Skulduggery – Crow

Anton – Bear

Ghastly – Panda

Dexter – Wolf

Saracen – Weasel

Erskine – Snake

Solomon – Raven

Chapter 68

Valkyrie sat with Tanith in Kenspeckle's hospital, holding her hand silently and waiting for the pain to recede after Kenspeckle had smooshed around her bones getting them back in place. It was an easy fix, thank goodness, but painful even with the leaves. Tanith was equally in pain, though hers was worse and she held it in so much better, though she was far more stressed than Valkyrie.

Everyone was healing slowly. Civet and Stentor had helped them all, got them all feeling a lot better with drinks and snacks and blankets and bright smiles, but so long as Panda was battling for his life under Kenspeckle's careful hands, none of them could relax.

Tanith closed her eyes and lay her head on her knees. "I don't feel well," she muttered.

"Do you want some leaves?" Valkyrie asked in concern. She had refused to take them but now her stubbornness was getting a bit stupid for Valkyrie's liking. "You haven't taken any yet."

She shook her head, making her pretty, dark blonde hair fall over her face. Valkyrie shuffled closer and put an arm around her.

"Can I do anything to help?" She whispered. "I won't ask any questions or anything."

"What makes you think I don't want to talk?"

"The fact you're not doing it," Valkyrie stated very, very quietly. They were alone in the ward but the door was open and the others were sitting silently just behind it. "You know you can trust me. I won't say a thing to anyone at all if you want."

"I don't have anything to hide," Tanith said moodily, looking away from Valkyrie.

Valkyrie bit her lip and decided not to bother her sister. They hadn't had the chance to really talk about her and Panda's relationship but Valkyrie knew – obviously and unfortunately – that they had gotten pretty serious with each other unless they were going for the opposite, completely fooling-around type of relationship, but she was sure Tanith hadn't wanted that.

She sighed internally. She'd been so wrapped her in her own slog of unhappiness she hadn't spent time with Tanith and now she didn't know what was going on with her relationship or emotions. She was turning into a bad sister and made a vow right then to be better.

Her stomach growled.

"I'm going to get something to eat. Do you want to come too? They're going to be at least an hour," Valkyrie told Tanith, standing but not letting her hand go. Tanith said nothing. "It might help you to get some fresh air."

Tanith sighed deeply but did get up. They left and went for a walk around to the shopping street and went into the little café they liked that stayed open really late. Tanith sat down at a table without saying a word so Valkyrie ordered her a milky tea and sandwiches and herself a panini and coffee. She sat down opposite Tanith with their drinks.

"Thanks," Tanith muttered. She rubbed her head. "I feel awful. I can't work out why."

"You mean other than the fact you were shot?"

She waved her hand. "That's nothing. I just can't get why I have such an upset stomach. I was fine earlier but then we had the fight and my stomach's hurt since."

"It's probably just a bug," Valkyrie suggested kindly. "I mean, you never get sick, so you've probably just caught all the bugs all the little kiddies are spreading all at once. Have you been around any children lately?"

Tanith smiled bitterly. "I save one from being thrown over a bridge."

"See, that's it," Valkyrie grinned, sitting up as their food was brought over. "It infected you with all the child germs and now you're sick. This is at least three years' worth of sickness. You're bound to feel terrible. I wouldn't even be surprised if you threw up. Kids are always doing that."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm sure it won't be that bad."

"I bet it will be. But don't worry, it'll be over soon," Valkyrie told her and tucked into her sandwich. "Nice to bring you down to human level."

"Thanks, sis," Tanith smiled and started her own food.

They ate in silence and when they were finished, Valkyrie stirred her coffee and saw Tanith was a little better even in the horrid yellow lights.

"So," Valkyrie smirked. "You and Panda are getting on very, very well."

Tanith groaned and started laughing. "If you say you heard something–"

"Oh, I definitely heard something."

"No!" Tanith laughed, kicking Valkyrie under the table. "Cow."

"It's hardly my fault!"

"It is now." Tanith took a sip of her tea and leaned in. "We've gotten really close."

