Skulduggery Pleasant: Books 10 - 12. Derek Landy

to an IV and a monitor. He was pale. His hair, distressingly, was sensibly brushed back from his forehead. He looked almost respectable, like someone who hadn’t known him had prepared him for his coffin.

      Valkyrie realised her hands were shaking. She clenched her fists to stop it.

      For five years, she hadn’t had to visit anyone in hospital. For five years, she’d been away from beatings and stabbings, from murders and plots. She hadn’t missed any of it, and yet she’d come back. She’d walked back into this world of violence and pain and death and suffering, and she’d done so fully aware of what could happen. She couldn’t explain why.

      “Hey,” Fletcher said. He was smiling.

      She walked closer. “How’re you doing?”

      “Good.” His voice was weak. “But the knife did a lot of damage, so I have to stay very still for everything to settle back into place. I am so incredibly bored.”

      “I’d say so.”

      “How are you? I heard what happened to Skulduggery.”

      “Yeah,” she said. “I’m OK. I’ll get him back.”

      “I don’t doubt it. Who was it stabbed me?”

      Valkyrie sat on the chair beside his bed. “His name is Nero. A Teleporter. I don’t know how he did it, how he followed you. I’ve never even heard of that before.”

      “Me either,” Fletcher said, “and I’ve read practically every book written about Teleporters. Not that there are many. There are, like, four.”

      “You’ve read four books?”

      “I’ve changed,” he said, and smiled again.

      “Thanks, by the way,” she said. “For coming to get us like you did. You saved our lives.”

      “I’d blush, but I doubt I have enough blood for it. Besides, I didn’t have a choice. The call came in that Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain were in trouble and what was I going to do, ignore it? You were my first love. I had to go charging to the rescue.”

      “My hero.”

      “Yeah, I’m awesome. Hey, hope you don’t mind me saying this, but you look … sad.”

      “I’ll be fine. Skulduggery being gone … it’s temporary. That’s all.”

      “He’ll come back to you,” said Fletcher. “If anyone can snap him out of whatever it is that’s affecting him, it’ll be you.”

      “Yeah.”

      “How you doing, Val? Really?”

      She looked away, then back. “Not good,” she said.

       41

      She said her goodbyes to Fletcher and walked towards the exit. She was almost there when the doors opened ahead of her and Temper Fray and Omen Darkly hurried in from the street. She stared.

      “I heard what happened,” Temper said, his face still puffy from a recent beating. “What’s the plan?”

      Valkyrie blinked at him. “What?”

      “The plan,” he repeated, like he was talking to a four-year-old. “To stop them from resurrecting Abyssinia. What is it?”

      “I don’t … I don’t know what … Temper, how are you still alive?”

      “Omen rescued me,” Temper said.

      “Omen’s supposed to be in school.”

      “I’d never have thought Skulduggery would shoot you,” Temper said. “I mean, not actually shoot you. Not you.”

      Valkyrie shook her head. “Wait, stop, we’re not finished talking about this. I’m glad you’re alive and everything, but Omen, Skulduggery told you to stay out of it from now on, didn’t he?”

      Omen nodded, like the guilty schoolboy he was.

      “Again, I’m glad Temper isn’t dead, but this isn’t a game we’re playing.”

      “I know,” Omen murmured.

      “I don’t think you do. Look at me. Look at the fear in my eyes. You think any of this is fun?”

      “No.”

      “This isn’t your fight. It isn’t your job to deal with these psychos and it isn’t your job to rescue people, as pleased as I am that Temper is alive.”

      “You keep saying that,” Temper said. “I don’t think I believe you any more.”

      “I’m sorry I disobeyed Skulduggery,” said Omen, “but I really want to be a part of this. It’s my one chance to be someone.”

      “You’re fourteen,” Valkyrie said. “You have plenty of time to be someone. You don’t belong out here. You belong in school.”

      “Hey,” said Temper, putting an arm round Omen’s shoulders, “show my boy here some respect. He saved me, Valkyrie. He hitched a lift with Nero, came into the lion’s den, sneaked by all the nutcases, freed me from my prison cell and then saved me from getting my ass kicked. It’s because of him that I got back in one piece. He can handle himself, OK? Which is more than either of us have done lately.”

      “He’s a kid.”

      “So were you.”

      “And look at me now. Seriously. Look at what all that action and adventure has done to me. I’m a frickin’ basket case. My best friend has been taken from me and I’m barely holding it together. I’ve got parents who worry about me and a little sister I never see because I don’t deserve her love. My life is a mess, Omen. For the last five years, I’ve cried myself to sleep and practically every morning I’ve woken up screaming. I feel myself dip into these pits of sadness and I can see it coming, but I can’t do anything about it, and every time it takes me just a little bit longer to climb back out. Is that what you want? Is this the kind of adventure you’re looking for?”

      Omen didn’t respond.

      “Have a normal life,” Valkyrie said. “Please. Just walk away. Leave it all behind. Leave magic behind. Live as a mortal. That’s what I’d do, if I could do it all over again.”

      “I don’t believe that,” said Temper.

      “And it’s a good thing I don’t care what you think.”

      “We could do with his help, Valkyrie, seeing as how we are so vastly outmatched as it stands.”

      “Well, why stop there?” she asked. “Why stop with a fourteen-year-old? Why not get a couple of toddlers to draw enemy fire? Why not have an entire brigade of babies and idiots?”

      “I’m starting to feel a little insulted,” Omen said quietly.

      “And where did this we business start, anyway?” Valkyrie demanded. “We’re not a team, Temper. Skulduggery and me, we were a team. But I barely know you, and I hardly trust you.”

      “Skulduggery trusted me.”

      “Did he? You sure about that?”

      She brushed by them both, heading for the exit. Her leg was getting better, her limp less pronounced.

      “Lethe told me that Smoke’s power corrupts the soul,” Temper said, “not the mind. I couldn’t tell the difference, to be honest, but that’s how they got Skulduggery, in case you were wondering.”

      Valkyrie stopped. “He got you, too?”

      “Of course,” said Temper. “Why torture me for information when they