by Derek Landy
Hollering, Gant swipes at her with the knife. This time Xena gives a yelp of real pain and lets go. Gant swipes again, misses, and then Valkyrie is barrelling into him. The knife falls. Valkyrie catches him with an elbow that cracks against his chin. He tries to make a space between them, but she has a hold of him now and she won’t let go. She digs her fingers into his face, shredding across his features. He panics, tries to push her off. She’s like a limpet. There’s no dislodging her. Gant’s eyes are squeezed shut. His face is bleeding. Danny watches as Valkyrie’s fury is let loose. It’s terrifying.
They fall and Valkyrie is on top. Xena dances nearby, barking her rage and thirst for blood. Valkyrie crouches over Gant, starts slamming her right palm into his face.
He tries to push her off and she grabs his wrist, wrenches it and Gant hollers in pain.
Valkyrie leans in, and snarls. “Not so much fun when you’re on the receiving end, is it?”
“Please!” Gant squeals. “I’m an old man!”
“Damn right you are,” she says, and drops with an elbow to the jaw. Gant goes limp.
Valkyrie puts both hands on his face, shifting her weight to jump to her feet. Then she stands, well out of the way of his limbs.
“Xena,” she says, “hush.”
Immediately, Xena quiets down. But her tail doesn’t stop wagging as she keeps her eyes fixed on Gant.
Valkyrie walks over to Danny and helps him stand. He hadn’t even realised he’d collapsed. “You OK?”
He nods. It’s a blatant lie, but Valkyrie doesn’t seem to mind.
Once he’s on his feet, she leaves him, walks back to the front door. She shuts it.
The dog barks and Danny looks back and Gant is halfway to the Cadillac with Xena biting into his already bloody leg. He curses in pain and throws himself through the broken window, shaking Xena off as he drags his legs in after him. Valkyrie’s hands glow and white lightning catches Gant in the shoulder as he squirms behind the wheel. The engine roars to life and the car lurches forward. Valkyrie fires again, burning a deep scorch mark into the Cadillac’s body, but she’s too late to stop it. They watch it speed away, swerving dangerously.
Once it’s out of sight, Xena stops barking.
“Dammit,” Valkyrie mutters. She looks back at Danny. “You in any mood for a car chase?”
“You can have one if you want,” he says. “I’ll wait here.”
Valkyrie shakes her head. “Naw. I reckon we’ve done enough these last few days, what do you say?”
Her hand wraps around the chain of his handcuffs and glows white, and a moment later the chain breaks. “Get in the pickup there,” she says. “I’ll make a few calls and then we’ll head back to Meek Ridge.”
He gets in, groaning a little when Xena jumps in on top of him. She settles herself in the middle, then reaches back to lick her bloodied fur. Every so often, she licks Danny’s face. He is too tired to stop her.
Valkyrie talks on the phone for a bit, then gets in behind the wheel. “Some people are on their way here,” she says. “They’ll seal off the place, make sure Gant doesn’t get back in. Hopefully, they’ll pick him up on the road. If not, you’ll get round-the-clock protection until he’s arrested.”
Danny nods. “OK,” he says.
She reaches into her jacket, takes out a slim packet of dried leaves. She folds one, offers it to the dog. Xena swallows it and Valkyrie scratches behind her ears.
“Who’s a good doggy, huh? Who’s a good doggy?”
Xena wags her tail in a steady, happy rhythm.
Valkyrie pops one of the leaves in her own mouth, chewing it, and holds one out for Danny. “For the pain,” she says.
He takes it without asking what it is. It tastes exactly like he expects it to – like a leaf. But the feeling that floods his body takes him completely by surprise.
“Wow,” he says.
Valkyrie starts up the pickup and pulls away from the kerb. “Long drive back to Meek Ridge,” she says. “You want the radio on?”
He’d wanted to sleep, but now that the leaf is working wonders, he’s got more important things on his mind. “No,” he says. “I want to know what’s going on. Stephanie, Valkyrie, whatever your name is … please. Who are you?”
