A/N: This little story is set after KOTW. I'm from Germany (so sorry for my bad English) and reading this series in German so I don't know what happens in LSODM yet. Please don't tell me.

Valduggery and maybe (and just maybe) Vilkyrie ahead. I don't know how this story develops. I think I'm going to write a second chapter but I'm not sure if I should write more. Depends on how many people read this and want me to continue. This is my first fanfic so please Read & Review :)

Every horizontal line shows that the POV is changed. It starts with Skulduggery's.

I do not own any of those characters and anything you recognize from the books.


Chapter one

Skulduggery sat in his favorite armchair he used for meditation. Today, however, he was not meditating but thinking about what happened in the last few days. There was plenty of time for this because since he and Valkyrie – or should he say Vile and Darquesse? – stopped Argeddion there hadn't been anything for them to work on. That probably meant something bad was about to happen. It felt like the calm before the storm.

He knew Sanctuaries from all over the world were preparing for war now. Since Strom, the grand mage of the Supreme Council, was killed while he was in Dublin, they hadn't heard anything from the Supreme Council anymore.

Skulduggery didn't want a war. Yes, he was happy to go after bad guys, but war was something completely different. The last war he had been Lord Vile for several years and he didn't want that to happen again.

Speaking of Vile. When Vile and Darquesse fought the last time, Vile didn't even thought about killing Darquesse. He was too fascinated by her power and beauty. If Skulduggery hadn't known it better, he would have said Vile felt attracted to her. But that was preposterous. After all, he was Vile. Just with more self-control and less rage. And Darquesse was Valkyrie, though Darquesse had no conscience and was therefore a very brutal killer. So Vile feeling attracted to Darquesse would mean he thought the same way about Valkyrie and that was ridiculous. Yes, he liked Valkyrie. He really liked her. But he couldn't be in love with her, could he?


Valkyrie climbed through her window and was surprised to find her room empty. She wondered where the reflection could be when she heard a door open. Footsteps on the stairs. The door opened and her reflection entered.

"Hi", it said.

"Hi", Valkyrie responded. She gestured towards the mirror. "I want to resume my life." Since there was no case to work on she could spend the rest of the day with her family.

The reflection hesitated. Weird. After a moment it tried a smile, said "Sure" and stepped into the mirror. Valkyrie touched the glass and the memories of several days came to her mind. Just everyday stuff. Going to school. Making homework. Feeding Alison. Then the memory went black for a moment. Before she could wonder what happened the memory got clear again and she saw herself standing in her room, telling the reflection to step into the mirror.

Something didn't fit and she looked through the memories again, this time more attentive. Now she realized what was wrong. There was a huge time gap between feeding Alison this morning and seeing herself waiting in the bedroom. Where had the reflection been all day? Why was there a lack of memories? If it had been sleeping, Valkyrie would remember going to bed but there was no such memory. It couldn't hide things on purpose, could it? And if it was able to hide thing, what did the reflection hide from her? Valkyrie hadn't got a clue but she knew it must be something bad. The thought made her shiver.

She grabbed her phone and called Skulduggery.


The ringtone of his mobile interrupted his train of thoughts. A quick glance on the screen told him it was Valkyrie.

"Already missing my company?" he teased.

Her tone was worried when she responded. "It's my reflection, Skulduggery. I can't remember what it did for hours."

"Well, you use the reflection very often. Perhaps that's just another malfunction."

"I don't think it's that simple. That happened only once before. When it was tortured and didn't want me to go through this. I remembered this just now. I think it kept those memories deliberately, too. I only wonder why."

"You could simply ask your reflection."

"No, absolutely not", she said and her voice sounded scared. Weird. It was just a reflection, nothing to be scared of.


"Why not?", he asked with his velvety voice.

"I'm afraid of it. It has own thoughts and makes own decisions. What if it decides it doesn't want to help me anymore when I confront it? Oh my god", she whispered as realization hit her. When she couldn't use the reflection anymore she had to tell her parents everything. Or run away and break their hearts or she uses the reflections and comes home to find out it is gone or told her parents about magic or-


"Valkyrie?", he asked concerned when she remained silent for too long. She didn't answer. The reflection couldn't have hurt her, could it? Then he heard her sniffle.

"Valkyrie, are you crying?" Now he was angry, she wasn't the kind of person who cried a lot. Something bad must have happened.

"Wh-What will my parents say when say find out?" she said with a shaky voice. "They will probably hate me, because I lied to them for such a long time. I don't want them to find out. I like it the way it is now!"

With the phone in one hand he grabbed his hat from the table and his keys, rushing towards the Bentley. Perhaps he wasn't sure about his feelings for Valkyrie but he knew that he cared for her and didn't want her to be hurt. She was his friend and right now she needed him.

"It's okay, Valkyrie", he tried to soothe her. "I'll be there in a few minutes. We'll figure something out."

"Okay" she said and Skulduggery could hear a weak smile from her voice.

He parked the Bentley a few meters down the street and flew the rest of the way and up to her window.


Yes, I know it started kinda lame but I hope the next chapter is better :)

Don't forget to Review!