"Thanks again for coming over, China." China made the tiniest of faces, like an impossibly well-behaved toddler's microtantrum.
"I mean it," Valkyrie added warningly. "I'll see you soon, okay?"
She walked back in front of the car and toward Gordon's - never hers, especially since Gordon now had a voice-activated trolley that brought him from room to room and was now more an omnipresent lodger than a forgotten memory - house and disarmed the extensive wards around its foundations, never looking back as she heard China's assistant pull away into the early night. Finally, she let herself in with an old-fashioned lock. Some sorcerers were arrogant about the threat of mortal attack. Valkyrie called it Voldemort Syndrome in her head, or to Gordon; ever since Moore and Batu all those years ago, she had vowed not to fall victim to it.
Calling out to Gordon to let him know she was home, Valkyrie let her coat drop onto the kitchen table and flicked on some of the manual lights overhead. She was still hungry. Valkyrie had once looked up how much food she ate and realised that she lived the lifestyle of a professional rugby player, regular medical assistance and all. Eating the same amount of food earlier as two older mortals with slow metabolisms just didn't cut it.
Consistent with Valkyrie's mood, there was nothing in the fridge. She swore, just in time to see Gordon's stone-and-cradle come zooming in on the small track that moved around the house. Due to its size and the cart's speed, it took him a while to move around, but he loved it all the same. Valkyrie just wished that when she had installed it, she had thought not to inset it at the perfect height on the wall to bump her head into.
"How were your parents, then?" Gordon asked, a worried expression on his face. Even though the Echo Stone had given him a second life he hadn't been able to tell his brother and his wife that he was alive, and Valkyrie tried not to mention them too often now that the years had taken their toll. Soon she would be as much of a ghost in their lives as he was - unchanging and always there even as they grew, changed and passed away. Her face echoed his.
"They were fine, you know. Nagged me about Alice, about Haggard gossip. Mum thinks Alice is dating a serial killer."
"Is she?" Gordon's expression was one of absolute curiosity, with not a sarcastic eyebrow or joking eyetwinkle in sight. He was just as odd as her father, Valkyrie knew.
"No, he's on his uni's kickboxing team."
"Pity."
"Hmm," Valkyrie replied, opening another few cupboards and looking to see if she'd remembered to buy bran. Gordon saw her looking.
"You don't have any food here," he said with a smile. "You told me to remind you."
Valkyrie rolled her eyes at the empty cupboard, closed its doors, and turned back to him grumpily.
"It's too late to remind me now, isn't it? Everywhere is shut."
"Don't blame me! You didn't say when to remind you. Besides, you're the one with the stomach. You should be the one keeping track of things."
This must be her atonement. Spending eternity with smart aleks who didn't need to remember their groceries. Gordon noticed how angry she seemed to be as she finally slammed the last cupboard door she checked in vain.
"Is everything all right? You seem more upset than you have any right to be if you've just had your mother's cooking. That stuff is delicious, if I remember right."
"Everything's fine, Gordon," Valkyrie muttered. Hearing a cough and looking up Valkyrie was greeted with a disbelieving face floating inches from her own, eyebrows raised. She sighed.
"They're being all mortal-y again."
"Go on?"
"They're asking me if I want to settle down yet, you know. Have kids, stuff like that. They wanted to know if I had a partner, and though China was there and deflected some of their questions, she and I argued afterward anyway."
The more she thought about it, the more annoyed she got, Valkyrie realised. Angry at her parents for prying, angry at herself for not valuing the little time she had left with them, angry with China's incessant matchmaking and then angry again at herself for being uncharitable.
"I need food or I'll be fuming all day," Valkyrie said, straightening up and walking over the table where her keys and coat were. "I'm going to Skulduggery's. He'll probably have some. Is that all right?"
Gordon floated upwards, looking bemused. "All right. See you around, then - hope you get your moods sorted out."
Valkyrie shouldered her coat on.
"Do you need me to pick anything up from you? Send mail to your publishers or something? Any DVDs?"
Gordon shook his head, shooing her with his hands, which were floating just about her eye level. The effect tipped him over and he overbalanced comically slowly, falling with nothing to stop him until he realised there was nothing to make him fall and he straightened up self-conciously.
"I'll be fine. Now go and get fed."
Valkyrie left the house to the sound of the cradle cart's whirring.