Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Skulduggery Pleasant, Valkyrie Cain, L Lawliet, Nefarian Serpine or any other affiliated characters. All I've got is the plotline and Anita.

8-Soulstone

Anita started straight up and bolted out of the sofa. Her hair started to glow, and she grinned as a flame crawled up her arm.

"About time…"she muttered as a man burst through the door, one hand red, his green eyes glittering in the light.

"About time?" L asked.

"Serpine?" Skulduggery gasped just a moment later.

"Hello, Skulduggery," the man said, stepping into the house. Valkyrie's eyes widened as she recognized him.

"But…you're dead!" she cried. "I watched you die!"

"Yes, you all thought you had killed me. It was painful, yes, but you will have to do a lot more than that to destroy me!" Serpine cried. His eyes glittered—dying and coming back had finally pushed him off of the edge.

"You crumbled into dust, Serpine," Skulduggery growled. "I used the scepter!"

"You underestimated me, detective, and that's all there is to it! A fatal mistake, wouldn't you agree?" Serpine snarled. With that, he pointed at Valkyrie.

As a scream rent the air, Anita growled, "Oh, no you don't!" and charged.

Her entire body was covered in flame now, and thought she was giving off a blistering heat, there was no reaction to show that she was hurt. She reached out a hand, and fire shot at Serpine.

He focused on Valkyrie, and her screams stopped as she curled into silent agony. Anita knew that there wasn't long before she was lost, but Serpine saw the flam just in time to dodge away.

Valkyrie moaned, and Anita realized that when he had jumped away, Serpine had lost his focus—he was pointing somewhere else, now.

Anita stopped as she felt it start; a searing pain ebbed and flowed from her bones and she crashed to the ground, flame withdrawing into her flesh. When the pain hit again, she screamed, feeling her life flicker and drain.

Everything hurt so much…everything…

And then, as a gunshot penetrated past her scream and tightly-shut lids, she felt something crack, and it was over.

She lay there, shivering. Serpine lay on the ground, struggling to breathe. Lazily, her eyes opened and moved over to the wound on his leg, recognizing the handiwork of her runes causing him to die even from the mild flesh wound he had received.

Anita saw it, then—her mother's body, broken and bleeding as her blood pooled into the ice encasing her body.

As tears pooled in Anita's eyes at the memory, that last time she had seen her mother, she knew it was over. Her soulstone—it had broken.

Skulduggery was at her side, pleading.

"Anita!" he cried, "Anita, no, come on, stay with me! Don't let it be too late—oh, God, don't let it be too late! Hold on!"

She tried to lift her head, to smile, but as his hands, hard bone under leather, gripped into her hair, darkness overcame her. She heard her heartbeat, running slower, slower, slower…slower…and then, nothing.

A/N: So, two updates in one day, it seems. Sorry about the cliffhanger. I tried to just use a line break…but those always end up as ';' anyway…and it just doesn't work. SO I'm going to just publish this and run right off to the next chapter.

Read and review, and thanks for your fandom, all 8 of you.

I love the number 8…

And reviewers get a big thought-hug. Or cookie, or whatever they want, really…well…almost...

Sorry for the super-short chapter. Think of it this way: it's like a chapter version of a miniskirt. Ugh...urm, actually I'd rather you didn't...I hate miniskirts...