Page 99 of The Girl Who Should Be Dead

“Maison thinks it’ll go through most of Nalissa’s wards,” Chloe says, her head bent over the gun as she prods it. “So if you can get a clean shot off, that’ll work.” Her eyes flicker up to Ambra. “Unless you need to make the kill, I don’t know how these things work.”

“I don’t,” Ambra replies, somewhat charmed. “He killed Rastian and the Necroman…Delina killed Korhonen.”

He catches her eye, and his face is serious, but there’s a lack of stress in him at this interaction. That he could be so used to someone that it doesn’t cause any issues. “It’ll be more effective at killing then throwing a punch, probably,” he says, miming a punching motion.

“That’s not how you throw a punch,” Ambra says, moderately amused. “Did they really never teach you how to throw a basic punch in a human body?”

Ambra didn’t know how to at first, but the body did and laughed endlessly at her.

“I wasn’t exactly a combat mage in my heyday,” Gurlien snips back, but he shakes out his hand. “Not a lot of punches in magical contracts.”

“Here,” Ambra says, grabbing his hand and he leans back, startled. “More like this.”

She curls the fingers into a fist, straightening the wrist, tucking her thumb around the knuckles instead of inside. “Don’t twist your hand like that, you’ll break something and you take forever to heal, apparently.”

Gurlien rolls his eyes. “I know how to throw a punch,” he assures her, despite all evidence to the contrary and Chloe snorts, still bent over the gun. “It’s just not usually my normal course of action in situations like that.”

Ambra grins at him, his strange bravado tickling her. “And you know how to actually fight?”

He rolls his eyes once more, as if for emphasis, but there’s the beginning of a smile tugging at his lips, and she wants more.

“I’m more of a talk my way out of things kind of person,” he says, which is hilarious given how much everyone seems dead bent on hating him. “Wound them with words, not punches.”

“And a gun,” Ambra points out. “You wound them with the gun.”

He rolls his eyes, then prods her knee with his. “How’s the hangover?”

“Everything is awful,” she informs him, but without any real heat to it. “How do humans exist when things like this happen?”

This close, she can read his amusement, even though his expression doesn’t really change. “It’s temporary and we forget it happens just enough to be willing to drink that much again.”

“Impractical,” Ambra says, and he reaches over and opens the bottle for her, like the simple seal was enough to keep her from consuming it.

“I’ve been talking with Mel,” Chloe starts, now prodding the gun with one hand and the paperwork with the other, “and he says it took him eight months of just existing in a human body before he got used to it.”

Ambra sits up straight and Gurlien groans. “He was trapped like me?”

“Thanks, Chloe, we’re not giving her specifics because it can literally be compelled out of her,” Gurlien snips, then grimaces at Ambra in a sort of apology. “No, not like you, it’s an entirely different scenario.”

“But demon in human body,” Ambra clarifies, then grins at him when he rolls his eyes. “You have to remember that I’m still smart.”

“He never remembers anyone is smart,” Chloe murmurs. “Mel has no access to any of his demon powers.”

“Thanks, Chloe,” Gurlien repeats, throwing up his hands. “I’m sure Boltiex will just love that little bit of information when he gets it.”

“That would be beyond Boltiex’s interest,” Ambra says, though her mind is racing, bit by bit, and she sips the blue drink before sputtering.

“It’s fine,” Gurlien says, before she can complain.

“This is…just sugar and salt,” Ambra shoots back, before setting the lid back on it. “But he is only interested in the power, so someone with none will be…literally useless to him.”

Gurlien takes the cap off the drink again. “And hungover human bodies need sugar and salt. Trust me.”

There’s something heavy in the words, and she hesitates, before he raises an eyebrow at her.

Of course she trusts him, of course she…

She takes another sip, and it still tastes vile.

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