Book Five: Save Yourself — 27.

Allie braids Gwen’s hair into a crown as Gwen stirs—weak but conscious. Gwen immediately asks if Colin is dead, then recounts a dream: she answered a “phone” that was the Aztec conch and heard Colin whisper from darkness, saying Elwood Hondo was coming for him before the line went dead.

Allie confirms Colin died at three in the morning. A software glitch at the nurses’ station delayed the alert, leaving staff too late to revive him. Allie frames it as heart failure beyond any remedy, implying that even the saint’s blood could not have saved him.

Reflecting on their choices, Allie says saving Gwen instead of Colin was necessary and that magic likely couldn’t fix his heart. She privately recognizes Gwen’s recovery is too slow, with Easter just fifteen days away, meaning King Sorrow may still claim her despite their efforts.

Gwen rejects the natural-cause explanation, asserting Elwood Hondo killed Colin. The chapter ends with that unsettling certainty, shifting the death from tragic failure to a supernatural assassination that raises the stakes for Gwen and the others.