steele defeated, IPI believed Sam's story, especially after she showed them images of what happened with her through some new mind trick she'd learned. That, and the fact that everyone backed her story, and Simmons had clearly gone mental, was enough to convince them.
Once Steele died, his powers over others perished with him. Adam towered above an agent who looked scared out of his mind but dutifully took his statement. Adam was clearly doing his best to appear non-threatening, but nothing he did helped the agent any.
Lucy laughed at that, but wondered what would happen to him and the other Grunts now.
Sam had rescued Ana as soon as she'd saved Drake's life, and now the three of them huddled together away from everyone else. Drake still looked beaten up and exhausted, but he'd be fine. It was nice seeing them together as a family. Drake had really stepped up when it mattered, and Lucy admitted a begrudging but growing respect for the guy.
The familiar comfort of the sphere in her hand pulled Lucy back to her current dilemma. She stroked the cool metal and stared at its glow.
Sam had returned it to her, but Lucy hadn't wanted it.
She'd pushed it away. "It's dangerous."
Sam pushed it back. "It's a tool. People are the danger."
So now Lucy sat and contemplated what to do with the sphere.
She turned to Luke. "What do you think we'll do next?"
He tossed a pebble onto the hard lava. "I don't know, Luce. I'm done saving the world for awhile, but I know this work is in our blood. It's who we are."
She nodded. If they hadn't been there, all those kids would have been sold instead of rescued by IPI when the Grunts stopped following Steele. Sam and Drake would likely be dead. Hell, the whole world would probably have gone into World War III, with Steele and Simmons leading the charge.
She couldn't believe she'd ever doubted this mission.
She felt Beleth before she saw him, his wings fluttering in the air. "Wait here, Bro. I'll be back." She stood with the sphere in hand and walked away, past the jutting cliff.
An IPI Agent walked by with a cuffed man that she recognized—the man who had brought Ana out.