A/N: I don't own Skulduggery, Valkyrie, Lord Vile, Erskine, Ghastly, Dusk or anyone else you may recognize.


I came to chained up in the dungeon again and sighed. Nuit stood before me gloating. "Give up and give yourself over to me. You know he loves his wife more than he'll ever love you, I simply showed you the truth." I looked at him and said nothing, remaining passive, not even fighting my despair as it settled in around me. I was giving a grand performance, even if I do say so myself.

"You know, I could never have gotten to you had Dusk not interfered on my behalf. It is a rather long and tedious story, but we're working together now. He happily handed you over to me. You can always trust a vampire to hold a grudge." Nuit said, clearly amused with his own cleverness.

"How did he help?" I asked dully and sensed Nuit's smiling at me from the depths of his hood.

"You haven't guessed? It was easy enough for him to show up at the Sanctuary to 'help'. To pretend he was hunting me. Most amusing. He interfered with your necklace so subtly even that bag of bones you so twistedly desire didn't notice. But come. Enough of this. Just go ahead and admit that he never truly loved you, not really and I'll win."

I nodded sadly. "You're right, he doesn't truly love me. You've shown me that." I said dully, pretending to not fight my despair, letting it wash over me, buying time until he at least freed me from my chains. "Or he loved China more. You forgot about her." I added, letting my tears flow.

Nuit stepped back, clearly alarmed. I wasn't supposed to just give in like this. He was wary though, sensing a trap. "You're- you're just pretending aren't you?" He asked and I let myself nod happily in reply, seeing my allies arrive at last. Nuit followed my gaze, turned to see only three women and laughed. "I am master of this realm!" He sneered, striding towards them. "You think three women are going to defeat me?"

The eldest let her fists do the talking and started hitting him with a series of punches I could tell really hurt. She settled into a steady rhythm and Nuit tried to stumble back in retreat, his face a mask of blood that poured into his eyes from the pounding she was giving him. She broke his nose next, then his jaw. Nuit was not regenerating. He fell to his knees and the youngest woman kicked him in the face while her mother came to free me.

"He didn't get you two right at all." I commented as she freed me and she smiled. "I- I'm sorry about Skulduggery." I said softly as my chains came loose and she sighed.

"Don't you dare feel guilty, Valkyrie Cain. Hundreds of years from now, if you are dead and he fell in love again, would you want him to remain alone because he once loved you?" She asked gently.

"No, of course not." I said horrified at the idea.

Then go back and make him happy, Valkyrie. Marry him. Let him be a man for you. Give him as much happiness for as long as you can. Then when it is you time to make this speech you honestly won't mind." She said, drawing me into a tight hug that I returned with surprise.

We walked back to find Nuit crumpled on the floor. The boxer hoisted him up on her shoulder with a grunt. "Keep an eye on that fool son of mine and don't worry about this one. The dead have ways of taking care of our own." I nodded and she continued. "Had rather hoped he'd end up with you. I've seen you fight." She reached out and ruffled my hair fondly, then the three women faded from view and I awakened in time to see Dusk being slapped into handcuffs by Ghastly. I smiled, wishing he could have seen his mom as well. Dusk moved ever so slightly and Ghastly nailed him with a punch backed up by the air. Dusk crumpled to the ground and Ghastly grinned at me.

"He was resisting arrest. You all saw it." He said playfully and we all laughed.

I tried to rise but my body still felt like lead. Skulduggery came over and helped me up gently. "Falling asleep on the job again, are we? That's it, I'm asking Erskine for a new parter." He teased as he pulled me into a massive hug.

I hugged him back tightly. "Nuit's been taken care of. He made the wrong women angry. I couldn't say anything to you before, and I'm sorry but in some of my good dreams I found allies. I just pushed the thought of them too far back in my mind for Nuit to find it." I said steeping back reluctantly and addressing the room now that an unconscious Dusk had been hauled away by Cleavers.

"What allies?" Erskine asked, clearly at a loss.

Ghastly's mother for one." I said, then bit my lip nervously before forging ahead. "Skulduggery's family for another." Erskine whistled and Skulduggery, once again his true skeletal self titled his head thoughtfully then spoke.

"I always knew they'd like you. Well, well. So the dead do watch over the living, interesting." He murmured. We were both tired so Erskine excused us, but demanded we find rooms in the Sanctuary, not trusting Skulduggery or me to drive when we were that tired. Skulduggery stopped me with a gentle hand on my shoulder and titled his head towards his room.

Smiling happily I followed him and we laid down together, both fully dressed. Skulduggery managed a single chaste kiss and to wrap his arms around me right before sleep took us. Hours later I woke up, feeling his hard bones nestled into me, his skull burrowed into my shoulder and I smiled at him.

I knew it had to be hard on him, being in love again. I knew he had to be feeling all sorts of emotions at the moment. I stroked his bony cheek and his skull tilted up to look at me sleepily. I didn't know when or how I'd started reading his moods on his face, but I could. Bone it might be and unmoving to be sure, but very expressive nonetheless. "Let's take an early retirement." He suggested, grinning at me.

"Mmm. I'd prefer a nice meal instead. My treat. I'll take you anywhere."

