Skulduggery – Crow

Anton – Bear

Ghastly – Panda

Dexter – Wolf

Saracen – Weasel

Erskine – Snake

Solomon – Raven

Corrival – Pa

Chapter 101

She barely made it halfway around the building before she got lightheaded and began to succumb to her hyperventilating, shock and panic. Wolf was already with her, but the problem was, his hands steadying her and keeping her leaving the damn fish market was making her panicking get worse and worse, but she knew if he let go she'd fall to the ground and probably start pulling her hair and that was making her panic more because then people would be even more likely of seeing her. She couldn't breathe. It was like her throat was closed up as tears had filled her eyes and her breast throbbed in pain. Her ears rang and she dug her hands into her forearms so much she could see she was scratching herself badly, but when Wolf tried to gently pull her fingers from the skin, she whined with massive, panicking eyes–

And passed out.

Valkyrie woke up in Kenspeckle's hospital and immediately started sucking in deep breaths. There was no one else in the ward and after looking around a few times, she felt her heart slow down and her breathing get easier. Was this what it was like for Snake? When he had just left the Spiders and realised everything was a lie, and he was constantly stressed? Just, unable to breathe. Unable to be with people, but at the same time, worried now there was no one there – her nails stuck into the palm of her hands. She was so on edge and she hated it.

There was a light knock on the door and she took a deep breath, sat herself up on the bed and swallowed before croaking, "Yeah?"

Wolf carefully opened it and stuck his head in. "Can I come in?"

She smiled nervously. "Sure."

He smiled back and closed the door gently behind him before taking a seat next to her bed. "How are you feeling?"

"Physically? A little sore but not in pain. I'm tired."

He put his hand on the bed, palm up and welcoming. She slowly put her hand in his, testing her own boundaries given how sensitive her heart felt, and was happily surprised when she felt a thousand times better with his hand gently folded around hers. "And what about the emotional and mental side?"

She bit the inside of her cheek. "Not so good."

"Yeah?" He said, welcoming her to talk. She smiled when she realised she'd picked that up from him years ago.

"I feel jittery. And I guess jumpy. If I even think about moving from here my heart jumps, and it's all because I'm nervous, but I don't need to be," she said, trailing off at the end.

"Why's that?" He asked.

She bit her lip. "Will you keep a secret?"

He sighed. "You know I don't like keeping things from the others, Cub."

"I know. Just until I can talk about it more," she said quietly, get stomach clenching horribly. She put an arm around it.

"I suppose I can do that for you."

She took a deep breath and swallowed her bile back. "I killed him."

"Who?"

"The one I – the one I had to push out the ring. They forced me to fight, but it was just that idiot Scapegrace, we need to find out where his carer is by the way, and I beat him by a mile, obviously. The guy in charge wanted me to kill him, but I refused and I said wanted to know where Solomon was. He said after that that if I pushed someone out the ring, he would tell me, and I agreed seeing as they'd already taken my top and trousers and I had no way out with so many people around. They got this massive guy and put him in the ring with me. He was–" she swallowed the throw up that pushed itself to her throat and a moment later took a breath and continued "–he was naked and was mostly big rather than a good fighter, and he really frightened me, but I got him out the ring, without magic, and he was the one that pulled my – my bra off and scratched me. The guy told me about The Old Mill because I had done what he said."

"And then what happened?"

"He said I was the newest attraction and the audience got on stage and the guy I had just pushed off was holding me and – and he – well, I had no magic, I was just panicking so much and without my ring it was useless. I don't know what happened, Wolf, but I was panicking and I started hyperventilating and I just felt some magic burst from inside me and I just freaked out and I got him with this magic when he groped me and he – he turned to dust Wolf. I don't even know what I did."

He took a deep breath and nodded. "It's alright Cub. Trust me, no one's going to miss that guy, and if you hadn't, me and the boy's would be making plans for him."

She smiled in spite of her rolling stomach. "You and the boys?"

