Page 54 of The Girl Who Only Died Once

DELINA (7:15 PM): Oh you better. Two-minute leeway before we try to track you.

CHLOE (7:15 PM): Deal.

Chloe would bet money that Ambra’s in the same room as Gurlien, and that she would update him if truly needed, and he can come around to forgiving her when he wants.

It still hurts, a bit, so she thumbs over to his text message instead.

CHLOE (7:19 PM): How’s Ambra been with T and Mel?

Last time she checked, Ambra’s been alternatively skittish around them and treating them like old friends, and it’s something Gurlien had talked extensively with Chloe, when trying to help her adapt.

Nothing. No response.

So Chloe sighs, then attempts to push the magic into solidifying the materials of the phone, making it resistant to cracking and to damage from any falls.

The air itself flickers around her, and she lifts her head, only to find Killian leaning against the warping shield, arms crossed, raising an eyebrow down at her.

“Do you need me to show you what I’m doing?” Chloe asks, picking up the phone and brushing off the remnants of the grains of sand. “I totally can, it’s nifty.”

“No,” he replies, but there’s something to read into his voice. “How much data do you need to read from the phone to set that up?”

From her understanding of Ambra, that’s a surprisingly astute way of looking at technology for a demon.

“I don’t need to know anything about it,” she answers, leaning on the scrolls, the sand buzzing around her elbows. “I’d just have to touch it, the notifications could be automatically sent to any number the user wishes.”

It doesn’t take a genius to read between the lines on what he’s talking about.

“It does put on a tracker,” she warns, “that, once fallen into the wrong hands, could be manipulated and used to other…ends.”

His lips thin. “Noted.”

“And I don’t know who all your kid would want to notify,” she says, once again venturing to read between the lines, but by his expression she’s not wrong. “But anyone else with alchemy would be able to tell it’s been changed the moment they touch it. I’m not good at being sneaky like that.”

Apparently, Axel had at one point, but Chloe’s gifts don’t fall into subtlety as easily with electronics.

“I appreciate that answer,” he says, and she doesn’t know how he leans against the magical barrier he can freely move through, but she doesn’t think right now is the time to ask theory questions like that. “She wants your number, to text me if needed. Will you track her through that?”

“I couldn’t, others might.”

He sighs, and it’s a very human reaction, one that’s almost out of place with the double features.

“But they’d need to either get her phone number or their hands on my phone to do so,” Chloe says. “So there might be some security through that.”

He nods, curt, then disappears again.

Chloe stares at the spot on the opaque shield, squinting to see if she can find a break in it, before turning back to her phone.

CHLOE (7:32 PM): This demon teleports a lot. Like, between rooms a lot. Instead of walking.

AMBRA (7:33 PM): Jealous.

MAISON (7:34 PM): Inefficient.

AMBRA (7:35 PM): Not if you’re not disadvantaged with power regeneration.

She misses that, just a bit.

DELINA (7:37 PM): So Chloe, besides all that, what’s your plan? Let yourself be carted all over the world by a mysterious demon until you find your friend?

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