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Realization dawned on me. The guys are here. “How? It’s not time yet and…”
He let go of the device and shook his head, patting the sofa next to him as he sat down. I could sit. And wait. And be safe. That’s what they’d told him to tell me.
JoHanna’s father’s name was Timothy, a minor and meaningless point for my mind to focus on when it couldn’t quite stop jumping from thought to thought. An explosion sounded somewhere in the distance, and Timothy nodded. He lifted his hand and showed me his fingers in a countdown from five. Another explosion echoed in the distance.
They happened again and again after that. Shouts. Gunfire. I covered my ears. It was loud, terribly so, and I didn’t want anyone except Clarke and his men to be hurt. Maybe I was a bad person for even wanting that.
Timothy rose. “I think it’s okay to talk now. They said by now no one would be listening in here.”
“How did they do this? The lightning.” I ran a hand through my hair and started pacing the room. “I don’t understand.”
“Right.” He got up, too. “The bad guy who poisoned my daughter—Net—he had a ship, and there were things on the ship. I’m sorry, I’m not being articulate. There were things. And they used them to make their shuttles work.”
That made sense. This is nuts. “So the four of them, and you, came for me? That’s impossible.” Tears flooded my eyes again but this time they were happy. “I never would have dreamed it.”
“The four of them? No, I mean, yes, they’re all here. I mean…most of the planet is here. Some people who came, I haven’t even met. They left two just in case, but they’re all here. No one was okay with Clarke kidnapping you. You’re ours. I mean, you belong to yourself, of course, but you are on our planet, which makes you our responsibility. They love you, and that gave the others all kinds of hope or something. No, it’s not just the four of them.”
My knees gave out and I would have fallen, but the door swung open. Gunnar was suddenly there, catching me in his arms.
“There you are.” He kissed my forehead. “You’re okay. Little overwhelmed? I’ve got you. Always.” He kissed the end of my nose. “I’m sorry it took so long for us to get here. Are you okay?”
“Took so long?” I hadn’t expected to see them ever again. I threw my arms around his neck and held on tight. “You’re a miracle for my eyes to look at.”
“Oh, Raven.” He kissed my lips. “I cannot do without you. The four of us need you like we need air, okay? No one will ever take you again.”
He kissed me all over my face until I was dizzy. When I finally pressed my lips to his it was the sweetest feeling in the whole universe. Gunnar is here.
I pulled back to find Timothy vanished. Where had he gone? “Gunnar, I have to tell you something. Maybe it’s too late. Oh no.”
He yanked me even tighter against his hard body. “What? Talk to me.”
“Okay?” Mace was suddenly there, pressed against my side. “Why is she crying? Are you hurt? Did they hurt you? Who the fuck do I have to kill?”
“Oh,” I threw my arms around him then. He smelled so good. So familiar. So home. “I was just going to tell him Stone and Amias are alive. The doctor—Lydia—she put them in cryo. They still have to be fixed, but they’re there. In the med room.”
“Really?” Gunnar laughed. “Fuck. Amazing. Okay. Let’s go there. Nothing happened in the med bay. We never blow a hospital up.” He took my hand and Mace took the other one. “Crew and Ransom and everyone has heard you. Let’s go see the situation there.”
When I reached their location, I found Lydia and Cambree huddled together in the corner. I let go of my guys’ hands to rush to them. “It’s okay. They’re here to rescue me.”
“And put a stop to all of this shit,” Ransom added as he rushed into the room. “No more of Clarke and his crap, Butterfly. He’s done terrorizing this planet.” Ransom grabbed me and kissed me. “I don’t know who he sent to take you, but if you see him, point him out, will you?”
My mind stuttered. What was I going to do about that? “Um, sure. If I see him.” I made eye contact with Cambree. I’d just lied to Ransom, but if he noticed it, he didn’t say a word. Instead, he picked me up in his arms and kissed me, hard.
We weren’t alone, but he didn’t seem to care as he lifted his head to talk to me. “I love you. Okay? It’s a foreign word to us. Not one we expected to ever use, but I love you. We should have ended it years ago, and then we could have found you and brought you home where you would’ve been with us even longer, but we didn’t know what was happening here. I’m sorry we didn’t. I love you.”
In the corner, Cambree cried, and they all turned to look at her. “They really love you. I mean…they really do. They did this whole thing for you.”
“We do love her,” Mace said and stroked a finger down my face. “She is our forever and our reason why.”
“We love her so much,” Gunnar proclaimed walking over to the cryo machines. “This is incredible. I haven’t seen this kind of tech since Evander fell.”
Explosions were still going off in the distance. A bizarre moment, I realized, with the dichotomy of my sweet reunion with three of them and the mess still happening out there.
Ransom looked at me. “Some of the others are helping the frightened women. They’re not thrilled with us, because we’re Super Soldiers, and I can certainly understand why. Hopefully, they’ll soon figure out we’re not here to take over where Clarke left off. We’re here to remove him, the others, and give you back your planet.”
“Really?” Lydia cleared her throat. “You’re going to leave?”
“Yes.” Mace nodded. “We have a home. We’re going back there.”
