Page 18 of The Girl Who Inherits the Dead

Gurlien gives her a flat look over his glasses. “I wasn’t given the option.”

By now, Delina’s heard all about how he lost his magic, about how much vitriol he has about being kicked out, all that fun stuff. And Chloe feeling stifled, until she couldn’t do anything she actually liked, deemed too dangerous or too protected.

“But it could be exciting,” Chloe says, almost dreamily. “Finding out what’s been missing your entire life.”

And Delina has to swallow down that one, letting her head lean back towards the room, fear and hope warring in her heart.

What she’s been missing.

“Give us some additional firepower when your boyfriend shows up to collect you,” Gurlien says, almost clinically. “If you don’t want to be just imprisoned by the College, having some power could be useful.”

Right. Imprisonment.

“You don’t think they’d train her?” Chloe asks, propping herself up. “I don’t think they’d go directly to imprisonment.”

“I do,” Gurlien says, darkly. “They wanted to for me.”

He and Chloe exchange a significant glance, one that leaves Delina wondering how much more she’s missing.

“Yours was just an injury,” Delina says, halfway to help out and halfway to make sure she’s understanding the problem. “Why imprison you if it’s just an injury and nothing you did wrong?”

Chloe finally looks up from the book, closing it with a click. “Because that’s what the College does,” she says, solemn. “Too many people are imprisoned for shit they didn’t do, just dangers they present.”

Gurlien scowls, then ducks his head. “And I was completely okay with it until it was aimed at me.”

There’s a lot of self-hate in that statement; self-hate that Delina doesn’t have the inclination nor the knowledge todeconstruct, but Chloe reaches out and pats him on the shoulder.

“So avoid going to this College, right, got that,” Delina says, breaking the moment. “The whole never letting my bio-mom meet me thing kinda convinced that.”

“If I wasn’t like this, I could do all sorts of diagnostics,” Gurlien says, still full of frustration. “Figure out exactly what things they put on you, probably be able to trace who your boyfriend was by just the magical signature. But no. I’m useless.”

“You’re still knowledgeable,” Chloe points out, “you’re still knowledgeable and you’re still useful.”

Gurlien frowns, but it’s obviously not aimed at Chloe. “Do you think Alette over at Frisse’s compound would help?”

Delina eyes him. “She had a compound?”

“She had several,” Gurlien says, which isn’t better. “But Alette was trained by her, she might.”

“But she hates you,” Chloe reminds, and he rolls his eyes. “You did kinda almost destroy her world.”

Gurlien shrugs, but doesn’t dispute that. “I still talk to Axel, he could convince her.”

“You don’t talk to Axel, you two call each other and yell on the top of your lungs for twenty minutes, then you go get drunk,” Chloe says, and it’s an amusing image. “They’re not gonna help.”

The rain doesn’t so much letup as much as the wind abruptly stops blowing, and both Chloe and Gurlien raise their heads at the same time.

“How long have you two been here?” Delina asks, unnerved.

“A few months,” Chloe says, cagey. “Long enough to get the idea when the weather’s good enough to go out.”

She scrambles up, disappearing into one of the smaller bedrooms in the back of the cabin, and emerges holding two rain jackets.

“Here, yours is not good enough for the rain,” Chloe says, and the jacket at least appears to be two sizes too small for Delina. “Here.”

With a flick of her wrist, Chloe shakes it, and it grows in size.

Resisting the urge to back away, Delina cocks her head. “Did you just…”

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