From The Ashes We Rise: Chapter 1...

Okie doke, next chapter! Decided not to junk it after all, since people seem to like it! Who's excited? The new Skulduggery Pleasant book has come out in the UK! I AM :D R&R as usual, enjoy guys.

oO0Oo

Skulduggery was laid on his side, the façade still activated, his green eyes soft and apologetic. Valkyrie smiled and inched forward to kiss him, moving carefully so she didn't pull anything, and his arms went around her. He was so warm.

"I'm sorry," he said for the hundredth time. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

"Will you stop apologising? It was my first time, it was bound to hurt." She wrinkled her nose. "Another five years and I'd have been a forty-year-old virgin. Ew." Skulduggery laughed out loud, his fingers stroking Valkyrie's soft, dark hair gently.

"You do say some odd things, Valkyrie. I must say I've missed it. I've missed you."

"How can you still love me after the way I've treated you?"

"Valkyrie, I waited nearly four hundred years to find you. I don't know how not to love you." He sighed and turned onto his back, and Valkyrie settled her head on his chest, amazed to hear a beating heart beneath the smooth skin. The façade, she had to admit, worked perfectly, every detail was brilliant. But it wasn't what she wanted to see. Gently, she tapped the two symbols at his collar, and the façade receded, revealing smooth white bone and big, hollow eye sockets. She smiled, the tension in her chest releasing like a broken rubber band. He tilted his head and she knew he was smiling. She sighed.

"Now I know you were normally the one to say this but we-"

"Don't. Don't say we have to get up. We have nowhere important to be, therefore I refuse to move. And I refuse to let you move either."

"Hmm, well can I at least go get some breakfast? I'm starving. I could use a coffee too." Skulduggery looked at her for a long moment, before speaking in a reproachful voice.

"You have fifteen minutes before I come find you and drag you back here."

"I love you too," she said cheerfully, planting a kiss on the top of his skull as she slipped out of bed to reach her dressing gown. She could feel Skulduggery's gaze on her back like fingers trailing across her bare skin, and she almost considered skipping breakfast altogether, until her stomach growled indignantly. She sighed and slipped on the thin robe, leaving the room without looking back.

oO0Oo

She padded down the stairs barefoot, her dark hair loose around her shoulders, and stopped when she saw a figure sitting in the living room alone. This figure had raven black hair and eyes so bright green they glowed like lanterns in the shadowy living room. All the curtains were drawn to block out the brightening daylight, but Valkyrie could still see the boy sat up on the sofa, sleep still clinging to him. His clothes were rumpled, his hair a fluffy mess, and his chest rose and fell rapidly, like he'd woken from a terrifying nightmare that hadn't quite left him yet.

"Artemis Grimm," she said softly, and his head rose a fraction, though he didn't meet her gaze. He was thin and slight, with large, lamp-like eyes and long black lashes, not at all how Valkyrie expected Notorious Grimm's son to look. He looked like an Ifrit, with his smooth skin and slender limbs, whereas his father was all muscle and evil, a Faceless One in human skin.

"It's just Art," the boy said. "I am not Grimm's son, not any more." He smiled sadly to himself. "To be hated by all, to be loved by none. What worth has life if none wish to share it with me? For I am the son of the Devil," he murmured, speaking to himself with a faraway look in his eyes.

"What was that?" Valkyrie asked him.

"Just something I read somewhere once," he told her, his smile brightening ever so slightly. He looked at her, finally, and she refrained from gasping. His pupils were vertical black slits sets in big, brilliant green spheres, like a cat's eyes. That explained why they glowed when the room was so dark. Those eyes were beautiful and disconcerting. "Mrs Pleasant," he said softly. "I didn't come here to spy. I didn't come here to kill anyone. I came here simply because Alice offered me a place to stay, in return for saving her life on the streets. I know who you are, and I know Notorious wanted to keep me separate from you and your husband, so that he could raise me to lead on my own in some other part of the world, without being corrupted by you." He paused and took a breath. "But I don't want the future he is shaping for me. I will tell you everything I can, answer every question. I will even fight with you if that's what I need to do to prove I'm not like him."

"Is this you begging for you life?" Valkyrie asked, caught off guard by his direct sincerity. He had a look in his eyes that made him look so much older than he was. And old man in a nineteen-year-old's body. The effect was disarming and unnerving all at once. He thought for a second, and tried a smile.

"I suppose it is, yes," he said quietly. "Is it working?" Looking into those strange cat eyes, Valkyrie couldn't quite muster enough anger to say no. The boy was not his father, that much was clear.

"Yes, it's working." She cocked her head to the side the way Skulduggery did when he was feeling reluctant. "Thank you for saving Alice, Art. She's good at getting herself into trouble. Who knows what might've happened if you hadn't been there." She shot him a crooked grin. "But I'm telling you now. Hands off my sister." He laughed, a sound like bell chimes. "Come on. Let's find you a room, you can't crash on the couch forever."