Chapter 201
Solomon had been going to take them south but after they started that way and ran into an old 'friend' of his and heard of some conflicts in that direction, they chose to risk going north towards Europe instead of the safety they'd hope to find in Frightening Jones in the south.
That had posed a whole other slew of problems, but thankfully, Solomon was more than capable of smuggling them out of Africa, then all the way through Europe posing as father and daughter backpackers to the moral authorities, and onto a stolen boat and into Ireland. They had then walked all the way from the harbour to the nearest town, found a taxi, and got to what they could only hope was a safe place.
It had been a two and a half week endeavour.
Thankfully, Corrival's mansion had been safe, and they'd found him coming down the grand staircase in his Elder robes on his way out just as they came through the doors – filthy, exhausted, hungry and badly dehydrated. Valkyrie's short hair was wild, and greasy, on her head.
"Valkyrie! Solomon!" Corrival exclaimed, getting down the last few steps quickly. "My god, you're alive!"
"Just about," Valkyrie rasped, swallowing drily.
"Ravel!" He shouted behind his shoulder. "Come, sit down, you look dead on your feet. Are you alright? How was your mission? They still won't tell me what you were doing, you know."
"It was safer that way," she said simply, not wanting to get personal with it. "But yeah, it went well enough."
"Good, good," he nodded and took a seat before jumping back up as fast as his dodgy hip would let him. "You need something to eat and drink," he announced and left the room.
"He must have been worried for you," Solomon said lowly and Valkyrie responded with a small smile. She wanted badly to take her shoes off but she could only imagine the stink inside them. She hadn't taken her clothes off in a week, and they hadn't been washed with real soap since she left Ireland two or so months ago. She hadn't worn them for most of that time, but the old stink had settled deep into the fabric. She wasn't sure even Ghastly could save them. What she wouldn't give to breathe in Nadia's coconut and vanilla bean scented shampoo, her matching conditioner, her mint body wash, and of her perfumes. To be wrapped in the smell of her fiancée and her arms.
"Valkyrie!" Erskine shouted, throwing his body into the room a moment later. Her body ached and protested, but she stood up and held her arms open for him. He was immediately holding her tightly, murmuring how happy he was to see her. "Did it go well?" He asked after a moment. "Did the Ritual work?"
"Yeah, it's fine. And the, you know, bits before it," she said with a small smile while Corrival was out of the room. "We found out some new things about my magic that's different from before, but it was still too dangerous not to do the Ritual. So we did it. It was painful but… it was painful."
"Ah, honey," he whispered, running a hand through her greasy, nasty hair. "You did what you had to, and you did amazing. I'm proud of you. You should be proud of you."
She swallowed thickly and held onto him tightly. "I know."
"So much has happened while you've been gone," he said quietly, pulling away but holding their bodies together still.
"The war…?"
"No, not yet, or officially at least. We had a spy come that we found, but they were hardly not trying to be found. Working as maintenance, of all things, in the Sanctuary." He rolled his eyes. "I mean, there's nothing for them to find out, if anything they seemed sympathetic to us."
"That's good, right?"
He shrugged and gave her a small smile. "As good as we can hope I suppose. And, um… well, no, we should probably let you get washed first," he smiled, obviously nervous. "Something else happened. Not to Nadia or Laila! They're fine. It's nothing bad, necessarily, I suppose. Just… come on. Let's get you cleaned. It's nothing that can't wait."
He took her upstairs and helped her change, not wanting to be away from her. She didn't mind particularly, Erskine was her brother, and he didn't look at her. He did comment on her having lost weight.
"Yeah, I know," she grimaced. "The food was nasty."
He snorted a laugh and looked away while she got her shower, sitting on the floor with his knees to his chest while he waited. When she turned the water off, he got her a towel and wrapped her up tightly and followed her to the bedroom he claimed Nadia was staying in. Not much of their clothes were there, but it was enough. Nadia had her dirty washing was in a pile in the corner, and the bed had only roughly made. Valkyrie's heart clenched. "God, I miss Nadia," she whispered.
Erskine laughed softly. "She's missed you too. Badly. Practically lives in your clothes."
"She's a cutie."
"For sure. Ready?"
"Can you dry my hair?"
He used his magic to dry her hair quickly and took the ball of water out of the room, giving her enough time to finish getting dressed before they went downstairs. Corrival had gotten her and Solomon some food and drink, which they ate quickly, and then they got in the car to the Sanctuary. Corrival even drove so Erskine could hold onto Valkyrie.
