"So," Funny Bones said after daddy dearest had gotten through with his laughter, "who here is L and who is S?"

One hulkin' dude stepped forward and said, "Ich bin Lidos."

The other guy added, "I am Sammorine. He is Lidos. Lidos does not speak much English." He looked at Funny Bones. "I am glad you brought your girl. We need her."

"Anything for you."

Sammorine frowned. He looked at daddy dearest and nodded quickly though. He took a giant step and gripped Valkyrie hard on both arms. She kicked and flailed tryin' to break free, but he simply strode over to us. He dropped Valkyrie unceremoniously; she couldn't fun before daddy dearest grabbed her, too. He pressed his forearm into her throat, chokin' her. Slowly, he reached into his pocket and pulled out my razor.

He saw my look of surprise and muttered, "Did you think we'd really let you keep your weapons?" He gestured over to Funny Bones and Bespoke, who both had the two guns pointed at their heads.

"Skulduggery," Valkyrie groaned, "why is there no Plan B?"

He shrugged. "We'll be all right."

Daddy dearest sighed and rolled his eyes. He took my razor and released the blade and held it close to Valkyrie's neck. He held her tight around the waist.

"Will you take up my offer now, son? I guess you figured we'll kill Valkyrie if you don't join us."

I glared hard at him and almost responded, but Funny Bones suddenly jumped in. "That doesn't many any sense, Scarab," he muttered. "Sanguine, I'm sure, wants to join you. He certainly wants Valkyrie dead. Why would not joining you result in Valkyrie's death? It would make sense if because he joined you, he'd get to kill her." He shook her head. "I'm at a loss, honestly."

"What?" Daddy dearest smiled wide. "You don't know?"

"Enlighten me, Scarab."

Valkyrie's eyes grew wide and she tried to shake her head no, but daddy kept his hands on her. I couldn't move forward since I knew he'd slice open her neck.

"My son and your partner have, well, in all honesty, been sleeping together."

I looked at Funny Bones. He and Bespoke had frozen. Both of them turned to stare at me at the same time. Bespoke had a look of horror and confusion, but I couldn't figure out Funny Bones' expression. That worried me.

"He's joking, isn't he?" Bespoke tried laughin'.

"Valkyrie, he's joking, right? Sanguine?"

I looked to Valkyrie. Her eyes had cast downward, and she would not answer their questions.

"It's true," I sighed quietly.

Daddy dearest laughed. "I really love how my son picks a girl who dearly wants to end his pathetic life. It's exactly like him to pick the worst girl for him and fall totally and utterly in love."

"I ain't in love!"

"How could you know?" Valkyrie croaked.

Daddy dearest laughed. "Remember that chase for me after I killed that strange woman? Mrs. Faust, was it? I was actually found. But my son here didn't tell anyone of you." He laughed. "Before you got the call of Mrs. Faust's death, I was lurking around your lovely home, Valkyrie Cain. I couldn't hear your conversation, but I most certainly could see your actions. I could see you head upstairs, and I had to see if what I thought was happening was really happening. And ohhh, it was happening."

There was a beat of silence before I shouted, "You watched us have sex?"

Daddy dearest shrugged. "Only for a minute. I didn't want to see it." He looked over to Funny Bones and Bespoke. "Anything to add, gentlemen?"

They both remained quiet, lookin' away.

Scarab nodded. "Right, well, how about we put you four in a room so you can sort out all this?"

Valkyrie tried to kick away from him and scream in his ear, but he clamped his free hand over her throat and moved the razor to rest at her ribcage. Scarab dragged her across the room. Lidos grabbed both Funny Bones and Bespoke, while Sammorine tackled me before I could get outta here. We walked silently for a while until we were thrown into a little room with gray walls and floor.

No one said anythin'.

"At least this isn't another white room," I said, laughin' uneasily.

And then suddenly I felt a fist connect with my face. I stumbled and hit the wall and slid down it.

"Ghastly!" Valkyrie shouted.