Valkyrie grinned massively. "I had a feeling. Are you, like, properly dating?"

"I think so, but we haven't said anything to anyone. He made me dinner a few weeks back and it was like, immediate. As soon as we started talking all of those little feelings I was considering just came to life and I'm absolutely certain on him. I think we could really be onto something."

"Like, forever type of on to something?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "But at this point, I am kind of hopeful. He's been amazing. It's kind of why we moved up to sex so quickly."

"Aw, don't say it out loud!" Valkyrie whined. "That's my brother."

Tanith kicked her again. "Stop being a baby! I know what you and Nadia got up to!"

Valkyrie's smile lost its sincerity.

"I'm sorry," Tanith said, holding Valkyrie's hand. "I shouldn't have said that. It's kind of too soon still, isn't it?"

"No, it's okay," Valkyrie said sipping her coffee. "But we didn't go that far anyway. Since we already knew she was going away and stuff."

Tanith frowned. "Really?"

"Yeah. I mean, we didn't do nothing, but we wanted to wait until we were certain of the future," Valkyrie said quietly. "But it doesn't matter now, I guess. Come on, we should probably get back."

.*****.

Tesseract's POV

The Russian man, Tesseract, slowly perused his masks lining the inside of his van. He wasn't sure how he felt about today, probably because there was an angry, impatient, passed out woman in the passenger seat he had drugged to sleep. With the slightest creak of leather, he picked out a frowny face, something that looked almost confused but mostly angry. Switching it swiftly with the other, he attached it to the hooks in his face and made sure it was secure before going to the front and injecting the antidote to the sleeping poison he'd given the Boston woman.

He frowned at her behind the mask. He knew why he was confused and angry now. He was stuck with her and he had no idea why or how long.

But money was money and he opened her door and booted her out as she started fluttering her eyelids.

He didn't wait for Her Annoyance to stop stumbling, just went into the dingy, horrid bar and looked around. Other than the irritating little man, Scapegrace, at the counter that liked to brag about his kills, it was empty. Ignoring that same man, Tesseract opened up the hatch and went straight down into the dark, nasty little hole.

"Tesseract," The Torment said in his gurgled, barely used voice. "Did you kill Ravel?"

He said nothing for a long moment, thinking of how to phrase the answer. "The mission was compromised. The American entered ahead of time and alerted the whole house. I could not kill him. But I may have killed the scarred one."

"May. May have killed the scarred one," The Torment said, coming a little out of the shadows. "You do not know?"

He hesitated. "No. The mission was compromised and I had to save the American, as per your instruction to keep her alive."

"Not at the cost of killing the Dead Men!" The Torment screamed.

There was a long silence and the American fell down the stairs into a heap at Tesseract's feet.

The Torment came forwards slowly. "No, no. No," he was muttering to himself. "No. I shouldn't kill the Russian. Kill the incompetent."

He began to shift to his Spider form.

.*****.

Craven's POV

Cleric Craven held his breath as the Remnant searched through the future in Finbar Wrong's body, seeking out a future in which the brat Cain was Death Bringer. He knew it wasn't true. Wreath was just trying to cause attention. But perhaps there was a future, somewhere, where there was a Dead Bringer, someone real and vibrant and obedient…

The Remnant infested man started to bleed from the nose and grinned. "I see the girl," he said. "She is using death magic. She is a young woman, perhaps twenty years of age. She wears a ring. Two rings. A black one and a silver one. She's fighting. There are spiders everywhere."

"But is she the Dead Bringer?"

"So much damage," Wrong grinned blissfully. "So much death."

"From the Dead Bringer?"

Wrong opened his eyes abruptly. "I think I'd like to see this for myself."

Wrong's mouth opened suddenly and the Remnant shot out.

Can you see the path I'm taking? At the least, you see where the story is for the imminent future ;) I don't want to drop too many hints, see, but I love teasing the reader, so we'll see how you get on deciding what I'm doing. If I write what you guess, you need to tell me! It's fun for me too then :)