Skulduggery Pleasant: Books 1 - 12. Derek Landy

even turn, those scythes were slicing.

      “Are they on our side?” Paddy asked, confused.

      “Oh, yeah,” Valkyrie smiled.

      Valkyrie saw Ghastly throwing fire. Hollow Men wheeled, their internal gases bursting into flame. She saw China, dressed head to foot in black, tapping the symbols on her forearms and sending a wave of blue energy slamming into Krav as he charged at her.

      Skulduggery was at the column of smoke, trying to push his way through. She glimpsed Fletcher, his hands on the Grotesquery, and even from this distance she saw the pain on his face. He tried to move, but Gallow kept him on his knees, and then Fletcher arched his back, and over the roar of the smoke, she heard him scream.

      Ten metres away from him a yellow light appeared in thin air. It got brighter, and bigger. It was growing fast. In ten seconds it was the size of a human head. Valkyrie could see inside it now. At the centre the light was calm, and a little less bright, but the edges were like angry licks of flame, dragging the gateway ever wider.

      The Necromancers had arrived at the yard, and by the looks of them, they had fought the whole way there. Solomon Wreath shouted orders and the female Necromancer swirled her cloak, its edges tearing through the Hollow Men around her. The male Necromancer fired his flintlock pistol, each dark bullet perforating multiple Hollow Men at a time.

      Wreath used his cane like he was conducting music, sending waves of darkness crashing down upon his enemies.

      Valkyrie watched the gateway get bigger and bigger, and their chances for survival get smaller and smaller.

      Tanith was facing off against Murder Rose, but she had a look on her face Valkyrie had rarely seen – fear. Murder Rose was better than Tanith and Tanith knew it.

      Blades flashed and Tanith gave ground. Rose’s long knives parried and blocked Tanith’s increasingly desperate sword swipes, and Rose was smiling. She was toying with Tanith, enjoying the fact that she could end this at any time.

      And then, she decided to end it.

      

      anith tried to flip backwards but Murder Rose lunged, one of her knives slicing into Tanith’s shoulder.

      Valkyrie jumped to her feet and shouted Tanith’s name.

      Tanith slashed wildly as she backed off. Rose moved sideways and in, stabbing through her right leg.

      Tanith fell to one knee, but caught Rose’s wrist just as the madwoman went for her throat. Rose casually pressed the tip of her other knife against the back of Tanith’s hand, and in one smooth motion she pushed it all the way in.

      Tanith screamed and Rose kicked her on to her back, then moved in for the kill.

      Valkyrie saw something blur, something white, and Murder Rose had to duck to avoid the White Cleaver’s scythe.

      The Cleaver spun low and Rose flipped, then closed in with unnatural speed. The White Cleaver dodged the swipe of one knife and blocked the other. He kicked at her leg. She stumbled and the scythe blade whipped by her, barely missing her throat.

      Rose went to defend herself against a low strike that the Cleaver abruptly shifted. The scythe’s handle cracked into Rose’s jaw and she fell.

      Valkyrie was about to run out to help Tanith when the wall in front of her exploded. She fell back, coughing. She heard Paddy beside her and looked through the dust and debris as Gruesome Krav, cursing vehemently, did his best to stand.

      Mr Bliss stepped through the giant hole he had made in the wall.

      “My sister?” he snarled, waiting for Krav to straighten up. “You tried to kill my sister?”

      Krav swung a punch. Bliss closed his hand around the fist and squeezed, and Krav roared as all the bones in his hand were crushed.

      Bliss punched him and Krav hit the opposite wall, cracking it. “My sister is the only family I have left.”

      He slammed into Krav and they went through the opposite wall and took the fight outside.

      Ghastly came through the first hole, supporting Tanith with her arm around his neck. She was bleeding badly, but still gripping her sword. Valkyrie hurried to them as he sat her on a chair by the table.

      “I can still fight,” Tanith muttered.

      “Look after her,” Ghastly barked, and ran back out.

      “Tanith,” Valkyrie said, hunkering down to look at her. “Tanith, can you hear me?”

      “She beat me, Val …”

      “She got lucky.” Valkyrie looked at Paddy. “Do you have any bandages or medical supplies?”

      He nodded and moved off. “I keep a first-aid kit somewhere around here.”

      He started rummaging around in drawers, and Valkyrie went to help him search. It was when she glanced back to make sure Tanith hadn’t passed out that she saw the wall starting to crack. She barely had time to shout a warning before Billy-Ray Sanguine leaped through. He grabbed Tanith’s hair and slammed her head down on to the table.

      Paddy swung the shotgun around, but Sanguine threw Tanith into him. Valkyrie clicked her fingers, but failed to summon a spark. Sanguine sank into the ground. She heard him step from the wall beside her and she kicked out without looking. Her boot hit him in the leg – he grunted and she tried to follow up with a right cross, but he blocked it and punched her, straight in the sternum. Valkyrie flew backwards, falling over a chair and sprawling to the ground.

      The shotgun blasted and blasted again, and she looked up to see Paddy staring at a bare wall, eyes wide with astonishment. Sanguine rose up through the floor behind him and shoved him into the wall, hard.

      “Everyone bein’ so eager to die,” Sanguine said, “almost takes the fun outta killin’ them.”

      He went for Valkyrie and she jumped to the table and rolled over it. He laughed, diving at her, but she snatched up Tanith’s sword and turned, bringing it around in a wide arc. The blade opened up Sanguine’s belly and he stopped, mouth open, looking down at himself while she backed away.

      “What have you done?” he asked, bewildered.

      Blood ran from the cut, quickly soaking his shirt and deepening the colour of his suit.

      “What the hell have you done?” he screeched and the fury in his voice hit her harder than his fists ever had.

      The ground swallowed him.

      Paddy groaned on the floor, but appeared to be OK. Valkyrie helped Tanith back into the chair, and put the sword on the table beside her, then went to the window.

      Something flew out of the gate and it caught in her mind and a shockwave hit the farmhouse and she was thrown back.

      Her thoughts went quiet.

      The broken glass beneath her hands. The breeze, stirred to wind outside. The world, dull and deadened.

      Another shockwave hit the farmhouse.

      And another.

      Her mouth was dry and her head was pounding. Slowly, she crawled over rubble, to the hole in the wall.

      Outside, there were others, on the ground. Lying down. Lots of paper people. Some people in black. Swirling red and black smoke. A skeleton. There was a skeleton, stumbling towards her.

      She heard a voice that said, “Valkyrie.”

      The skeleton’s hands were gloved. She felt the fingers,