Bespoke approached me and bent down to my level. "You dirty, rotten son of a bitch," he breathed. "I will kill you before you have another chance to take away anyone else I could ever care about."

Valkyrie said his name again, though a bit calmer. Bespoke stood up and stared at her. He pointed to me and asked, "Why?"

Her shoulders slumped and she whispered, "I don't know." She began runnin' her fingers in her hair. She was at a loss.

I managed to get back up. "Ghastly Bespoke," I began. "The fact that Tanith Low came with me was not anythin' I could control. I had developed a strange crush on her, and with the Remnant within her, she was attracted to me. It ain't like our relationship was very love-based. She was only with me for a couple of months, honest. I don't have any idea where she is right now."

"That doesn't change anything."

"Fine, maybe it doesn't. You can hate me all you want – Funny Bones, same for you. Valkyrie, whatever feelin's you have are yers. But don't kill me now. We still gotta get rid of those freaks."

"No. You need to leave and join Scarab."

"Um, I ain't doin' that…"

"Well I don't care," Bespoke replied sharply. "He wants you to join him, and I would much rather have you running around causing havoc and hysteria than be here with us and Valkyrie."

"Ghastly you can't just release a prisoner like that," Valkyrie said.

"I will. I will release him and then kill him painfully."

Valkyrie groaned and looked to Funny Bones. He was standin' straight in the corner and hadn't reacted to anythin' said. "Skulduggery," she half-pleaded, half-demanded.

"I'll judge you both in my mind when I know the whole story, since you kept this such a secret. You could have just told someone."

"No I couldn't have!" she shouted. "We kept it a secret since we knew this is what you'd all react like! And don't you dare tell me off for keeping secrets. You've been running off and doing something. I don't know what, and you refuse to give the truth."

He nodded. "True. For now, though, I agree with Sanguine. We can't do anything about this whole affair until we deal with our present enemies."

"Well we're stuck in a room with no weapons, no way out, and no plan," Valkyrie snapped. "It'll be pretty hard to deal with them like this."

Funny Bones nodded. "I know. We'll just have to wait it out for a while. We can think of something." He sat down on the floor and stretched his legs out in front of him. Bespoke huffed in frustration and paced. Valkyrie slid down the wall and stared blankly at the floor. I followed down after her and gripped her hand. She looked at me strangely, but she took her hand away and shook her head. I looked up at Bespoke, who was givin' me the death glare times a thousand, it seemed.

We sat in the silence for a long time. After a few hours, I'd say, we heard a huge and loud thump sound. Loud footsteps stormed around the place, and we could hear shouts in German.

"Must be the Sanctuary coming for us," Bespoke muttered. He stopped pacin' and watched the door. When it didn't open for a while, he went back to pacin'. We heard more and more footsteps all around us. Someone ran right past our door, and we all shouted for them to stop. Whoever it was stopped runnin' and backtracked to the door. They jiggled the handle, but nothin' happened. They growled in annoyance and took a deep breath. I was expectin' the door to be kicked open, but no. A few seconds later, they tried to handle again, and this time it opened. The person stepped into the room and smiled.

We were all frozen, except for Funny Bones. He got up and checked around the outside of the room.

"Glad you could make it," he said happily. "I was beginning to wonder when you'd get here."

Tanith Low shrugged and she smiled. She motioned for us to follow her. She left first, followed by Funny Bones. The rest of us trailed behind, wonderin' what the hell she was doin' here.

All while writing this chapter I kept giggling and smiling like a maniac because I was SO excited to get it written!

So…what's all this about? What's gonna happen later after they get out of this? YOU DON'T KNOW BUT I DO HAAAA. I'll be away for the weekend, but I might have access to e-mails and stuff, but probably I won't be able to reply to them or anything. I wanted to put this chapter up and have you speculate for what'll happen next.

I am rather happy with this. Two twists (the reveal about their relationship, Tanith) in one chapter! Super fun~

:3

Thanks for reading and sorry for any mistakes! :DDD