She gives him a smile. “Well, OK. You deserve it, I suppose. I’ll start at the beginning, how about that?”
“Sounds good,” he says.
She fixes her eyes on the road. “It all started with the death of my uncle.”
By the time Valkyrie has finished the story, told him all about Skulduggery and Tanith and Ghastly and Darquesse and the Accelerator, they have reached Meek Ridge and are driving past the grocery store.
It hasn’t burned down, which is a good sign. They take the road up to Valkyrie’s place. They pass Danny’s car, but they don’t stop until they get to the house.
They get out. Xena disappears immediately. Valkyrie stretches. Danny looks at her, says nothing. He follows her up the steps, into the house. It’s cold in here.
“Make yourself some coffee,” she says, and that’s what he does while she busies herself in another room.
When he’s done, he sits at the kitchen table, looking at his reflection in the window. They’d cleaned up at a gas station, but his face is a swollen mess and his clothes are stained with dried sweat and blood. His eyes dip to the mug of coffee he’s set aside for her. Steam rises from the brim.
A few minutes later, Xena comes in. She goes right up to Danny, nuzzling her snout into his hand until he pets her.
Elsewhere, he hears water running.
Xena wanders over to her bed, circles it a few times, and lies down. She rests her head on her paws, then looks up at him with wet brown eyes.
Valkyrie is standing there, in blue jeans and a jacket. Her hair is freshly washed. He hadn’t heard her come in.
“Now I know why you’re ninja-quiet,” he says. There are two bags by her feet. “You going somewhere?”
“Home,” she says.
This surprises him. “After … after everything that’s happened?”
“It’s time.” She comes forward, picks up her coffee, tastes it. “This is cold.”
“You’ve been gone a while.”
“I suppose I have.”
“Why did you leave?” he asks. “I mean, I know, the trauma must have been … unimaginable, but …”
“We won,” she says. “But the things I did when I was Darquesse, and the things I did later, in order to beat her … I had to leave. I couldn’t stay. Not after what I’d done to …”
“Alice.”
She nods. “I didn’t deserve a sister or a family. Stephanie … now Stephanie deserved a family. Everything she did, she did out of love for them.”
“But so did you. You said it yourself, protecting them was the reason you did everything.”
“I did it wrong, though. I did it badly.”
“You did what you had to do. I can’t believe you’ve been living up here alone for the past five years, blaming yourself, hating yourself for the things you had to do. You saved us all.”
“No. I didn’t save us. Not that time.”
Danny finishes his coffee. It’s lukewarm. “Skulduggery sounds like … an amazing person.”
Valkyrie gives one of those soft smiles. “Yeah.”
“He was a true hero, to give his life like that.”
“Hmm?” says Valkyrie. “Oh, no, he didn’t give his life.”
Danny frowns. “He didn’t? But you said he walked into the Accelerator.”
She shakes her head. “I said he walked towards the Accelerator. He told me later, when he was taking his hat back, that a world without him would scarcely be worth living in. No, he hauled Ravel up off the floor and pushed him in instead.”
Danny blinks. “But … but the soul had to be given willingly.”
“It was,” Valkyrie says. “But there was nothing in the rules that said the soul you willingly gave had to be your own.”
“Yep. The Engineer shrugged, said Skulduggery made a fair point, it allowed the soul to shut down the Accelerator, and Skulduggery turned round and made fun of me.”
There’s a knock on the door, and Valkyrie glances at her watch. “That’ll be him now.”
Danny jumps to his feet. “Skulduggery? That’s Skulduggery Pleasant?”
“Probably, yeah. I called him, told him it was time I came home. It’s like he said, years ago – punishment is the easy option. If I really want to make up for the things I’ve done, I’ve got to help people. If I want to make up for what I did to my sister, I have to be around her. I have to be a part of her life. She’s six now, for God’s sake. Six. She barely knows me. It’s … it’s time that changed.” She picks up her bags. “You can let yourself out, can’t you?”
