“Shh.” He just shook his head, and held me. “Give me a minute.”

I needed one, too. Already the pain was fading, and I ran my hands over him, wanting to cry when he sucked in a pained breath. “Oh, Kel.”

“It’s not bad.”

A lie.

I was smoking again, which reminded me. The abilities.

The swap.

I stared up at the sky.

Just blue. Plain blue.

I focused on the tree above us. Just a trunk with branches and pine needles, still dripping from the deluge of rain I barely even remembered.

I couldn’t see through the tree trunk, or into the individual water droplets. In fact, I could see through exactly nothing.

I was back to normal, though even the word “normal” seemed, well, abnormal.

I looked at Kel. It was just him, beautiful, passionate, wonderful Kel. I looked at his bloody shirt, but I couldn’t see through it. Still, somehow I knew his heart was beating steady as a drum. “I’m not in a coma, right? Or…dead?”

His eyes flashed with emotion, and his arms tightened on me. “Neither, though I might kill you myself for that little stunt.”

Stunt? Stunt?

“I mean, what the hell were you thinking, pushing me aside and leaping headfirst into that bolt of lightning?” he demanded.

“I was thinking of you.”

He just kept staring at me as if he couldn’t believe I was all in one piece and unhurt. “You might have gotten yourself killed.”

“But she didn’t,” Serena pointed out, peeking over Kel’s shoulder at me. William nodded with her. “No one did, except the bad guys.”

“Right,” Kel said, so much of his soul and gut and heart in his gaze, I could scarcely breathe. “And you’re alive,” he whispered. “Alive is damn good.” He hauled me against him again, then sucked in harshly.

“The bullet exited,” Marilee said, looking down at him. “Painful, I’m sure, but you’re not still sporting steel, so that’s a relief.”

“Wait.” I blinked, looked at all of us. Me, Kel, Axel, Marilee, Serena and William. “Where are Curly and Moe?”

Serena and William looked at Marilee.

Marilee looked at Kel.

Kel looked at Axel.

Axel spread his hands out in front of him. “They won’t be bothering anyone anymore.”

“Because…?”

“Let’s just say, I’m more handy with this thing than I let on.” Axel lifted the Blackberry. “I sent them to another plane.”

“It was very impressive,” Serena said.

I looked at Kellan, who was…squinting. “Your eyes,” I said very softly. “Why can’t you see?”

“Because he threw himself in front of you,” Marilee said.

“Marilee,” Kel said in soft warning. “Don’t.”

“Don’t what? Sing like a canary?” She shook her head. “And he took that lightning bolt right in the chest-”

“Damn it, Marilee.”

“Shut up, Kellan. Rachel, I’m telling you, it’s a miracle he’s alive. It was the bravest thing I’ve ever seen anyone do.”

I couldn’t tear my eyes off Kellan as it all sank in. He’d been the one to take the direct hit, not me. Which meant…I looked at William and Serena, who looked…normal. Their odd glow hadn’t returned. I looked at Axel, who’d been able to handle Moe and Curly. At Marilee, who’d taken one look at Kel’s dark shirt and been able to tell the bullet had exited.

“You two!” They had the glow! “You got the abilities in the swap!”

Marilee smiled grimly. “Accidentally, I assure you. When we saw Kellan leap forward, we went after him and got in the way.”

“So you got your abilities back!”

“Well, not ours.” Axel looked at Serena and William, who smiled serenely, still happy without their abilities.

Axel hugged Marilee. “And we’ll owe all of you for this forever.”

Marilee sniffed, and buried her face in Axel’s chest. “God, it’s good to be back, to be going back.”

“You’re going back?” I asked.

Looking thrilled, they both nodded. “But no worries about Hideaway.” Axel said. “William and Serena want to run it, and trust me when I say this; You’ll be better off with them doing so.”

Serena and William stood arm in arm, looking ecstatic.

“You do?” I asked. “You really want to stay here?”

“So much,” William said.

I was happy for them, but…I turned to Kellan, who was clearly hurting like hell and looking worse for wear. “I wanted to step in front of you, damn it.” I fisted his shirt in my hands and hauled him nose-to-nose with me. “I wanted to prove how much I love you.” I let out a huff of air. “Damn it.”

“You already said that.” He was staring at me, his gorgeous eyes blinking as slowly as an owl’s, trying helplessly to focus in.

I sighed, and reached into his breast pocket for his glasses. Opening them, I stuck them on his nose. “There.”

He pushed them up higher. “Thanks. But back to that other thing.”

