AN: And the final chapter shows us how Skulduggery deals with the loss and betrayal of lsodm.
Skulduggery Pleasant . . .
On the drive home, Valkyrie had frighteningly aware that Skulduggery was very, very quite. There were many things that'd she'd learnt from him over the years but, mostly out of observation, Valkyrie new that Skulduggery being silent meant that terrible, horrible things were going to happen. This time his silence was tangible: it was deafening and dark and chilling, it was cold and hard. Valkyrie did her best to push the image of Lord Vile's armour out of her head. She had seen what had happened to Shudder and Ghastly. Her first reaction was denial, second was grief. But behind that shock and grief, Valkyrie thought of the things that Skulduggery would do to Ravel when he got his hands on him.
After dropping her off in Haggard, Skulduggery made his way to his own home. He needed to change out of his suit and he needed to reload his revolver. Most of all, he needed to be a safe distance from people. He wasn't going to go on a temper rampage, Skulduggery never had that sort of anger, but even he found himself unpredictable and so, he needed to be alone. He put on a different hat, clean trousers and a jacket; almost personifying Ghastly's talent with a needle and thread. Skulduggery remembered thinking, for some reason, that Ghastly and Shudder would be around much longer than him. Despite the their strength, they had been two of the most peaceful men Skulduggery had ever known.
As he reloaded his gun and clicks the cylinder back into place, he tells himself that he needs to be patient and his time will come. The moment his oppotunity arises, he will lift his Smith and Wesson (held firmly in both hands) and aim the barrel right between Ravel's eyes. And then, after the moment had been drawn out long enough, when Ravel's fear and panic had reached it's height and Skuldugger had grow tired of the begging, he would pull the trigger and lodge the bullet deep into Ravel's skull. Skulduggery imagined standin, over the corpse as a pool of blood expanded at his feet. He knew how he would feel in that moment: not sadness, not remorse and at the same time, not satisfaction and not enjoyment. He would feel nothing. Ghastly and Shudder were gone and no amount of suffering on on Ravel's part would bring them back. Preparing to return to the war as morning arrived, Skulduggery pictured in his mind, walking away from the scene of Ravel's death and not having to remind himself only to mourn two deaths.
He mentally cut all ties with Ravel except those that made him an enemy. As far he was concerned, there were only ever six Dead Men.