"Yes. That's me, Saracen and Erskine in case you were wondering," he grinned.

Her smile faded. "Have you heard from Crow?"

"No," he said, an edge to his voice. "Me and the boys will be dealing with him after we get Solomon back."

She smiled without feeling it. "At least you're having fun."

He gently squeezed her hand. "Don't think that, Val. I feel sick. I want to lash out and get mad, but what use will that be? Skulduggery has to make his own mistakes, but that doesn't mean I want to have any part of it. I'm with you to the end. You're my baby sister. God, I remember when I found Erskine stumbling around a battlefield. He'd followed Mevolent's troops to get his way back to us after he'd secretly betrayed the Spiders, and we were just astonished to find him there. We didn't know yet what had happened and thought he was sick back at base, and we pulled him into our tent and he just broke down and told us so much shit the Spiders had told him and done to him. I still have nightmares about it, and I don't think he's ever told us everything. But you know, babe, we were with him every step of the way to getting better and I never once faulted him. I sat through every nightmare, helped with every panic attack, and I washed him every time he got himself into a depression just so he'd be clean, and I'll be damned if I can't do the same for my sister."

Well, she just started crying and held her arms out for him.

"Aww, hon, I didn't mean for you to cry," he whispered and sat on the edge of the bed for her to cling to.

"He tried to rape me," she whispered into his shoulder. "It was so scary."

He took a deep breath against her head and held her tightly. "It's okay now. He's dead and gone. I won't say a word, I swear. I'm so, so sorry I let you go down there alone. I should have known better."

They stayed like that until she fell asleep against him and he lay her down on the pillow with a small kiss on her cheek.

.*****.

She woke next to the sound of voices and yawned before fluttering her eyes open. She frowned and looked around her before settling into the parlour settee comfortably, the sun warming her legs. It was much better to be back home, listening to her family's voices in the next room while she sunned herself. She noticed her phone was on the coffee table flashing, so she held out her hand, moved her palm and…

Nothing. She tried again. She sat up and did it again. "Wolf?"

The voices went quiet and Wolf, Snake, Weasel, Bear, Tanith and Panda came into the room. "S'up," Wolf said, waving.

"I can't use my magic," she said.

He frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I mean I can't use my magic, don't I?" She snapped. "Look." She extended her arm, tried to draw her phone towards her using the air, and nothing happened. "I don't have a problem with air like this. I have a good grasp of air. This isn't normal." She clicked her fingers and no spark came, so she did it a few more times. "See?! Nothing!"

"What about Necromancy?" Tanith asked.

"I lost my ring," she said. "And I can't feel it either. I can't feel anything when I try to do any Elemental magic, and I can't feel my Necromancy magic at all."

Her family looked between themselves and Weasel took a seat. "I might have an idea," he said. They all nodded and waited. "It's not my magic, it's an idea."

They made faces but sat down anyway.

"I heard once of a guy in Peru who claimed his son had been attacked and lost all his magic abilities. A few years later they came back. No one believed him, but maybe there was more to it than that."

"So you're saying I have no magic?" She asked him.

"No," he hesitated. "Just that whatever happened when you were gone–" he glared at Wolf who kept his mouth firmly shut "–may have affected your ability to use it."

"So I can't use magic? But I have it?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. But maybe."

She took a breath and thought about it, trying to feel inside her for her magic. Something was there, something she could feel but didn't know how to approach, didn't know how to draw out, and she had a feeling she knew what was wrong.

"I think it's something else," she said slowly. "I think I'm using a new magic. When I was there, I used a magic I never had before. I think I can feel that."

Tanith jolted up. "I know what it might be! I grew up with someone who suddenly used a new magic in a fight against someone and it took over all their magic. It's almost like you picked it in the Serge, but without the Serge."

"What happened with them?" Valkyrie asked.

"Well, they studied his magic, but I don't know what it was. He could only use that magic from then on. I never really knew him. He died when I was still in my teens."

Valkyrie deflated. "But he could use that magic?"