"How about home? Our home?" He asked gently and the warmth in his voice made my insides melt. So he'd understood how I felt all along, but of course he did. I chided myself. He was Skulduggery Pleasant and there wasn't anything he couldn't do.


We had a very simple meal of grilled cheese sandwiches and tea (Ghastly had insisted Skulduggery try tea and he has taken to it like a duck to water) but it was a feast to me. To Skulduggery too if the way he gazed across the tabletop at me was any indication.

"I'm very proud of you, you know. What Nuit did to you all this time was no less than he did to any of his victims. But you were smart and you were brave and you held on. You were also rather sneaky and tricked him. I liked that. Whatever gave you the idea, and please don't say it was a horror movie."

"It wasn't. I can dream lucidly, which means I'm aware I'm dreaming and can control the outcome of a dream. It doesn't sound useful but it can be. The good dreams came when I took myself to a part of the dreamer's world where I could find allies. I did it by accident but I still found them. Or they found me."

He nodded, satisfied. "Then you'll have to teach me. It sounds like a very useful skill. Valkyrie, I do not wish to alarm you, but Vile has been stirring ever since the night you saw him. He wants out. Not to go on a rampage, but to be with you. He wants a woman who won't flee from him and I think he was rather taken by the way you kissed him." Skulduggery bit the lip of his façade clearly expecting rejection.

"Skulduggery, I meant it when I said I loved him. He is you after all. Just so he knows to be careful. I don't want him hurt or captured and I'm thinking that under the right circumstances even he could be." Skulduggery smiled and nodded in response. He rose and led me away from the kitchen, our meal finished to go sit in the living room. Well, one of them.

We sat down on the couch and he wrapped his arms around me. "You know, you've had every excuse in the book to walk away from me. Every significant birthday, every time a case came up, all the young men that must have tempted you. But you didn't. I'll admit I felt rather old and useless when you'd look at a young man, I still do."

"Skulduggery! It's you I love." I protested before I realized he was baiting me and he chuckled softly. I looked at him, annoyed, but didn't resist when he leaned in for a kiss, remembering all the advice I'd been given to allow him to live as a man once more. Skulduggery's lips were soft and incredibly sweet, and we were taking our time.

One of his gloved hands settled on my waist and the other played with my hair as Skulduggery broke off the kiss to trail gentle kisses up and down my neck, putting a few playful nips in between. I giggled and let him, then drew him up gently so I could return his affections, my hands roaming restlessly. Skulduggery sighed happily and pulled back. "That was wonderful, as you well know. Though maybe we can try again later, without the façade?" He asked hopefully and I nodded.

"You know I love you both ways. Speaking of love when did you realize-"

"A while ago, and let's leave it at that, shall we? I honestly expected to loose you to so many men over the years. But I never mentioned how I felt because if you did stay I wanted it to be your free choice. Not out of pity for-" He reached up and tapped the symbols and the façade flowed away, "an old skeleton." I heard the grin in his voice but I still happily pulled him into a kiss.

I knew our time together was special. Not just because we were in love, but because we'd never have this innocence again. I gave into the wonderful sensation of his teeth against my lips, let my hands travel up and down his ribs, feeling him shiver in delight. I pulled back to gaze at him happily. "You know, I'm wondering when you and I are going to be back to trading insults and hitting one another." I said, amused.

"You want to trade insults and hit each other?" Skulduggery asked in surprise, his skeletal features a mask of shock.

"No, but I mean- We normally fight on a case and you insult me, than I insult you. Then you have a royal sulk-"

"I do not sulk." Skulduggery said, crossing his arms and sulking.

"But I love it when you sulk. You're so cute when you so it." I said and he laughed his bad mood instantly forgotten.

"I just haven't felt like annoying you. Teasing, yes, bot not annoying. Half of that was so you wouldn't notice how I felt. Very clever of me, wasn't it?" He asked proudly. I wanted to snap that it was very annoying but I understood what he meant. There be time for trading insults like we normally did later.

"It was very clever, I didn't suspect a thing." I said. "But then you are the Skeleton Detective. Speaking of which Ghastly gave me a case file. Some mages got stranded in the tropics on an island filled with pirates. Skeleton pirates." Skuldugery sat up straight, clearly keen to be on his way already.

"And you waited until now to tell me? I have to read the file, then we must be off. I suppose they are very dangerous and no one but us can handle them. Is there a mystery involved?"

"Mystery, and treasure and romance. I told Ghastly we'd be delighted to take it. He's making you dashing new clothes so you can blend in and everything. I thought Ghastly was putting me on, but our case files are in the office you set up for us." We rose as one and both laughed.

Skulduggery soon had his copy of the case file and was reading avidly, insisting I do the same. "You'll need a disguise as well. Interesting to see these skeleton pirates enjoy the company of living brides. So you shall need an engagement ring as well, of course." He titled his head and motioned me to him as he opened his desk drawer and withdrew a ring box.

He slipped the ring on and I stared down at it in utter wonder. The silver skull seemed to stare back up at me, a definite smug expression on the face. I smiled and went to Skulduggery willingly as he took me in his arms and kissed me.


So there you have it! I didn't expect it to end the Nuit case so soon but the adventure continues in Skeleton Cove.