He seemed well considering the stress and pressure he was probably under, which was good. He was going to have to be prepared to fight. He was strong and more than capable, but if he was having an episode, they just wouldn't be able to bring him with them. Then again, Valkyrie wouldn't be upset if they had to leave such a good fighter with Laila and Nadia. Of course, her brothers knew Erskine best and they had always said, even at his worst, if he had to pull himself together, he could force it. It wasn't fun long term, but fighting a war wasn't meant to be easy on anyone.
Roarhaven was as drab and grey as ever.
Inside the Sanctuary, people smiled at Valkyrie as she passed, and she smiled back at them as best she could through the exhaustion. She heard her brothers before she saw them and rushed through into the room, running directly into Anton's back. She bounced back and then jumped into his arms when he turned, breaking into a big smile.
The rush of welcomes and kind words and hugs came, and a flurry of kisses all over her cheeks and temple. She ended up with her back to the room and Dexter hugging her from behind.
"Aww, long how big and strong you are!" Saracen laughed, pointing at her and Dexter's heads. "You're, like two inches bigger than Dexter!"
There was laughter all over from her brothers, Tanith and Corrival, and then Nadia pushed her way through the throng and Valkyrie felt her heart melt.
It was so good to see her again. It was like it had been years, despite being only a bit over two months, but it also felt like the first time all over again. Nadia was so changed from when they met on Valkyrie's thirteenth birthday at that ball, but she had the same gorgeous big brown eyes, thick dark brown hair, perfect cheekbones, full and well-defined lips. Her breath caught in her throat for a moment before she broke out of Dexter's hold and cupped Nadia's face gently to kiss her.
Nadia's hands gripped the collar of her jacket. Weeks of tension, the hours of trauma, the mental stress of everything in the world, it just seemed so insignificant for those few fresh moments Nadia was wrapped in her arms. She fit so perfectly, standing on her toes to reach Valkyrie's lips.
The moment ended eventually when Valkyrie heard Solomon's expression of "Oh." It sounded so off for him it practically made her flinch and she looked up from Nadia despite her fiancée obviously not being finished with getting reacquainted with her lips.
His face was pinched, obviously uncomfortable. She swirled her head to the other side and felt her mouth open in shock.
"Oh, fuck," she said automatically, shocked to see Skulduggery standing by the small table. Meritorious was there also but slipped out of the room, muttering about giving them a moment.
Skulduggery cleared his throat as Valkyrie continued to watch without talking. "Valkyrie," he said quietly, glancing at the floor and then back up at her. He was in a nice suit. Possibly a new one. The hat was certainly new, sitting on the table. "I realise you must be quite shocked to see me here. I had hoped someone would have been able to tell you before you had to see me. I hope this isn't too much."
She continued to look, clenching her teeth together. Nadia shuffled in her arms, resting her hands flat on her chest above her breasts, looking carefully at her face, but Valkyrie didn't look down.
"For what it is worth, I am so sorry Valkyrie. I've been terrible to you, to Nadia, to our family, and I have let us all down, myself included. I know I have no right to ask for forgiveness, but I am sorry. I–" He stopped himself and rephrased. "How are you?"
She swallowed and suddenly realised she had bile in her throat. She swallowed again and blinked a few times and looked around at her family. They looked solemnly back at her, letting her make her choice as they always had. Ready to stand with her.
But at the same time, she sensed Skulduggery had been back a while. And they had all accepted that. A part of her found that so wrong, not fair. But then… she also didn't. She recognised that although she was mad, that didn't have to have anything to do with her family. They were welcome to forgive and to forget as much as they wanted, or not to if the positions were reversed. It didn't mean it didn't hurt in a weird hypocritical type of way. She was old enough and mature enough to know that.
She breathed deeply and looked down at Nadia. They held each other's gaze, Nadia's brown eyes holding so much concern, so many questions. She couldn't tell how Nadia felt about it all and it put her off balance.
"Skulduggery," she said slowly, her voice breaking halfway. "I didn't expect you here."
He nodded. "I got back to Ireland two weeks and a day ago."
She took another deep breath and blinked a few times.
She didn't want to deal with this right now.
"What's the updates on the Spiders? Pa didn't tell me much," she asked the room instead.
"Nothing much to tell you," Dexter said after a beat. Valkyrie noticed he had been gripping Saracen's wrist anxiously but now let it go. "They're still evading us, we don't know where they're staying or how they keep staying out of view. There's still a crimewave happening all over the country both from new criminals entering and what we think is the Spiders going on killing sprees. There's at least one spy that's not so inconspicuously undercover, and two agents of the Supreme Council turned up three days ago."
