Valkyrie got up and followed Skulduggery out if the library.

"I just don't get it, Skulduggery," she said, looking toward the floor, "What could Abigail and I have in common? I mean, we're not related. I don't think…" She sighed and looked out the window as she heard a rumble. The sky was beginning to darken.

'There must be a storm coming,' she thought. She heard another rumble followed by a very faint cracking noise. She scrunched up her nose.

'That's not thunder,' she thought, looking around her. She stopped in the middle of the hall. Skulduggery turned around.

"What's the matter?"

"Shh." She heard it again.

"Don't-."

"Shh!" She heard the noise again, louder this time.

"Don't you hear that?" she whispered, listening intently.

"Hear wh-," but he stopped as a loud, deafening, cracking sound cut him off from above. They both looked up as the chandelier swung violently.

Valkyrie felt Skulduggery yank on her arm just as the chandelier broke free from the ceiling. They both fell to the floor and Valkyrie covered her face as the chandelier came crashing down to the floor. The sound of breaking glass filled her ears and the rush of wind blew her hair back.

She felt pieces of glass hit her, but they couldn't penetrate through her jacket. She made a mental note to give Ghastly a big thank you when she got back.

She carefully peaked over her arms, and then stood up. She yelped in pain as she cut her hand on a piece of glass. The broken pieces of glass crunched under her heavy boots as she walked toward the wreckage.

She covered her face again as more of the ceiling fell. She looked up, trying to keep the debris out of her eyes and saw the gaping hole in the ceiling.

She felt Skulduggery pull on her arm, pulling her away. He lifted up her arm, examining her cut hand. Valkyrie looked down at it. The piece of glass was still stuck in her hand.

"We need to get that out of your hand," he said, caressing the sensitive skin. She kept wincing every time his fingers came close to the glass, but she didn't let him see that.

"What's going on out here?!" yelled a voice from behind them. They turned to see Mr. Bacon come out from one of the hallways. He stared at the remains of the chandelier, then stared at Skulduggery and Valkyrie.

"What happened?"

"The chandelier fell," Skulduggery said, pointing to the ceiling. Valkyrie rolled her eyes.

"I can see that Mr. Pleasant!" Mr. Bacon yelled as he stormed over to them, "I'm wondering why it fell."

"Saboteur," Skulduggery said, straightening out his suit, "Someone's out to kill Valkyrie." Mr. Bacon raised an eyebrow.

"Why?" he asked, his arms flailing in frustration, "What's going on?" Skulduggery sighed.

"Maybe this is best explained in your office."

* * *

After an hour of explaining to Mr. Bacon, (of course, they didn't tell him the whole story) they headed upstairs to try and remove the glass from Valkyrie's hand.

She was sitting on the edge of the tub, watching Skulduggery raid the cupboards for bandages and antiseptic. After finding them, he knelt down next to her and began to clean the blood off her hand. Valkyrie gave a weak smile.

"At least Kenspeckle isn't here to hound you about how much danger you're putting me in," she said quietly.

"Yeah, you're right. He'd probably be close to biting my head clean off right about now." He finished cleaning, and then looked up at her.

"Ready?" he asked. She nodded and closed her eyes.

"Just do it fast," she said quickly. She yelled out as she felt him yank the glass out of her hand. She opened her eyes to see him applying the bandage.

"There," he said, turning her hand over to examine his handy work, "It's not as good as Kenspeckle, but you'll live." He stood up and threw away the piece of glass.

Valkyrie flexed her hand. It still hurt, but she would be able to fight if need be. She got up and followed Skulduggery out of the bathroom and sat down next to him on the edge of the bed. She looked down at her hand, rubbing it gently, thinking what to say next.

"Now what?" she asked quietly. Skulduggery sighed and rubbed his face.

"Now we hope to catch this lunatic before they get the chance to finish you off for good."

"But how? We know nothing about this person."

"Since when has that stopped as? We're detectives. It's our job to find out the unknown." Valkyrie stood up and turned to face him, ready for anything.

"So where do we start?"