Out of This World

strength ability.”

“Yeah, you’re going to need that brawn,” Kellan muttered, “to combat the lack of brains.”

“Hey!” Curly leveled his gun at Kellan. “That wasn’t nice!”

I leaped forward in my haste to get between the two. “No shooting, remember?”

“Too late,” Curly sneered.

“What do you mean?” My heart kicked, but everyone was here and accounted for…

“Nothing,” Kel said grimly.

“Let’s do this,” Curly said.

“You’re going to take the ability and go, right?” I pressed him. “You’ll leave all of us alone?”

“The moment the swap is made,” he said, and showed those disgusting teeth. “Scout’s honor.”

Uh-huh. And his honor meant so much. “No shooting, right?”

“Tell him,” Curly said, and gestured at Kellan.

I looked at Kellan, who shook his head. “Bad idea, Rach.”

“It’s the only idea we’ve got.” I looked at Serena and Axel. “You willing?”

They nodded. I had no idea what would happen to them without their abilities, but being alive seemed far more important at the moment.

The faintest purple light tinged the edges of the night sky now.

Dawn.

I turned to Axel. “What exactly happens at dawn?”

He glanced at the pirates, then whispered, “Well, you might have noticed their increased desperation and violence.”

“What happens at dawn, Axel?”

“They have to leave or risk getting stuck here.”

“Then why aren’t we stalling instead of bargaining?”

“Because they have guns,” he reminded me. “Big ones.”

Oh yeah.

“Lead the way!” Curly yelled. “To the clearing right now!”

Axel looked at Marilee, who as the new expedition leader lifted her chin regally and took the front.

We all followed, tromping through the woods in eerie silence. Even the birds were quiet today, and when I looked up, I had to execute a double take.

The crystal-clear night had shifted. The massive black, swirling cloud was back, building steam that made me gulp.

The wind had picked up, too, just like the last time, and as we finally stepped into the clearing, the first few drops of rain began to fall.

My heart kicked into gear.

With every fiber of my being, I felt…terrified. No other word described the feeling gripping me. There were so many variables and what-ifs that my brain couldn’t even take it all in. It didn’t help that the first lightning bolt was still far too fresh in my mind. It hadn’t been a piece of cake. It had hurt like hell, and all that confusion afterward, the mind-numbing fear…I didn’t want to go through it again.

Knowing how dangerous it all was didn’t help, nor did the knowledge that doing this again could send me spiraling into a coma-

I looked over at Kel, who looked bleak, his expression closed, and my heart lurched even more.

Then he staggered in a rare misstep, and I reached for him.

“I’m fine,” he said, shaking me off, not looking fine at all, but deathly pale.

Curly gestured for us to go ahead of him into the clearing, and when we both hesitated, he lifted his gun at me. “I’ll shoot her this time.”

“This time?” I looked at Kel, and I just knew. I searched him with my eyes-His dark shirt. God. I ran my hands over him and found the stickiness at his shoulder, down his side. “Oh my God! You were shot!”

“Just in the shoulder,” he said, jaw clenched so tightly he had to fit the words through his teeth.

I thought I’d been terrified before, but now it raced like ice up my spine. “Kel-”

“Later.” He moved into the clearing, but just as he did, a harsh gust of wind blew through, knocking us all into each other and down to our knees.

The clouds seemed to swell, then they lowered, surrounding us in an inky blackness that blocked out the growing dawn.

Someone gasped, and the rain began to fall in earnest, soaking into my clothing in a blink. It was going to happen any second now, I knew it.

Kellan was ahead of me. He’d pulled out the Blackberry and was crawling into the clearing, his face tight with the pain of the gunshot wound and, undoubtedly, fury with me.

Now, Rach. Now or never. Trying to be careful with his shoulder, I jumped on him, and with the element of surprise on my side, took him down to the ground and grabbed the Blackberry from him.

While he groaned and ate dirt, I sprinted up and into the clearing myself.

“Rach, no!” he yelled after me, and snagged my ankle so that I got only one foot inside before the huge CRACK sounded, and with it, screams.

Marilee?

Serena?

Actually, maybe it was me, because it hurt like hell, but only for a second, because as before, everything faded to black.

At least I alone got into the clearing, I thought with relief.

Kel was safe…

Chapter 25

I woke up to the feel of something wet dripping on my face, and every single inch of my body screaming with agony. I gasped with it, tensing.

“Jesus, Rach. Talk to me.”

At the sound of Kel’s voice, low and rough with urgency, I felt my heart tighten. I didn’t have to look at him to remember everything about him: how his eyes could see through to my soul, how his skin smelled, how yummy he always tasted, how he sounded when he was buried inside me and so turned on-

“Rach.”

I opened my eyes. I was cradled against his chest. He was a little sweaty and a whole lot wild with worry.

And shot! God, let’s not forget he was wearing a bullet, one he’d taken because I’d brought him here. “I’m fine. It’s you-”

“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.