"What's the Supreme Council?" Valkyrie asked darkly. She knew this couldn't be good.
"Every country except Ireland and a handful of the very, very small countries around the world. Places with less than five mages, essentially. They created a board designed to assess every Sanctuary and evaluate if they are competent enough at running their country. It seems to be headed by Germany, England and America."
"That's not a surprise," she muttered. Nadia rested her forehead against Valkyrie's sternum and Valkyrie put a hand on the back of her head. It felt good.
"They're just waiting for an excuse," Saracen said seriously. "I don't think it'll have anything to do with us anymore. One criminal doing too much damage in public, any scandal from literally any Sanctuary employee, a mystery taking too long to crack. It won't take much to make the whole board tip."
"We are literally on the edge then," she nodded. It had been coming for a long time, but it was starting to feel a lot more real. And she wanted to visit her parent's graves before it began. Would she even have time? "Anything else I need to know?"
"Nothing from our end," Dexter said slowly. "Are you going to tell us how everything went with you?"
She shrugged, knowing she couldn't say much with Corrival in the room. Or Skulduggery. "It went fine. All of it did. We found out my magic wasn't what we thought, it's actually something a little different, but everything went as we planned anyway. You don't need to worry about it."
They all nodded and there were some mutterings along the lines of being glad it was all fine, but it went quiet again.
After a long, almost awkward silence, Skulduggery chose to break it. "Valkyrie…"
"Don't," she said quietly. "I need to think."
"I'm not sure we have that time," he continued. "I don't want to push you, but it may be better to–"
"Oh, no, you do not get to tell me what is best for me," Valkyrie glared, feeling even ounce of her anger over the last few months rear up. It had been one of the only things Solomon hadn't been able to crack, apart from her claustrophobia and a few of her other fears that had at least been made more rational in her mind. But Skulduggery? None of her thinking towards him was logical or rational. It was all emotional and an utter mess. "You had your chance to do what was best for me and you fucked it."
He chose to remain silent this time.
"And you know what?" She said, unwrapping herself from Nadia who quickly stepped back. Laila made a squealing sound of annoyance, but it didn't deter Valkyrie's enraged mind. "I want an explanation for all of this. For why you couldn't just stop. Just leave when you obviously knew you had to. You did it in the end, so why did you have to do all the shit you did first, hu? Why did you have put us through that?"
"I am so sorry, Valkyrie," he said sincerely. "I never meant to hurt you like this–"
"Erm, no, I actually think that was exactly what you were trying to do at the time," she snapped.
"I was not in a good place mentally then, and I made some wrong choices. Choices I will always regret for the rest of my life."
"Yeah, to go along with every other story to tell me of your past. Give me a break Skulduggery, I'm sick of this back and forth. It's not just right before you left, you know. It's also the way you treated me. I was just some tool to make you feel better about yourself at the heart of it, wasn't I? There were so many warnings too. You would always take Dexter and Saracen on adventures with you, but the moment I showed up you dumped them for me. And the moment Solomon came, you dumbed me for him. I can't believe I let you trick me into thinking I was in the wrong. I knew you were in the wrong the whole time but I let my love for you blind me into letting you get your way, and where has it gotten me? Just another person to add onto the list I can't depend on after they tell me they'll never leave. You're sick. Just a sick, horrible man."
"I agree."
"Yeah, I fucking hope you do. You abandoned us without a goodbye so you could go to therapy, and while I am really glad you went because you did need it, surely you could have been aware enough to know that we, your family, would have wanted to say goodbye to you? I honestly can't believe you think you can come in here, tell us you're all cured and expect me to just believe you! You're a notorious liar, Skulduggery, why the hell should I believe you?!"
"I never said I was cured," he said calmly. "I received word that the war is about to break in Ireland and I came back to help. As soon as it's over, I will need to return to the rehabilitation centre for further treatment for my PTSD, anger issues and other mental health problems. But even despite not being cured, and I doubt I ever will be fully cured, I am a lot more aware of how my actions have hurt you and the rest of our family in recent years. I should have spoken to you more, I should have made sure you had avenues to therapy when we met you properly and you came into our care, I should have given you the chance to have me in whatever way you wished. I shouldn't have forced myself into the mould of a friend when what you needed was a father."
