The Curse of the King

Aly was ghost white and still. Her chest wasn’t moving. As Dr. Karl finally called off the electric shocks, I pressed harder than ever, leaning toward her face.

“I’m … I’m so, so sorry,” Dr. Karl said to Aly’s mom.

I had failed.

She was the first to die. One of us would be next, then the other. And then there would be none.

I brushed my lips against her cool forehead. “Good-bye, Aly,” I whispered. “I—” The words clogged up in my brain, and I had to force them out. “I love you, dude. Yeah. Just saying.”

I let go of her and walked away toward the center of the room. I felt numb. My eyes focused on nothing.

“Jack?” Cass whispered, wandering toward me, looking all teary and confused. “Where are you?”

I picked up the backpack and slipped the Loculus of Invisibility back inside. As I became visible, I noticed I was next to two doctors who must have seen me materialize out of thin air.

But they hadn’t seemed to notice. They were both staring over my head toward Aly. Gaping.

Cass turned. His jaw dropped. “What the—?”

As I wiped away tears, the first thing I noticed was Aly’s mom. She was on the floor, fainted away.

The second thing I noticed was Aly sitting up, staring straight at me.

“You love me?” she said.

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SHE WAS ALIVE.

Half of me wanted to jump with joy. The other half wanted to sink down and melt into the linoleum. Dad and Dr. Karl stood by the bed, gaping as if their mouths had been propped open by invisible pencils.

“I heard you say it, Jack McKinley!” Aly laughed as if nothing bad had happened. “You said, ‘I love you’! I heard it!”

My mouth flapped open and shut a couple of times. “The shard …” I finally squeaked. “It worked.”

Aly’s smile abruptly vanished. She looked around the ICU. “Wait. Jack?Cass? What are you doing here? Why am I in a hospital? Why is Mom on the floor?”

I rushed over. Dad and I both lifted Mrs. Black to her feet. Her eyes puddled with tears. As she hugged her daughter, the place was going nuts. Cass was screaming, pumping his fists. The hospital staff high-fived each other like middle school kids. Dr. Karl looked bewildered. I thought I could see some tears on her cheeks as Aly’s mom hugged her, too.

“You are a miracle worker, doctor,” Mrs. Black said. “Thank you.”

“I—I’m not sure what did it,” Dr. Karl said. “I guess … the pads?”

Aly pulled me closer. “What happened?” she whispered. “I had an episode, right? And you guys flew out to see me.”

“Um, yeah,” I whispered back.

“So how did the doctor figure out—?” she asked.

“She didn’t,” I replied.

“Wait—so you did it?” she said. “You saved my life?”

“It’s a long story,” I said.

Aly smiled. Her eyes moistened. “Backsies.”

“What?”

“About what you said,” she said, “into my ear …”

I felt my face heating up. “That’s because I thought you were dead!”

Doofus. Idiot.

She was looking at me like I’d just slapped her. But before either of us could say anything, the crowd of medical people began elbowing me away. Dr. Karl was shouting orders. All kinds of tubes were being hooked up to Aly’s arms.

I backed away, standing with Cass. “Boj emosewa,” he said.

“Thanks,” I said.

I took a deep breath. I felt a million things. Happiness. Relief. Embarrassment. Pride. I could finally feel my body relaxing. That was when I opened my clenched palm and looked at the shard.

It was the size of a quarter.

And the only thing I felt was scared.

* * *

“What if it just … vanishes?” Cass paced back and forth in our hotel room. Behind him was a huge picture window. The sunset looked like an egg yolk spreading on the Pacific Ocean. “We use up its power, it gets smaller and smaller, and then, poof, it’s gone?”

“I wasn’t expecting it to shrink like that,” I said.

“Jack, it’s been getting smaller all along,” Cass said. “I tried to tell you that back home. It must be like a battery. You and I used up some of its power. Aly used up a lot more.”

“We have to preserve it somehow,” I said. “But we can’t exactly hide it away. It’s buying us time.”

“I wish we could contact the KI,” Cass said with a sigh. “I wish we hadn’t been cut off like that. Don’t you think that’s weird—they take Torquin away and then … radio silence?”

“Maybe they’ve given up on us,” I said.

Cass flopped on one of the double beds and stared out the window. “Now you sound like me.”

I could feel my phone vibrating in my pocket. Aly was calling. “Hello?” I said.

“I’m bored,” Aly’s voice piped up.

I put her on speaker. “Hi, Bored. I’m Jack. Cass is here, too. How are you feeling?”