Page 132 of The Girl Who Only Died Once

Killian’s breathing softly in her ear, and the sun is up, but they didn’t get back to the safe house until around 5 AM. Once this is done…her sleep schedule will be so messed up she won’t even begin to know where to start to repair it.

So instead she stays still, focusing on what could’ve possibly woken her up. What brush against her awareness, what thing that roused her from the perfectly lovely sleep.

But something has.

“Killian,” Chloe whispers, into the soft sunlight spilling into the room, as the press of awareness grows against her. “Killian, something’s…”

Killian shifts, finally, lifting his head to peer out the window, like he can’t fully believe what he’s seeing.

Chloe rolls over to glance out as well, and there’s a hint of magic, a trace of something else, already fading into the snow.

“What?” Chloe asks, half groggy, pushing herself up on her elbows. That hurts the ribs, but she ignores it.

“A teleporter,” he says, voice sharp, sitting up. “A teleporter, somehow.”

The fear immediately flashes into his eyes.

“A teleporter was here, they found us, I don’t—”

Chloe jerks herself up to standing, grabbing her shirt and throwing it on. “Who—”

“Human,” he says, already standing, and somehow his clothes are back, like they’re less material and more part of the body, the canvas pants and the college undershirt.

He spreads his arms, power flooding through the room, surging across Chloe’s bare skin and stealing the air.

Chloe freezes, breathing hard out of her nose, but he just stares out the window, his eyes ablaze.

Before—

“They couldn’t see in,” Killian says, his voice so terribly remote. “Just the outside protections. Just the shielding.”

Which at the minimum means they know a demon is hiding something. That there is a place a demon is trying to keep secret in all of this. That there is something to barter with.

“Same general flavor of the other person who’s been dogging our steps,” Killian mutters, twisting his face.

He doesn’t move, he doesn’t breathe, just stares out the window.

“If they found me here,” he starts, as if far away, “then they could follow me to Seanna.”

He turns to her, whip fast, too fast for her to track.

“Text her,” he orders, and the fear threatens to choke his words away. He rattles off a string of numbers as Chloe scrambles for her phone, then again once she had it in her hands. “Tell her to go to her mother’s house and to stay there. Tell her ‘code word Crimson.’”

“Will she be able to get there?” Chloe asks, while tapping on her phone, her heart pounding. “Is it too far away, it’s cold, it’s—”

CHLOE (4:21 PM): Code—Crimson. Go to your mom’s house.

The moment she finishes the text, he tosses her jacket at her, barely giving her time to shrug it on, then gently picking up her hand.

Before she can blink, they’re inside a car, the windshield buried in snow and dust powdering every surface along the dashboard, and Chloe flinches at the sudden change in location.

There’s no seeing out the car, no telling how much snow is on top, no light filtering in through the windows. It could be feet, it could just be darker where they are, it could—

Without bothering to pause, Killian flexes some power, and all at once, all the snow bursts away, a blast of heat hitting Chloe’s face.

She throws her arm up to protect her face, but as soon as it’s begun, the heat fades away, leaving the windshield sizzling and steam curling up from the metal siding.

“What—” Chloe starts, before her phone bings again.

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