Page 3 of The Girl Who Only Died Once

Gurlien doesn’t remark on the pronoun, just raises a critical eyebrow.

“I’ll be able to leave tomorrow once I have that piece,” Chloe forges on, and he scowls more. “Get out of everyone’s hair. Maison and Delina can go off hunting down her properties and seeing what to keep, you and Ambra can go traipse around the world, seeing whatever libraries or random cities you want, and I can be useful again.”

“Chloe,” Gurlien starts, then rubs his face. “How many times do I have to say…”

He trails off, but Chloe’s already shrugging. Sure, people can say she’s not in the way, not keeping people back, not keeping them from doing what they want to do, but if she’s not helping them then she’s just dead weight.

She’s been dead weight too much in her life.

“And maybe I’ll get some closure,” Chloe forces out, bouncing on her toes as Lyra instructs Delina on the runes under Maison’s watchful eyes. “Find out exactly what did happen, why exactly they came down so hard on me.”

“I don’t like it,” Gurlien says finally, after another minute of scowling at the proceedings, and they’re finally getting to what her best friend really wants to say, after all the arguments and debates over whys and hows. “What’s going to happen if they can’t bring you back?”

“Eh,” Chloe says, because somehow, she’s the least concerned about that. “You’ll be fine.”

Across the circle, Ambra jerks her head up and glares over at Chloe, like she somehow heard that.

He huffs, and his breath makes a puff of air around his face. “Do you think it’s worth it?”

“Yes,” Chloe replies automatically, without thinking. Of course it’s worth it. Almost any sort of risk is worth it.

“Facing the possibility of permanently dying, of altering your very self, for a pseudo-sentient spirit creature,” Gurlien asks, and thankfully, he’s not being dismissive. He’s stating the facts, like he’s hoping she understands all of them.

A lot of people think that Gurlien’s talking down when he speaks like that, and Chloe would bet money that it’s just her and Ambra who understand that he’s not.

“Hey, pseudo-sentient spirit creature that saved my life, get it right,” Chloe remarks, as idly and casually as she can. Gurlien’salso the one person who knows about her friend, about exactly what the friendship means, which means she could be flippant about it.

Anyone else she would need to be serious.

He scowls at her, as they tromp through the woods, which Chloe guesses is fair. She’d have a similar reaction if he’d do this.

“But…” she trails off. “This is a chance. An actual chance. I have a chance of finding her and a chance of making things right.” She has to take it.

But then Lyra is waving Chloe over, and her heart jumps again.

Does she think this won’t work? No. Does she think this is exciting? Yes.

Do all of her instincts tell her all of the sudden that she should run?

Yes.

Gurlien must read it on her face, because as annoying as he is he also knows how to actually comprehend her expressions.

“You’re insane,” he says flatly, with a scowl. “How long have you had this idea?”

“Longer than you’d be happy with,” Chloe shoots back. “About two hours after we got here.”

“I’m shocked you waited until I got back,” he grumbles, and it’s enough to push Chloe past the adrenaline surging through her system to step forward.

“You can back out of this!” Gurlien calls after her but doesn’t follow her into the spray-painted circle.

They meticulously cleaned it of snow, scraping all the ice and grime away from it, until all that remains is the broken concrete and the half-faded gold spray paint of circles past.

Lyra and Delina had sprayed over all the old ones, a twisting series of runes completely outside Chloe’s expertise. Somethingdemon, something warped magic, something she can’t even begin to read.

And Chloe can read a lot.

Her breath hitches at another hint of what’s to come. At the unknown she’s facing.

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