“Which? Where you stole my thunder?”

“No, the other part. The I-love-you part.”

“Oh, Kel, I do. I love you so much. But for once, I wanted to put my heart on the line. I wanted to be the one to risk something.”

“But you did,” he said, sounding a little awed. “You risked a hell of a something. You risked everything.”

“It doesn’t count when you beat me to the punch.”

“Oh, it counts,” he said very softly, and hauled me back onto his lap, burying his head in my hair, breathing me in, then pulling back again to look into my eyes. “So it’s true then?”

“All of it,” I promised, cupping his face, never more sure of anything in my life. “I love you. You. Just as you are right now.”

“Without the strength.”

“Yes, without the strength. Look,” I said with a choked-up smile, “I couldn’t have afforded replacing all those doors you’d have kept breaking anyway.”

“I’m blind as a bat,” he warned.

“I love your squint.” I gently pushed his glasses farther up his nose. “And they have this newfangled contraption called contact lenses.”

He let out a half-laugh, half-groan. “I’m serious, Rach.”

“So am I. Look, I’ve loved having you as a good friend, loved knowing you were in my life. But I held back because I was afraid. After all, good things never last, right? But you know what? Good things never need to last. It’s the great things that need to.” I drew a deep breath. “And we’re pretty great, Kel.”

He looked staggered. “Rach.”

“We’ve been through so much. And now I know what real fear is. Fear is knowing we could die and I’d held back. Maybe I needed to go through everything we did here because I needed to be led to this minute, to you.”

He smiled, his eyes shiny. “I’m growing quite fond of this minute.”

“Believe me, Kel, I won’t ever hold back again, that I can promise you.”

Looking touched beyond belief, Kel lowered his forehead to mine. “God, I love you. So damn much. I would have died a little inside if, when we got back home, things went back to the way they were.”

I tightened my arms around him. “The way we were was nice. But this is nicer.”

“Nicer.” He made a face. “Let’s throw that word out along with ‘fine.’”

I laughed. I don’t know how he did it, but he always could make me laugh. “How about amazing?”

“Better, I guess.”

“Fantastic?”

He eyed me, a smile lurking around his mouth. “Keep going.”

“Incredible. Extraordinary.”

“Extraordinary, huh?” He surged to his feet, then bent to lift me up as well, a feat that just yesterday he’d managed with such ease, he’d nearly sent me to the moon, but that now made him groan, stagger with my weight, then nearly drop me.

“Kel, careful of your shoulder-”

He leaned back against the tree, and gave me a weak smile. “I’m really going to have to work at this superhero thing.”

“No,” I murmured, my lips to his as I stood on my own two feet. “I like it best when we each carry our own weight.”

Cupping my face, he whispered my name like I was everything to him.

And in that moment, I felt as if I had the superstrength. Because with him at my side, I could do anything.

Epilogue

We watched Jack’s plane come in for a landing. He opened the door, and grinned. “How was your weekend?”

“Eye-opening,” Kel said, and took my hand.

We’d already said good-bye to Marilee, Axel, William and Serena, but we stood on the shore of the river hugging each of them again. Well, I was hugging them. Kel had his shoulder bandaged up, thanks to Serena’s healing skills, and wasn’t hugging anyone.

“We’ll be back,” I promised William and Serena. “You have the laptop,” I said to Axel. “Use it.”

Marilee hugged me hard. “Take good care of him,” she said. “And don’t be strangers. We’ll meet you here. Oh! You should come back for Halloween. You won’t believe how some of the guests enjoy that holiday.”

I could only imagine.

We got into the plane, trying not to be nervous about the flight back. I took in the sights of the towering mountains all around us, the gently swaying trees, the gorgeous day. “I never imagined that I’d actually say this,” I said, “but coming here was the best thing I’ve ever done. Let’s fly up once a season.”

Kel paled. “That seems a little frequent.”

“Once a year then.”

“With no swapping, right?”

I grinned impishly. “I don’t know…think of all the possibilities…”

“Rach.”

“Well, okay. Maybe once we’re married with little ones running around, swapping might get out of control.”

He went very still. “Married? Little ones?”

I stared at him, feeling my cheeks go red. “I didn’t mean to say that. It just came out.”

His eyes, misty and gorgeous, shimmered brilliantly, no longer filled with wild worry, but back to calm and deep and sure. “A plan, Rach? From you?”

“Yeah.” My throat was so tight, I could scarcely breathe. “Go figure, but I’ve developed a fondness for plans. Especially plans that involve you.”