“Uh … yeah …”
Valkyrie smiles. “I’ll get the rest of my stuff shipped over to me and then, I don’t know …” She looks around. “I’d sell the place, but I kind of like it.”
“Will I ever see you again?” Danny asks.
“You might.”
“But I might be an old man, yeah? And you’ll look exactly the same?”
She gives him a sad smile. “Yeah. Maybe. There’ll be some people calling round to talk to you. Sorcerers. Good people. They’ll make sure everything is all right.”
“Yeah. Cool.”
She raises an eyebrow. “Is everything going to be all right?”
“I … I don’t know. You’re asking me to return to my boring life after … after all this. After you. I don’t know if I can do that.”
“So don’t. You have dreams, right? You don’t want to spend the rest of your life running a grocery store in Meek Ridge, do you?”
“No. I … I used to have a record deal.”
Valkyrie tilts her head. “Seriously? Wow. Well, there you go. Get your record deal back. Become a rock star. Live an extraordinary life. You don’t have to save the world to change it.”
She taps her leg and Xena trots over. Danny goes as far as the hall with them. Through the frosted glass in the front door, he can see the dark outline of a tall, thin man, wearing a hat.
He remembers, as a kid, being scared of Santa Claus. He remembers lying in bed on Christmas Eve, curled in a ball, eyes wide, jumping at every creak the house made, waiting for this ghostly presence to visit. He feels that same kind of fear now – fear of the supernatural, mixed with pure, undiluted excitement.
Valkyrie stops with her hand on the latch, and looks back. “You want to meet him?”
Danny hesitates – hesitates for a long time – then shakes his head. “My mind is already blown enough, thank you very much. I think actually seeing a talking skeleton in person would just … I think my head would literally explode.”
Her smile turns to a grin. “Yeah, fair enough. Hey, you have a good life, Danny, you hear me?”
“Same to you, Valkyrie.” He gives her a little wave, feels the twinge in his injured shoulder, and winces. “What’ll I tell people about all this?”
“They won’t believe you anyway,” says Valkyrie, “so tell them the truth.”
Now it’s his turn to raise an eyebrow. “What, tell them about sorcerers and lunatics and kidnappings and murder?”
“Naw,” she says. “Tell them the real truth. Tell them about what’s really important.”
“And what, if you don’t mind me asking, is really important?”
Valkyrie holds her hand palm upwards, and it starts to glow from within. She smiles at him.
“Magic,” she says.
Meet Skulduggery Pleasant: detective, sorcerer, warrior. Oh yes, and dead.
Click on each cover to read the dead famous, bestselling Skulduggery Pleasant series
Four god-killer weapons scattered around the globe. Seven sorcerers hunting them down in a desperate effort to save humanity. Their only obstacle?
Tanith Low and her wicked band of outlaws, misfits and monsters.
It’s a good day to be a bad guy.
Click on the cover to read more.
ONE AMAZING NEW NOVELLA THREE GRIPPING NEW STORIES IN THE ULTIMATE STORY COLLECTION
Discover what happens between the books …
For the first time, every Skulduggery Pleasant short story ever written – including The End of the World, the World Book Day novella – is collected into one magnificent volume.
But that’s not all.
Written especially for this collection, there is an entirely new novella that will drag you into a nail-biting American horror story, Skulduggery-style, and three brand-spanking-new stories spanning 150 years. Join Gordon Edgley as he parties like it’s 1985, watch Valkyrie Cain face a vampire in a fight to the death, and see the Dead Men as you’ve never seen them before.
Click on the cover to read more.
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
http://www.harpercollins.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
2 Bloor Street East – 20th Floor
Toronto, ON, M4W, 1A8, Canada
http://www.harpercollins.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
77-85 Fulham Palace Road
London, W6 8JB, UK
http://www.harpercollins.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
195 Broadway
New York, NY 10007
http://www.harpercollins.com
