After settling down in the room, Valkyrie went out exploring. She roamed the third and second floors before heading back down the staircase to the first floor. She looked to her right and saw shelves of books through the doorway. She walked through the doorway and smiled.

There were shelves and shelves of books as far as she could see. She ran her finger across the binding of the books as she walked between the shelves. She saw a book of interest and picked it off the shelf and found a couch and plopped down on it and started reading

About half way through the second chapter, she felt someone sit down next to her. "And Then There Were None, good book," Skulduggery said, leaning back and putting his arm on the sofa behind Valkyrie. She closed her book and looked up at him with a scowl.

"Thank you and I would very much appreciate it if you didn't tell me what happens." She leaned back and felt her face turn red as she felt Skulduggery's cold arm on the back of her neck. She hoped he didn't notice.

"Anyways," she said, trying to hide her face, "What are you doing?" Skulduggery chuckled.

"Trying to find out what happened to my partner." Valkyrie laughed.

"I went out exploring and I found myself in here."

"I had figured as much."

"So have you found anything out?"

"I was just going to ask you the same thing."

"Well, sitting here isn't going to get us anywhere."

"Well, what if I like sitting here though?" Valkyrie felt her face burn and her heart skip a beat. She tried to shake the feeling away.

"But it's still getting us nowhere."

"You're right." Skulduggery got up and straightened out his elaborate dark suit. "Maybe I'll go question the staff to see if they have had any experiences with the ghost."

Valkyrie felt her heart sink. That meant he would most likely be talking to Clarabelle. Valkyrie tried to not to show her sadness.

"Well I guess I'll stay here and see what I can dig up," she said, trying to get comfy again, but couldn't.

Skulduggery nodded. "I guess I'll meet you back in the room later then."

"Alright then."

Skulduggery turned and walked toward the doorway. Valkyrie watched him walk away and felt her heart melt. He stopped and turned to look at Valkyrie.

"By the way," Skulduggery said, smiling, "The lawyer did it." Then he ran out the door.

"Skulduggery," Valkyrie moaned and slammed her book against her head.

* * *

Valkyrie tried to continue reading, but couldn't. After a couple of minutes struggling with herself, she got up and put the book away, then headed back to the room. When she reached the second floor, she could hear muffled voices off to her left, around the corner that sounded vaguely familiar. When she peeked around the corner, she could see Skulduggery and Clarabelle standing at the end of the hallway. Valkyrie couldn't understand what they were saying, but she could hear Clarabelle giggling like a little girl. Valkyrie felt the anger rise up in her and her hands clench up.

"You nasty little wench," Valkyrie hissed through clenched teeth. She then sighed and decided that glaring at the back of Clarabelle's head wasn't making her feel any better. She slowly walked up the rest of the way to her room. When she got there, she shed her ebony black jacket that Ghastly had made for her before she left and threw it in one of the chairs. She then kicked off her thick, heavy boots and set them at the foot of the bed. She then slipped out of her black trousers and took off her black sleeveless tunic, throwing them on the end of the bed.

She walked over to her brown, leather suitcase and opened it. She pulled out a small tank top and slipped it on. It was too small for her and it cut down too low for her liking, but she liked to wear while she was bumming around.

Feeling too lazy to dig through her suitcase to find her shorts, she grabbed her phone and her sketchbook and laid out on the bed. She checked her phone to see if anyone had called or texted her, but no one did. She opened her sketchbook and flipped through it.

Recently, she had taken up drawing as a hobby. She had originally taken it up because Skulduggery had been making her draw quick sketches of crime scences.

Apparently, she was lacking skills in art department so much that Skulduggery had forced her to somehow improve her art skills to a point to where he could at least distinguish different objects in her drawings. So she checked out some art books from the library and found that she quite enjoyed it and soon became fairly good at it. She had bought a sketchbook that she took everywhere with her.

That was when she really started to develop a "feeling" for Skulduggery. She had told him that she needed to practice drawing and needed a model. He had reluctantly agreed. The first couple of drawings were simply of him sitting in the car or talking to someone.

But Valkyrie had soon found herself drawing all kinds of pictures of him any time she could and found herself flipping back through her drawings, starring at them with longing. And when she saw him how he used to look, her heart had just about melted and she had wasted no time in drawing him.

She continued to flip through the pages, reminiscing, until she heard a soft click and the door swung open and Skulduggery walked through.

Valkyire slammed her sketchbook shut and grabbed a pillow and threw it at Skulduggery. It hit him square in the head and knocked his hat off his head.

"Hey!" he yelled, as he bent down to pick up his hat.

"You could have had the decency to knock," Valkyrie yelled, as she got up and threw her sketchbook in her suitcase and stood with her hands across her chest. Skulduggery picked up his hat and put it back on his head and turned to look at Valkyrie.

"Well, I didn't..." he stopped and swallowed hard when he saw what she was wearing. Valkyrie could feel her face go red as she watched Skulduggery's eyes scan her up and down.

"I would really appreciate it if you would stop gawking at me," she said, shaking her head. 'Please don't stop,' her brain cried, but she ignored it.

Skulduggery shook his head and turned to close the door. Valkyrie rolled her eyes and dug through her suitcase and pulled out a pair of shorts and a hooded sweatshirt and put them on. She turned to look at Skulduggery who was leaning against the doorway.

"So did you find anything out?" Valkyrie asked, a little sourly.

"Yes I did actually," he said, standing straight and starting to walk toward her, "And we're going to see him, so put some clothes on and let's go."

Skulduggery stopped about an inch from her face. Valkyrie rolled her eyes and laughed softly.

"Alright let's go."