Page 88 of The Girl Who Only Died Once

ALETTE (10:02 AM): That is absolutely not enough information for either Maison or Zoel.

CHLOE (10:02 AM): I figured.

ALETTE (10:03 AM): Zoel doesn’t like any of this. He thinks you should run away while you still can.

Chloe glances up at Killian, who’s staring straight at her, a scowl on his face.

“What is the spellweaver telling you?” he asks dryly.

“Normal stuff,” Chloe replies. “She and I don’t get along terribly well, she hates my best friend.”

His eyebrow raises. “This Gurlien? Or Ambra?”

“Gurlien,” Chloe replies, unsettled.

He shrugs, loose, but still scowls at her as her phone beeps again.

This time, it’s Melekai, and Chloe raises an eyebrow that he bothered texting her at all.

MEL (10:05 AM): Tell him if he comes near me or mine, I will kill him.

Chloe sighs, heavy, then rubs her forehead.

CHLOE (10:06 AM): Alette got him to swear.

“Who’s that?” Killian asks, and he’s still sitting across the room, there’s no way he would know that it’s not the same person texting her. “Are you getting threatened?”

“Just my friends making sure I know that they think you’re sketchy,” Chloe replies, before setting her phone upside down on the desk and ignoring the follow up text that came through. “What do you think, diagnostic or stasis levels for the spirit fox?”

He narrows his eyes at her, then deliberately looks out the window, like she insulted him.

“Come on, you’re a demon who kidnapped me and you’re looking for a power source, they’re gonna think you’re dangerous,” Chloe says, almost exasperated. “That’s not something personal, that’s common sense. I got real worried when Ambra kidnapped Gurlien.”

This drags his attention back, and Chloe snaps her mouth shut.

“Really,” he says, deeply skeptical. “Is she the one with red hair?”

She is, but Chloe doesn’t say anything.

“Skinny white boy with glasses and yellow hair? The one who fried himself in a ley line? That’s who you’ve been referring to this entire time?”

“…yes,” Chloe says gingerly.

He glowers at her, then sighs. “Yes, I know your friend ‘Ambra,’ apparently. No, she is not in any danger from me, I owe her a favor.” This is said with a deep grudging, like he can’t believe his luck is so bad again. “Figures.”

“…good?” Chloe says, then shakes her head, to clear her thoughts. “Well, she’s a friend, I’ve been texting her like this entire time, I’m not gonna stop.”

“Of course you’re not,” he says, resigned. “Of course it’s them.”

Her heart pounding for no reason whatsoever, Chloe bends back over the floor print and he continues to stare hard at her.

“What I’m trying to figure out,” he says, slow, voice deep as if he’s controlling it tightly, “is why they would allow you to die.”

“I really don’t think you want the answer for that,” Chloe grumbles, running a fingernail around the line of a wall, traced with care. If they’re accurate, the wards should be weak there, not extending the entire way through the wall.

It’s where most people fail in their defenses. They never take into account how easy it is to blast through walls when the door is locked and warded.

“I think you don’t know what I want,” Killian says, after a long moment of her ignoring him.

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