Valkyrie woke up to someone knocking on her window. She looked up and saw Skulduggery sat outside. A second later, her phone rang.

Skulduggery. "What?" She snapped. "Just come in."

"You're not naked, are you?"

"What? No."

"Okay. I'm coming in," he hung up and came in.

"Hey, Skull," Valkyrie muttered and sat up in bed. "What you doing here?"

"We have homework."

"What's new?"

"It's a group project. Me, you, Erskine and Fletcher."

She blinked at him, confused. "When did we get this?" She asked.

"It's a history project. We'll have to go to the library. I think you were reading Harry Potter when she assigned it because you kept saying Voldemort and tutting," he laughed.

"Library? Oh good. I need to return that Harry Potter and get a new one," she perked up and got out of bed.

"Not the kind of library that stocks Harry Potter..."

"All libraries have Harry Potter," she told him whilst eating her advent calendar chocolate.

"Trust me, Valkyrie, not this one."

A man in a bow-tie led them through the stacks of books in the silent room. "Where are we again?" Valkyrie whispered to Skulduggery.

"SHUSH!" An elderly woman hissed.

Valkyrie jumped and Erskine tried not to laugh but he ended up giggling quietly. The bow-tie man stopped and they all fell into each other. He nodded at Skulduggery and then walked off. A minute later China appeared out of the darkness.

"H-h-hello," Erskine stammered. "Ch-China. Hi."

"China, we were hoping to use your library for our history project?" Skulduggery said calmly. Valkyrie wondered how he wasn't affected by China's beauty. Even she wanted to hug her.

"Why didn't you use Eliza Scorn's library?" She replied, her voice cold.

"Because yours is better and Scorn scares me," Skulduggery said.

China smiled at him. "Good enough answer, Skulduggery, although you could have put it more eloquently."

"Apologies," he said and then walked off. Valkyrie followed him, leaving the idiots behind to fawn over China. "Look for anything about the origins of magic," he told her as they stopped by a bookcase.

"Okay." She started to read book titles. "How To Capture a Sea Hag and What To Do When You Have It," she read out. "Sounds fun."

"Gracious and Donegan tried to catch a sea hag once."

"What happened?"

"She ate them."

"Skulduggery, I'm not stupid."

"I'm being serious. I swear that she ate them."

She turned to him, frowning. "But they'd be dead. And don't tell me that they are," she added.

"They tasted of deodorant so she spat them back up," he said and picked out a book. "Put this in your bag."

"Why?"

"It will be helpful."

"Fine. I can't believe that Gracious and Donegan got eaten and regurgitated by a sea hag!" She grinned. "Do you promise that it really happened? can I tell people?"

"What?" He looked at her and cocked his head. "Don't be ridiculous, Valkyrie. Getting eaten by a sea hag. Stupidest thing I've ever heard."

She glared at him. "But-you said.."

"Eaten by a sea hag," he chuckled and she could almost sense the smirk that would be on his face if he wasn't a skeleton.

:) almost Xmas! Yay!