She grabbed onto Fletcher's arm, and felt the brief sensation of being scattered into a million pieces before stumbling away at the door of Skulduggery's house. Valkyrie didn't bother knocking when Fletch left her, and walked straight into the living room. The young detective heard a shriek of surprise before something stuck out from behind an armchair and she tripped over it. Groaning, she rolled over onto her back to see a terrified Saracen Rue.

"Val! It's you!" he cried, grabbing Erskine by the arm and dragging him over.

"Look your majesty! It's Val!"

"What's up with you guys today?" she muttered, grabbing onto the armchair to help herself up. Saracen and Ravel also stood up, and she saw them stumble against each other for a bit.

"Hang on. Are you… drunk?" she asked.

"No! No! We're not drunk!" Anton came out of the kitchen, giggling like a hyena. "We drank the forbidden juice! The juicy-juice!" Valkyrie backed away.

"Y-You're scaring me…" she mumbled.

"VAL!" she whipped around to see Skulduggery. "Quick, come here!" he beckoned and she followed, running upstairs to the bathroom. Skulduggery yanked Dexter out of the bathtub by his shirt collar, shoving him outside in a tangle of arms and legs and bones and locking the door. Valkyrie leaned against it, breathing rather heavily.

"OK," she panted, "what happened?" Skulduggery looked down, and coughed.

"What happened?!" Valkyrie demanded, raising her voice slightly.

"Yeah Skul, what happened?" Dexter mimicked from outside.

"Shut up!" Skulduggery roared. He cleared his non-existent throat. "I, um, I may have accidentally-on-purpose left the fridge unlocked in the Sanctuary."

"And?" Val pressed, raising an eyebrow.

"AndtheyfoundtheLucozadeandmayormaynothavegotalittlehigh." Pleasant said in a rush of words.

"So I'm supposed to be on vacation," Valkyrie marched up to him dangerously, "and you can't even control the idiots you fought with in the war?" she sighed. "And Tanith?"

"Tanith spoke to Ghastly who spoke to Saracen who spoke to Dexter who spoke to Anton who spoke to Ravel who ordered Tipstaff to get her a can. Or ten. And Erskine also promised Tipstaff that he would lose his job if he refused." Val groaned, placing her head in her hands.

"And how, detective Pleasant, do you presume we keep your moron friends under control?"

"Like this." Skulduggery held up six pairs of handcuffs, tossing her three which she clipped onto her belt. Before she could say any more, a large crash sounded from outside, and someone howled in pain. Running to the window, she paled as she saw the sight before her. Saracen had tripped over a bin, landing headfirst in a pile of rubbish. It got worse. The six high sorcerers loaded themselves into Ghastly's van and drove off with a sputter of the engine.

"Oh, hell." Skulduggery muttered.