Page 50 of The Girl Who Only Died Once

“She has some beginnings of talent,” he gestures at Chloe, to which she supposes he means human magic talent as opposed to anything else, “and it does not fall neatly into any of the established schools, which means they will take her, and they will study her, and they will control her if they get a chance.”

“I understand that,” Chloe replies, and he studies her for a long second, like he’s trying to discover if she’s telling the truth. “Remember, I know a Necromancer.”

There’s a brief flash of hunger over his face, quickly smoothed away, but startling all the same.

Right. She’s dealing with a predator.

“I am one hundred percent certain the college would like to study her,” Chloe continues, though her arm prickles. “Hell, my alchemy is just a little different than the norm and they studied me.”

“Believe me when I say her magic is rarer,” Killian says, almost severe, and it prickles at the back of her neck. “If they fully knew…they’d stop at nothing.”

“I get that,” Chloe murmurs.

“You don’t,” he says wearily, “not really. She’ll need training, she’ll need to be careful, she needs to not be taken advantage of. And if they find her…they’d just lock her up and use her.”

Chloe’s often had that thought about Delina and, more recently, about Lyra. That it’s almost incomprehensible that someone wouldn’t just kidnap them, force them to bring back soldiers, assassins, politicians. That they’d be pushed beyond burnout, and whoever controlled them wouldn’t care.

“I won’t say anything to anyone,” Chloe says, and gets a miniscule bit of relaxation from his shoulders. “Hell, I can’t even get my phone to pick up a location, as long as you teleport me out, I won’t even know where this is.”

Another long inspection before he nods.

“Her mother lives nearby, but she would sell her kidney if it meant she could have more intoxicants. I’ve known this child since she was three, I would not leave her to deal with that world without some place she can walk to for safety.”

“That’s noble,” Chloe says, and means it. “She can be left alone while you search?”

“If someone follows her here and tries to step foot through that door, they will instantly forget what they were looking for and leave,” he says, like she challenged him. “Her mother’s house is warded so anyone who attempts to lay a hand on her will immediately face more pain than they’ve ever experienced. If they touch her on the street then the very ground will break.” He hesitates. “And she’s twelve and knows how to feed herself.”

“Gotcha,” Chloe responds, and even though curiosity burrows deep inside her until she’s practically vibrating with the want to know more, she taps her finger on the scroll, the sand scattering then resettling. “Well, while we’re out, if you want to give her my cell phone number I’ll transcribe texts to her.”

His brows flash up, fast, before he hides it, but she can tell she dangled something valuable in front of him.

Ambra has said, many times, to find what’s important to a demon and leverage it. That despite their reputation for extreme violence and utter power, most demons had a few things—or people—that they would do anything for, do anything to protect.

Chloe gets the suspicion she just stumbled upon Killian’s.

There’s a muffled thump from the other room, similar to someone throwing a pillow across the hall, and they both turn to glance, but there’s no other sound.

After a lull, Chloe stares hard down at her research, the question bothering her. “Why’d you put me in the cabin?”

“What cabin?” he asks.

Chloe blinks down hard at the papers, then leans back to stare at him. “The cabin you left me? After knocking me out underground?”

“You mean after you shot me?” he drawls idly. “I had to find a new body, that hurt.”

Chloe briefly considers asking what that involves, then quickly decides she doesn’t want to know. “Yes, after that.”

His eyes flicker to hers, then back out the window. “I reached into your mind, identified home, then took you there,” he says casually, like home is an easy concept for her. “The place smelled of you, I figured I got it right.”

“Okay, creepy,” Chloe says, wrinkling her nose, and he surprises her by giving her a wide grin. “We abandoned that home a few months ago. We were run out.”

A flicker of interest. “Why?”

“Because we had a Necromancer,” she points out, and he shrugs, giving her that. “And a Half Demon. College wanted both of those in their possession.”

“Fair enough,” he says, then smiles again, like he’s amused by her. “I take it that being back there caused you issues?”

“I had to flash bang a few twenty-year-olds and run into the forest,” she informs him. “Only reason I’m not arrested is because I found a few Wights who also don’t like the college being there.”

---