"No," she spat. "Don't you fucking dare try that on me. You will never be anything like a father to me after what you did to us. You don't fucking deserve it."
Valkyrie turned on her heel and stalked out of the room, pushing past Nadia and her brothers on the way. There was silence behind her as the door slammed shut and no one in the halls seemed all that surprised when she went stomping out the building.
She couldn't believe the nerve of him, and promptly kicked a brick as hard as she could and watched it go skidding down the street. A part of her wanted to run and scream but she was so angry she was shaking. It didn't help she was so exhausted she was close to tears. Which has nothing to do with Skulduggery, I am not about to cry over that twat again, she thought to herself angrily.
"Valkyrie!" She heard.
Growling, Valkyrie picked up speed, intent on stomping her way all the way back to civilisation and then getting a taxi to a hotel no one would find her at. Skulduggery came running for her though, and she didn't have time to go down the next alleyway before he said her name again from right behind her.
"Leave me alone," she snapped, feeling the sudden urge to cry. She sneered at the pavement as she quickened her step, hoping he'd get the message. Her tears had nothing to do with him. It was just a lot of emotions to deal with at once and she was overemotional and overwhelmed, and she wasn't even really crying!
"I can't let you wander off alone, Valkyrie, it's too dangerous right now."
She turned on him so fast he had to take a step back to keep a polite distance. "For the second time, you do not get to tell me what I can and cannot do, Skulduggery. You lost all your rights to me and my life. Don't you dare try and tell me these things. I know what I'm doing."
"I know that, but you're letting your anger at me put you in a bad place," he said quietly. "Roarhaven has had more than one disappearance, all of young women with your complexion. You can be mad at me all you want, rightly so, but that doesn't mean I want something to happen to you. Even if you don't believe me, it is how I feel."
"I don't think I care how you feel anymore, to be honest," she said, sticking her nose up at him. They were almost exactly equal height. But she was taller. Just enough. "You snuffed all my love for you right out of my soul."
"You may be being a tad dramatic."
"Stop trying to downplay everything I say or I'll punch you so hard your teeth will fall out," she glared. He didn't answer her that time. "Just leave me alone."
"I already said I can't do that," he repeated softly.
"Why, so you can throw me to the wolves easier? Do you have another little surprise in store? Are you going to fuck my life up even more than it currently is for your own amusement? Because I am done with your games. Don't."
He sighed when she turned and began her fast pace through Roarhaven again. She knew immediately that he was following but decided to ignore him because that was the best thing to do. When she found a taxi, she'd lock herself in and not let him come near her. She'd tell the driver one place when Skulduggery could hear, and as soon as he was eating dust, she'd tell the driver the new destination, somewhere far away.
Comforted by her ideas, she continued through the last of the streets silently until they got to the main road and she had to wait a moment for a car to pass before crossing.
Skulduggery tried to talk again. "If you like, I can drive you wherever you want to go and leave you be once your safe."
It was too much on her weary soul, and she twisted and punched him straight in the face. One of his teeth fell out of his skull.
"Stay away from me, Skulduggery Pleasant," she growled, getting in his space and forcing him to take a step back. She must have been an inch taller than him, as Solomon had said. It was so strange. "I don't want you here. I don't need you here. You've ruined enough of my life and I've wasted enough of my feelings on you."
He tilted his head sadly.
She sneered at him and stepped into the road to get away before turning and continuing on down the street towards oncoming traffic. Not that there was any coming to Roarhaven.
He continued to follow.
Be honest - is it what you thought it would be? Cuz it wasn't for me as I was writing it! It had a mind of its own.
ValkyrieP: Thank you! It is an achievement and a half! The Skulduggery being back thing is going to be a whole thing, lots of hurt/comfort I'm hoping, possibly some pain and agony, we'll see how I feel. Sol and Val being father and daughter is too cute to me, she deserves it. Not that that's a confirmation of it happening... I just like it.
Remus Crux: Yeah, my misogynistic non-binary person was a fun combo I thought I'd throw in there. I love gay characters, in all their LGBTQ+ forms, and you know sometimes they're great, and sometimes humans are pieces of work. My can't the non-binary person be a dick? Let them I say! It's a free world! We can respect them and hunt them down and imprison them for actually valid reasons that aren't ancient and gross. It's the twenty-first century, we're at that point I feel. I may add a normal and good non-binary character to prove my point of it being normal though. Or an assassin. They could make amazing assassins, people would be so confused over pronouns they wouldn't see the blades.
