Page 149 of The Girl Who Only Died Once

“I would need a phone,” Chloe says.

It’sanother stretch of time, unknowable to Chloe without her phone or watch, before Killian has the strength to push himself up and teleport them out of the muck.

He still sways, in the ramshackle house, but his eyes are sharp, flashing over the protections and shield on instinct.

“She’s at her mother’s,” he mumbles, leaning against Chloe to stand, and Chloe guides him over to sit on the bed, dumping him on the sheets.

His clothes aren’t muddy, after all, and Chloe’s jeans are long ago soaked through.

“Stay here,” Chloe instructs, and he just blinks owlishly at her as she strips, then takes the fastest shower imaginable to get as much mud as possible off of her.

The water striking the tile remains silent, and she gets out as soon as she possibly can, redressing without the sound of fabric rustling over her.

Killian’s flat on his back on the pillow, staring upwards to the ceiling when she returns, tension rolling off of him.

“The trap’s still in place,” he says, an idle hand waving towards the window. “He didn’t come back here, I don’t…”

“Stay here,” Chloe orders. “I’m going to go get her, I’ll use her phone to warn everyone, and we’ll get her to safety.”

He starts to rise on his elbows.

“Stay here and get some power back.”

It’s odd to order a demon, but he settles down, breathing hard out of his nose.

It’s not difficult to figure out which house is the mother’s, with the extremely obvious warping black demon shield and traps written up the wazoo, but they barely flicker when Chloe strides right over them, rippling at her feet and recognizing her.

His magic recognizes her.

The other house is more rundown than not, the door gapping at the frame, one window boarded up, but Chloe knocks on the door regardless.

Still no sound, but light shows underneath the door, then a shadow falling on the other side of it before it swings open, revealing a haggard woman with the same high brow and pinch to her lips as Seanna.

Her mouth moves, but Chloe can’t hear anything.

“Seanna,” Chloe says, probably too loudly, as the woman startles back. “I’m here for Seanna.”

The woman’s chin dips low, still talking at Chloe, and she sways in place, her eyes red.

“Seanna,” Chloe calls around the woman, this time knowing she’s being too loud. “Hey Seanna, we need to go!” When nobodyelse moves, the woman just scowling at her, Chloe inhales. “I’ll teach you how to pick some locks if you come with me.”

In front of her, the woman clearly mouths, ‘What the fuck.’

Finally, Seanna pokes her head around the corner, and she’s wearing a bright purple sweater that clashes with her complexion, and Chloe can lipread enough to recognize her own name.

Chloe jerks her head, and Seanna stares up at her, clearly untrusting. “We need to go back over there,” Chloe says, enunciating as clearly as she can, and she probably sounds like she has a head injury. “He’s injured back at the house.”

Seanna’s mother wanders away, clearly uninterested, and suddenly, viciously, Chloe judges her. A stranger showed up to her house, talking to her minor daughter, and this was the reaction.

No wonder Killian set up another place.

Seanna nods, a curt quick motion, before disappearing and grabbing a duffle and a frozen dinner, and doesn’t even bother opening her mouth to say goodbye to her mother before striding out the front door.

They’re halfway to the other house, before Seanna abruptly turns to Chloe, speaking far too fast for her to lipread.

“I can’t hear you,” Chloe says, as simply as she can, and Seanna’s brows shoot up in open skepticism. “Magic issue. Killian’s injured but okay. We need to get you somewhere safe.”

Her mouth opens, then closes, and Seanna glances over to the other house that practically glows with magic protections, the wards and walls and shield warping with power.

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