Chapter 27
Allie was braiding Gwen’s hair when Gwen opened her eyes, and closed them, and opened them again, very slowly.
Allie curled the braid and set it on the top of her head. She was making a crown of braids for Gwen. She thought Gwen looked
very regal, a lovely if beleaguered queen—one preparing to sip a magic draught and sleep for a thousand years.
“Hey,” Allie said. “You back with me?”
Gwen said, “Is Colin dead?”
Allie’s knees knocked the side of the cot and she smoothed her hands on her gray corduroys.
“Why do you say that?” she answered, at last.
Gwen shut her eyes again. “I dreamt I was home and the phone rang. Only when I picked up the receiver, it wasn’t a phone at
all. It was that Aztec shell. You remember the conch? I held it up to my ear and I could hear Colin in there. He said it was
dark. I could hardly hear him and I kept asking him to speak up but then he told me he had to whisper because there was someone
else in the cave with him. I asked who and he said it was Elwood. That he could hear Elwood Hondo coming for him. That he
had to go before Elwood got any closer. Then he hung up. He sounded . . . afraid. I’ve never heard Colin sound afraid before.”
“His heart gave out,” Allie said. “At three this morning. There was a glitch in the software at the nurses’ station and their
equipment was rebooting when he passed away. By the time the alert came through, it was too late to save him. He had been
dead at least ten minutes.”
“Do you wish you saved some of that holy go-juice for him?” Gwen asked. “Do you think it would’ve fixed his heart?”
Allie shook her head. “I think you’d both be dead.” She did not say that it hardly mattered. Anyone could see Gwen wasn’t
recovering fast enough. Easter was now only fifteen days away. If they had saved her life, they had only saved it for King
Sorrow. She patted Gwen’s hand. “What was wrong with his heart was beyond even magic to fix.”
“I don’t think his heart got him,” Gwen said. “I think Elwood Hondo did.”