Page 102 of The Girl Who Only Died Once

Chloe gasps, but the kid just blinks away from them, going back to playing with the toys, plopping back to sitting with all of the grace of a toddler.

The brash guard straightens back to standing, jerking his neck back into place, his hand loose on the gun. The bones crack again, coming back into contact, rippling through the room.

“Fuck,” the one with the trembling finger says, and her voice is high, far higher pitched than Chloe would ever imagine.

Chloe has a split second to wonder, to contemplate that they might actually think it’s her doing all of this, all of the insane actions, before the brash guard drops the gun, clenches his fist, and the first guard slams headfirst into the wall.

Leaving sudden silence.

Chloe stands there, her heart pounding, before the guard flips up his visor, and his eyes gleam red.

“This is easier to do in a body,” he says, and his voice, smoother than before, still holds Killian’s signature growl at the bottom of it.

The kid blinks back up to them again, before turning back to the toys.

And Chloe did basically nothing in all of it, and now the hallway is full of ruin, glass shattered everywhere, blood splashed on the slick tile, and there’s a child, an actual child, sitting in one of the cells and barely fazed by any of it.

“Killian?” Chloe asks, and her voice squeaks.

“Yes?” the brash guard—Killian now—responds, before he takes off the helmet, shaking out curly black-brown hair. He tosses the helmet aside, and underneath the new human face, with high cheekbones and a ridiculously defined jaw, is Killian, a wary expression on his face. “You’re not hurt, I would be able to tell.”

“No, I’m…” She doesn’t know what she is, and her mouth is foul. “You just killed him, and—”

“He shot at the kid,” Killian says, which is fair, but he unclasps the bullet proof vest with wards etched into the very ceramics, shaking himself out of it. “These clothes are the worst.” He flings the gloves off as if they’re offensive, and they fall to the tile without a sound.

He stalks towards her, every line of the motion familiar, before handing her the bulletproof vest.

It’s several sizes too large for Chloe, but that’s never stopped her.

Changing clothing with such magic already written in isn’t exactly the easiest, but Chloe flicks some power into it, shrinking it down to toddler size, and crouching to look at the kid.

The toddler blinks at her, eyes perfectly round, then babbles something. If the guards were so willing to shoot a kid, barely older than a baby, then…

“I meant that for you,” Killian replies, disgruntled, and the voice coming from the mouth is just different enough that it throws her off, but he takes it from her, clasping it around the toddler, before scooping him up in his arms. “Stay here,” he orders Chloe, like she had anywhere else to go, before he vanishes.

Leaving her with the broken glass, the other dead body of the guard, and a hallway full of cells that once held people in them.

Including Killian himself.

“Ooookay,” Chloe breathes, her heart hammering in her chest, even though she did practically nothing in that entire fight.

It’s like those first few hours with Ambra, when Chloe was suddenly massively overpowered, and all of her senses told her to run.

Slow, Chloe swings her backpack back around, taking out another protein bar, her hands shaking.

A sound behind her, and she whirls around, her boots sliding on the slick tile, but she’s met with the stillness of another person, barely poking his head out of the cell.

Her senses tell her the person is human, but once more, eyes reflect back the light at her.

“Who are you?” Chloe asks, but the person—barely a young adult—shakes his head, before sliding out of the cell, backing up down the hall, away from the door and the dead guards.

He grips at magic the same way that Maison has his entire life.

“You’re a Half Demon?” Chloe asks, and he freezes, like she caught him doing something he shouldn’t. “It’s okay, one of my friends is a Half Demon, you’re safe.”

He stares at her, then mouths, ‘Tombbreaker.’

Behind her, without even needing to look, she’s suddenly aware of Killian teleporting back, his power filling the area.

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