Page 84 of The Girl Who Only Died Once

Chleo’s definitely not going to answer that one while in a rural hotel predominantly decorated in camo.

“You can even make the argument that most Americans who end up in the army were conditioned to accept the viewpoints long before they actually began their training,” he says, and she really wishes he wouldn’t. “I would put it closer to that.”

Chloe shrugs her jacket up closer to her ears. “Sure,” she mutters, clattering down the stairs, and she can hear his footsteps behind her, which boggles her mind all the more. That he could make and produce noise, even while not even existing to most people.

She doesn’t understand the physics of it, not one bit, and she doesn't know if she wants to ask Alette or Lyra or anyone to actually explain it to her.

Ambra might have an answer, Terese most definitely wouldn’t, and she doubts she could get Melekai to tell her anything.

The lobby is way more bustling in the morning than it had been any other time she’s been there, kids streaming in between an ice cream machine and the stuffed animals in the museum and exhausted parents trying to check out.

Nobody who might send a scan her way. Nobody watching from the shadows, nobody who might mean them ill.

Killian catches up to her, gripping her by the shoulder. “That was foolish,” he mutters.

“Why?” Chloe asks sunnily, and he wrinkles his nose. “Nobody would expect me, a non-combat mage, to actually go and confront them.”

“Or they might be trying to flush someone out,” he grumbles, and doesn’t exactly let her go but gentles his hand, like he’s keeping contact with her to reassure her.

Before something catches Chloe’s eye, lulling her attention like a fishhook in the cheek.

A glimmer of gold, a flicker of power, right outside the door, before Alette breezes in.

As always, Alette commands attention, with her beautiful black braid and arresting poise, and half the lobby turns and stares at her.

And magic practically drips off of her, glistening on her fingertips and condensing along the hem of her tailored coat.

Killian makes a sound, deep in the back of his throat, and she can’t tell if it’s a good sound or not.

Alette’s eyes flicker to Chloe, then up at Killian, before she tilts her head towards the meager cafeteria, heading there instead without another glance towards them.

“So that’s who you got to give you plans,” Killian murmurs, close to her ear, and Chloe shivers. “Risky, they absolutely keep track of her, they know she’s in the area.”

And given that there was an attack on her compound, Chloe’s a smidgen impressed Alette’s the deliverer of the documents, but she trails to the table anyways.

Alette pours herself a glass of juice from the free area, and even the kids give her a wide berth, but Chloe just heads straight to her booth, plopping down across from her.

“I thought they’d send Gurlien?” Chloe asks, and Killian squeezes in next to her, just like he did the night before.

Alette’s lips twitch at the motion, and her eyes are sharp on the demon. “Ambra wasn’t about to send him someplace he could be in danger, and she couldn’t escape from. Your friend is…twitchy.”

Because even though they’ve lived at Alette’s compound for over a month, Alette still doesn’t refer to them as her friends.

But Alette tilts her beautiful face up to Killian with a long evaluation, and next to her, Killian shifts.

“Zoel says hello,” Alette says deliberately, and Killian makes an unsettled noise, almost on the edge of Chloe’s hearing. “He’d be here himself, but…”

“Bit outside of his territory,” Killian replies, voice low, almost threatening.

“The teleportation black out was a bigger deterrent,” Alette says, still all calm and collected, and Chloe realizes that if she’s been risen from the dead longer than Chloe, she’s almost certainly encountered demons before, knows how to speak to them. “Michelli and Stella weren’t appreciative of your teleportation to the cabin.”

This time, Killian gives her a blank look.

“Michelli’s the Wight?” Chloe asks. “Stella’s mom?”

Alette inclines her head.

So, that’s cool, Chloe literally traveled across the country to get cryptic messages from the Wight and Alette knew her name before she did.

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