"No."
Valkyrie sat up in her bed.
"No. Not now."
Darquesse brushed the hair out of Valkyrie's eyes, and Valkyrie struggled to stand up against the fatigue of sleep. She finally reached her feet, and Darquesse stumbled and jerked towards the mirror. She blinked, and Valkyrie opened her eyes.
"What are you doing?"
Blink.
"You know what I'm doing."
And the girl turned to the mirror, stretching out a hand. Only a few centimetres of air filled the gap between her hand and the mirror, and Valkyrie jerked into presence. She pulled her arm down sharply and turned away, taking rough, deep breaths. She reached for her phone. Darquesse didn't like that at all.
"Vile can't help you here."
Turning to the mirror again, Darquesse grunted and struggled against the walls Valkyrie was placing between her and reality. Trying to move just an inch proved too much for Darquesse, and Valkyrie dropped to her knees, panting.
"But Skulduggery can. She'll kill you too, you know."
Valkyrie tried again for her phone but Darquesse came back into existence with a scream that echoed in the darkness.
"You're close to killing me anyway. I can feel it. We're flawed, Valkyrie. Tainted by magic. See, it's not a beautiful force like I once thought. Magic is a dark, twisted corruption. We're broken, Val. She's not."
Darquesse began to crawl towards the mirror once more, trembling and gasping with the exertion. Valkyrie broke through again and grunted- "She's not whole," before Darquesse pushed her mental blocks down and touched the mirror.
There was a moment of silence.
A voice broke through the silence. "Why?"
Stephanie stood in the mirror. She wasn't crawling along the floor in pyjamas. She stood, wearing the black clothes Ghastly had made for. For Valkyrie. Not Darquesse, not Stephanie. Valkyrie.
And that's who stood up slowly, still unsteady from the mental strain, and stared at Stephanie.
"I'll ask once more. Why would she do that? What would drive her to get herself killed?"
Valkyrie watched as a dark mist formed, condensed, and retreated around Stephanie's right hand, leaving the Sceptre of the Ancients behind.
"You know everything I know."
Something cold and hard slammed into her face and the floor dropped from below Valkyrie, then came rushing back suddenly. The air slipped from her lungs and her head spun. She became faintly aware of the sound of breathing next to her ear.
"I know more than you. I know how to be a better Stephanie than you ever were."
Darquesse opened her eyes. Stephanie straddled her, pinning her to the ground.
"Just kill me."
"No."
Darquesse closed her eyes again, and Valkyrie rushed forward and slammed her head into Stephanie's nose. Stars erupted behind Valkyrie's eyes and she fumbled around on the ground as Stephanie slipped off her. Valkyrie found her phone and called Skulduggery's speed dial. He answered almost immediately.
"Valkyrie? What are you calling me so early for? It's 3 in the morning, if I hadn't been killed and revived by a necromancer High Priest I would totally be asleep right n-"
"Come. Quickly."
Skulduggery heard a loud crack and the sound of sand falling to the ground, dropped the phone and leapt out of the Bentley, launching himself into the air.
Four minutes and 37 seconds later, Skulduggery fell to his knees in front of the pile of dust.
"No."