Last Stand of Dead Men
Page 54
“Skulduggery,” Stephanie cut in, “what do you want?”
He raised his head, looked at her. “We don’t know where Darquesse is,” he said. “We don’t know where she vanished to after Africa, and we don’t know where she’s gone now.”
Stephanie patted her bag. “That’s why I’m carrying the Sceptre around with me everywhere I go.”
“Do you think she’ll go after her family?”
Stephanie hesitated. “No,” she said. “But she might come after me.”
“That’s what I thought. Stephanie, I need your help. We have to find her, we have to bring Valkyrie back.”
“Valkyrie’s gone.”
“I don’t believe that.”
Stephanie went to her desk, turned on the radio to mask their voices. “It doesn’t matter what you believe, because you don’t know what it was like living with Darquesse in your head. Valkyrie knew that one more slip would be all it took. She doesn’t have the strength to survive. A big part of her doesn’t even want to.”
“You’re lying.”
“No, I’m not. She loves that power. She loves becoming Darquesse. It’s so incredibly freeing for her.”
“Then help me stop her.”
“But you don’t want to stop her, do you? If we find her, if I have the chance to kill her, will you let me?”
Skulduggery turned his head slightly, away from her. “If I can’t get through to Valkyrie, then yes.”
“Not good enough,” Stephanie said. “You tried talking to her. It didn’t work. If you try to talk it again, Darquesse will kill us both. We won’t have time for your way and then my way. We’ll only have time for one way. So, if I help you, and we find her, and I have a chance to kill her, will you let me do it?”
Skulduggery didn’t answer for the longest time. Then he said, “Yes.”
Stephanie nodded. “OK then. You’ve got yourself a partner.”
enny was done.
He’d already cleared the research out of his apartment. The walls were now bare, the floors were uncluttered, and there was suddenly space on the table to put a coffee cup. He’d cleaned out his hard drive, wiped his browsing history, deleted every related file that existed online. And then he took Patrick Slattery’s footage and photographs and he destroyed every last bit.
Almost every last bit.
He did a little editing. It took him a few hours. It wasn’t pretty, and the seams were obvious and amateurish, but he got it done with what little skills he possessed, and then he destroyed everything that remained.
He lit a small bonfire at the back of his building, and every few minutes he’d add something else to the flames as he stood there. It occurred to him that he was watching his career go up in smoke. He was OK with that. He had reached a point that so few journalists reach, and he’d found himself with a choice to make – reveal the truth and watch the world change, or hide it forever, and let the world continue to spin.
Before the battle at Roarhaven, he’d wanted to change the world. The people deserved to know, he reckoned. The story needed to be told.
But should a story be told simply because it’s there? Should a truth be revealed simply because it’s uncovered? He’d taken it upon himself to expose this hidden culture of magic and he hadn’t looked any further than that. But now he knew. If these sorcerers were forced to go public, people would get hurt. People would die. Normal people would rise up with their guns and tanks and bombs, and sorcerers would fight back with their energy beams and fireballs, and more people like Patrick Slattery would die.
Slattery had had a wife. Kenny didn’t even know her name. He’d never spoken to Slattery about anything other than the story. Slattery’s wife would never know what happened to her husband, and that burned through Kenny’s soul. There was nothing he could do about that.
But there was something he could do about Valkyrie Cain. Over the last year, he’d got to know her, in a way. She’d been a normal girl, plucked from her ordinary life, thrust into a world of magic and death and terror. She had fought the forces of darkness and she hadn’t asked for rewards, or recognition, or parades in her honour. She had fought because she was a good person, a decent person, a hero, and she had died a hero’s death in a blinding flash of light.
That was all Kenny had needed to see. That was all he could stand. He’d found a car and he’d fled, leaving the fighting in the rear-view mirror. If the world was going to be overrun by terrifying, powerful beings like that Charivari, Kenny wanted to be with his own people when it all went down.
He got home. Watched the news. Waited. Slept. Waited again.
And then he figured that Charivari had been stopped, that the world had been saved, that Valkyrie Cain’s sacrifice had not been in vain.
He knew, then, that his career was over, and he only had one more thing to do before he quit being a journalist forever. Valkyrie Cain was a hero, and those closest to her deserved to know that.
When the last bit of evidence was burned, he got in his car and he drove out of Dublin City. He got where he needed to go and he sat there for two hours. Finally, he lifted the package from the passenger seat and got out. Stomach churning, he crossed the quiet road, walked up to the front door and knocked. He waited. He resisted the urge to turn and run and forget about this, and he waited. Finally, the door opened.
“Hi,” Desmond Edgley said. “Can I help you?”
He’s dead.
She’s still in high school.
But together they’re going to save the world.
Read the ninth book in the bestselling
SKULDUGGERY PLEASANT series …
Following the loss of Valkyrie Cain, Skulduggery Pleasant must track down Darquesse before she turns the world into a charred, lifeless cinder – and so he draws together a team of soldiers, monster hunters, criminals … and Valkyrie’s own murderous reflection. Not everyone gets out of this alive.
He’s dead.
She’s still in high school.
But together they’re going to save the world.
Read the tenth book in the bestselling
SKULDUGGERY PLEASANT series …
A lot has changed. Roarhaven is now a magical city where sorcerers can live openly. Some things never change, though: bad people still want to do bad things, and Skulduggery Pleasant is still there to stop them.
Twenty-four hours to save the world. One sharply dressed skeleton. One grief-stricken young woman. One teenage boy who can’t even remember which class he’s supposed to be in.
This cannot end well.
For years, Valkyrie Cain has struggled to keep her loved ones safe from harm, plunging into battle – time and time again – by Skulduggery Pleasant’s side, and always emerging triumphant.
But now the very thing that Valkyrie fights for is in danger, as a ruthless killer snatches her little sister in order to lure Valkyrie into a final confrontation.
With Skulduggery racing to catch up, and young sorcerer Omen scrambling along behind, Valkyrie only has twelve hours to find Alice before it’s too late.
The clock is ticking …
He’s dead.
She’s still in high school.
But together they’re going to save the world.
On a desperate journey to recover her sister’s lost soul, Valkyrie Cain goes up against the High Sanctuary itself, and there’s nothing Skulduggery Pleasant can do to stop her.
With Abyssinia’s grand plan about to kick off in a night of terror, it falls to Omen Darkly to save the lives of thousands. He has no choice but to become the hero he never really wanted to be – or die in the attempt.
The Skulduggery Pleasant series
SKULDUGGERY PLEASANT
PLAYING WITH FIRE
THE FACELESS ONES
DARK DAYS
MORTAL COIL
DEATH BRINGER
KINGDOM OF THE WICKED
LAST STAND OF DEAD MEN
THE DYING OF THE LIGHT
RESURRECTION
>
MIDNIGHT
BEDLAM
THE MALEFICENT SEVEN
ARMAGEDDON OUTTA HERE
(a Skulduggery Pleasant short-story collection)
The Demon Road trilogy
DEMON ROAD
DESOLATION
AMERICAN MONSTERS
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