Skulduggery Pleasant: Books 1 - 12. Derek Landy

      uild vanished.

      Valkyrie looked around. She’d glimpsed Fletcher running towards the Grand Mage, but now he was gone too and she knew instantly what he’d done. He’d seen Guild about to drop the Desolation Engine and he’d crossed the distance between them in the blink of an eye. Then he’d teleported them both away, somewhere safe, somewhere the bomb couldn’t hurt any innocent people. But was he fast enough to do that and teleport away again before it went off? Guild’s hand was open when he’d disappeared, the bomb already beginning its fall.

      She helped Skulduggery up. He took something from the side of his head that looked like a metal spider and dropped it.

      “Do you think Fletcher made it?” she asked softly. Skulduggery didn’t answer.

      Valkyrie took out her phone and dialled Fletcher’s number. It went straight to voicemail. She nodded then, closing off her mind, struggling to get back to the business at hand, even though there was a part of her, deep down, that was screaming. She hadn’t known how much Fletcher had meant to her. She hadn’t wanted to know. “Scarab’s still sitting there,” she said.

      “And Sanguine is holding Guild’s family hostage,” Skulduggery told her. Then he staggered and she reached out to steady him. “I can’t go out there,” he said. “I need a few minutes to recover.”

      “I’ll take care of it.” She ran out of the tunnel. An official scowled at her and she ignored him, got to the stairs and went straight for Scarab. He watched her coming. No smiles now.

      “Guild is gone,” she said, sitting beside him. “Fletcher teleported him away. Your little plan is over, OK? It’s finished.”

      “Teleporters,” Scarab murmured, shaking his head. “Never did like them.”

      “We’ve beaten you,” she said with real, undiluted hatred. “All these horrible things you’ve done and all my friends you’ve hurt, or killed, and it’s all for nothing. We’ve beaten you and you’ve failed. Where is Guild’s family?”

      Scarab rubbed his eyes. His hand, she saw, was trembling. He looked so old now. Old and sad and pathetic.

      She put her hand on his shoulder, and dug her fingers into a nerve cluster. He twisted in sudden pain, but she didn’t let go. “Where’s his family?”

      “Billy-Ray has them,” he spat.

      “Are they alive?”

      “Who knows?”

      She dug in harder. “Where are they?”

      “Don’t know the street name. Call him. Ask him for directions if you’re so damn eager.”

      She snatched the phone he took from his coat and as she did so, she snapped a handcuff around his wrist. She stood, stuffing the phone in her pocket and pulling him to his feet. She got him out on to the steps and cuffed his other wrist. She pushed him in front of her, heading back to the officials’ tunnel. The same official who had scowled at her came up to block their way. Valkyrie raised her hand to his chest and snapped her palm. The air rippled slightly and the official shot backwards. The people around her, unaware of the magic she’d just used, thought this was hilarious.

      She brought Scarab to the cover of the tunnel and shoved him towards Skulduggery.

      “Guild’s family?” Skulduggery asked.

      “I’m going for them now,” she said and hurried away, ignoring his protestations.

      She ran up the steps and looked at Scarab’s phone. There was only one number listed. She left the roar of the football crowd behind her and dialled it.

      “I ain’t seein’ no thousands of dead people on TV,” came Sanguine’s voice.

      “That’s not happening today,” she told him. “Your daddy’s in shackles and the Desolation Engine is far away from here. All your little buddies have been beaten. There’s just you left.”

      “An’ you’re comin’ for me, that it, Valkyrie?”

      “That’s it. Just you and me, Billy-Ray.”

      “Is it my imagination or are you soundin’ particularly angry today?”

      “If Fletcher is dead, I will kill you.”

      “An’ you’re in a vendetta kind of mood, huh? Well, heck, a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do, am I right? Get a car to Howth. Number forty-one, Nashville Drive.”

      “I’ll be there.”

      “I’ll be waitin’.”

      She hung up.

      The taxi made good time out of the city, and within minutes they were on the thin stretch of road to the peninsula of Howth. She could do this. She could take him. If he still had his magic, then no, she wouldn’t be so stupid to come here alone. But he didn’t have magic and Valkyrie did, and she was planning on using it. On the journey over she kept focused, kept her mind on what she was going to do, on what was about to happen. Not Fletcher. She didn’t think about Fletcher. She couldn’t.

      Valkyrie paid the driver and hurried up to number forty-one. It was a nice house, like all the other nice houses on Nashville Drive. She didn’t know how Sanguine had ended up here, but it didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was paying him back. He’d hurt her so now she was going to hurt him. If Guild’s family was still alive, that was a bonus.

      She wasn’t going to be subtle. She didn’t have the time or the temperament. She snapped both hands against the air, the space before her rippled and the front door flew off its hinges.

      Valkyrie walked in, shadows writhing around her right hand, flames curling in her left. The living room was empty and so was the kitchen. She went in deeper, to the bedrooms. A woman and a girl were shackled together on the floor in the corner of the master bedroom, gags over their mouths.

      She turned, expecting Sanguine to be rushing up behind her, but the hall was empty. With two pairs of frightened eyes on her, she stepped into the bedroom and nudged the door open fully. It swung slowly back and tapped the wall. She crossed to the ensuite, using the mirror inside to make sure it was clear, then she darted in, but there was nowhere for Sanguine to jump out at her.

      She moved back into the bedroom. Her right hand flicked a trail of shadows under the bed. They didn’t hit anything. Her eyes found the wardrobe, both slatted doors closed over. If he was in there, he was watching her right now and he could see how tense she was. How scared.

      Valkyrie let the flames go out and abandoned the shadows. She pushed at the air and the wardrobe doors smashed to kindling. Clothes dropped from railings and hangers clashed, but when the debris had finished falling, there was nobody in there.

      She went to the woman and the girl and pulled the gags from their mouths.

      “Where is he?” she asked.

      “I don’t know,” the woman answered. She was younger than Valkyrie had expected. The girl looked to be about twelve. “He put us in here ten minutes ago. We haven’t seen him since. Is Thurid all right?”

      “I’m sure he’s fine,” Valkyrie lied. There was nothing she could do about the shackles, but she burned through the ropes tying their feet and helped them up. “Get your daughter out of here.”

      “What are you going to do? You can’t face him alone.”

      “Sure I can.”

      Valkyrie used the shadows to break the window and she helped the mother and daughter out through it. Then she took out Scarab’s phone and pressed redial. From somewhere else in the house, she heard Patsy Cline’s ‘Crazy’.

      She stepped into the hall and held out her hand. The