Page 17 of The Girl Who Inherits the Dead

The day passes in a haze of information while they wait for the weather to break. Of hearing more about her possible boyfriends, about hearing more and more descriptions of magic. Of learning about all those mythical creatures her mother mentioned in her letter.

Of hearing the massive amounts of crimes her mother committed in the pretense of becoming powerful. It’s almost dizzying.

Gurlien takes the letter and the will, examining it with a magnifying glass, and Chloe leafs through the book (and finds two hundred dollar bills that Delina missed) idly, like it’s something she’s familiar with.

“So this,” Gurlien says, pointing at the faded place where the symbol that zapped Delina’s thumb was, “is really just a buffer rune.”

“You say that like I know what it is,” Delina says, petting the cat when the cat deigns to curl up next to her.

The cat’s name is Chance, apparently. Chloe claims it because it was chance that brought it to them, Gurlien says because the cabin had been a new chance for him.

Delina’s not sure which one to believe, but Chance the cat still wanders everywhere like he owned the place, and considering how Chance was here first, she’s not about to evict him.

Chloe says it lived in the cabin and hunted outside, but its glossy fur definitely suggests someone actually taking care of him.

“It’s designed to slide between existing protections, nullifying them, providing a way in,” Chloe replies, as if it’s memorized. “I use them for breaking into things.”

“Tombs, she means,” Gurlien says, as if that makes it any better. “Chloe breaks into tombs.”

“Archeology is fun,” Chloe says when Delina raises a manicured eyebrow at her. “So many things we don’t know about how people used to do magic, so many dead runes that have juuuust enough spark in them to be bitey.”

This time, it’s Gurlien and Delina exchanging a glance at how weird the third is.

“So it’s just to get in between all the protections on me?” Delina ventures a guess, and they both nod in unison. “Cool.”

“It’s smart,” Gurlien says, begrudging. “For someone who ruined so many lives, your mother was smart.”

“Gurlien, she was a genius, no need to dance around it,” Chloe says, turning another page in the book. “Just because she was immoral doesn’t mean she wasn’t the mind of a generation.”

Delina, having heard enough stories of her mother’s loose definition of morality by this point in the afternoon, weighs stopping being offended.

“She didn’t care so much she had a daughter, she wanted a powerful minion,” Gurlien says, and it hurts, of course, even though Delina had always heard her mother was disinterested in her. “I’m just surprised she didn’t try again after you.”

“I definitely touched Maison with this hand, so it’s not perfect,” Delina says, hoping to save the conversation.

“If he was paying attention he would have noticed,” Chloe says, and Gurlien nods along. “Means he was complacent.”

The complacency doesn’t quite feel right, but Delina just stares up at the wooden beams of the ceiling and pets the cat, who purrs at her touch.

“What are the chances he was actually in love with me?” she asks, and for a few seconds the only sound is the drum of rain against the roof.

“It’s possible,” Chloe says gingerly.

“I’d say eight percent,” Gurlien answers. “None of the three men, if it is one of them, are the type to be frivolous with work assignments.”

That still hurts, so she narrows her eyes at the roof and the cat gives a small mrrr sound.

“Then why stay with me after my mom died?” Delina asks, finally, after letting the moment stretch on. “If the danger passed after she died, that makes no sense.”

“It makes plenty sense, if you consider you as an actual danger and not just an extension of your mother’s will,” Gurlien says, and Chloe looks up from the book long enough to roll her eyes at him. “Seriously, whatever you do could be world ending.”

“That’s not likely,” Chloe says, “what’s more likely is you’re just really strong with flexible morality, which is almost worse.”

The idea that she could be powerful still makes Delina smile, even just a bit, though she squashes it down.

“But we won’t know until the bio-trap,” Gurlien points out, and Delina avoids looking back at the room. “I don’t know why you’re avoiding it.”

“I’m not avoiding, I’m collecting information,” Delina says, and Chloe coughs out a laugh into the book. “Wouldn’t you want to when faced with life changing information?”

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