***Note: Spoilers for The Faceless Ones lmao bye
Valkyrie stood with her hands on her knees in Gordon's cellar, finally feeling safe enough to catch her breath. Surely, they had managed to leave behind the dead man and his strange house and those terrible monsters in those awful caves.
The other dead man, who actually happened to be quite a good friend of hers, was nearby, waiting for her heart and lungs to slow their desperate attempts to bring more oxygen into her body. He stood still, having no such organs or viscera himself with which to struggle, and he waited patiently for her recovery.
After a significant pause, once Valkyrie's chest no longer felt like it may burst, he spoke.
"That," Skulduggery said "is why you should never date older men."
Suddenly, Valkyrie no longer struggled to take a breath. Muscles tensed, her neck slowly twisted until she was staring, expressionless, into Skulduggery's empty eye sockets. She didn't bother to come up with a response, figuring that a detective should be able to read a room well enough without her needing to say anything.
He hesitated.
"Well, you're at an impressionable age. I shouldn't waste a teachable moment."
After another pause, Valkyrie finally straightened up, only to leave the room without a word.
Skulduggery watched her go. "I think she's learned her lesson," he said to himself with a proud little nod, and then he followed her out.