I should have known something like this would happen. It was bound to come up sooner or later.
Kiah groaned, and sat up. "I told you it was a trap," she said.
"No, you said it looked like it was a trap," Duncan corrected. "That's completely different."
He helped her up as a door opened behind them and Mayura Morda walked through, an unsettling smile on her lips.
"You left so abruptly last time, I never got to thank you for this," Sadistica explained, revealing the gold box in her hands.
"It's just a box," Valkyrie bluntly stated and Skulduggery elbowed her.
"Fool! This isn't some ordinary box," Sadistica exclaimed.
"It isn't?" Skulduggery questioned as Sadistica gritted her teeth.
"Why would I be carrying a useless box?"
"To put something in it?" Valkyrie offered and Skulduggery snorted.
"You idiots! This is the very box that Pandora opened, unleashing evil over the world!" Sadistica snapped.
"But don't you need a direct descendant of Pandora to be able to open it?" Skulduggery chirped and Sadistica mimicked Skulduggery before snarling.
"I know that already! That's why I need that little red headed friend of yours," Sadistica snapped and Skulduggery nudged Valkyrie, warning her to keep Sadistica busy as Skulduggery pulled out his phone.
"How do you know she's a descendant to Pandora?" Valkyrie quizzed and Sadistica laughed humorlessly.
"I have my ways," she informed, circling them like prey as Skulduggery carefully kept his back turned to her at all times.
"Is that why you're always angry? Because I can tell you now, it doesn't look good on you," Valkyrie informed.
"I don't need to hear this coming from someone as young as– what are you doing?" Sadistica snapped at Skulduggery and he spun around, showing her his phone.
"Telling someone to hide," he informed.
"Could've told someone where we were," Valkyrie whispered and Skulduggery looked at her.
"You should've told me that before she found out what I was doing."
Sadistica snarled and thrusted her hand out at us, her necromancer's bracelet formed shadows around the silver jewelry before lunging at Skulduggery, barely brushing past Valkyrie's coat as Skulduggery pushed them out of the way.
"I will not stand here and allow you to ridicule me like idiots!" Sadistica screamed, her blonde hair blazing around her like a halo as she threw more shadows at the duo.
"Oh, so now we're the idiots," Valkyrie muttered. She managed to deflect the shadows with her own necromancy but even she wasn't quick enough to withstand all of Sadistica's attacks, catching one across her cheek. However, Skulduggery barely moved as he fired his revolver, shot after shot at Sadistica's chest, but either way, she just wouldn't go down.
That's when the glass ceiling shattered above them and a familiar scent of motor oil reached Valkyrie's nose as Lucinda Smolder dropped in front of Sadistica in her trademark steampunk attire and snatched the box from Sadistica's careless grasp.
"I believe that's mine," Luce declared, her gloved hands opening the box to a blinding white light for Sadistica's individual torture.