She nodded. "As far as I know, he could."

"So I don't get a choice," she sighed. "I have magic at least."

"Thinking positive, that's good," Wolf grinned. "We'll have to explore that later. For now, you might want to look at your phone."

Valkyrie's eyes widened and she grabbed it. Twenty-three messages and forty-seven missed calls. All from Nadia. "I have to call her back."

They chucked and she went up to her room as she read through the messages. They were mostly along the lines of 'I love you', 'how are you?', 'Are you busy?', 'Valkyrie?', 'You're worrying me', 'Call me when you see this', 'You're scaring me', 'I'm really worried', and progressively more panicky as it went. She called her just as she got to her room.

It was still morning, almost eleven, so it didn't take too long for Nadia to pick up. "Valkyrie?"

"Yeah, it's me. I'm so sorry, baby, Solomon was kidnapped two days ago, and I was out trying to find him, and then my phone died and we were meant to get a charger yesterday morning, but we got a tipoff, ran there, and I had to try and get information by myself and some awful things happened and I was at Kenspeckle's overnight and now I'm home. I'm sorry I worried you," Valkyrie rushed quickly. "Are you okay?"

She took a breath. "I am now. I was really worried, Val. I got so worked up. What happened?"

She bit her lip. "Honestly? I don't even want to talk about it. It was just awful." She laughed darkly. "I've only told Wolf."

Nadia was quiet for a moment. "Really? Val, you should talk about it."

"I know. But not yet, okay?" She said, grabbing her towel from the back of her door. "Come on, tell me what you've been doing."

"Well, Mum and Dad got into a big fight two nights ago," she said quietly. She could feel her anxiety from over the phone. "They haven't spoken since."

"What did they fight about?"

"What school to send me too. Daadii didn't say they couldn't send me to India, she just kind of said they shouldn't, and Dad wants to send me back early for summer tutoring, but Mum wants me here," she said. "I only know because they started screaming at each other. They were saying other things too. Like how me being quiet at home is because Mum never let me express myself as a child, and the reason I won't spend time with them is because Dad wasn't here with work a lot when I was a teenager."

"Oh, sweetie," Valkyrie said quietly, wishing she could hug her. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay. It sounds like you had a worse time than me anyway," she said and Valkyrie could imagine her picking fluff off her bed or desk chair, whichever she was sitting on. "I just feel so down all the time. I have no energy, and I either sleep too little or too much so I'm always tired, and even when I want to eat I can't because they keep trying to eat together and start fighting so I can't go downstairs at all. I ran out of toilet paper and waited for hours to go get more just so I didn't have to run into either of them. I hate leaving this room so much but I'm so utterly sick of it."

Valkyrie bit her lip. "I know baby. If you ever want, you can stay here. I know you don't want to that much at the moment, but at any time, I will get you and you can just stay here, even just for a day, I promise. I just want you happy."

"I know. I miss you so much."

"I miss you too. I want to see you soon," Valkyrie said, her throat closing with emotion as she realised just how much she missed Nadia. "I really need to see you."

Nadia was silent for a long moment. "You could visit me later."

"You mean, like, sneak into your room?"

"Yeah. Come see me for a few hours," she said, and there was a little waver to her voice.

"You sound nervous," Valkyrie said carefully.

"I am," she admitted. "Way more than I thought I'd be. But I'm so lonely here. I'm in my room all day, I have nothing to do, nothing to eat, I just want to see you so badly."

"I'll be there. I'll bring dinner and some other things, okay? Is there anything you want?"

"I just want to see you," Nadia said quietly.

"I'll be there. I promise," Valkyrie said and then gasped. "Oh, but I have to tell you something."

She explained to Nadia what had happened with her magic, keeping vague on the attack and explaining that whatever magic she used to have was theoretically replaced and she would need help getting into the window. Nadia laughed, finding it incredibly amusing that her "talented" girlfriend had been earthbound and needed her help before softly saying she'd of course sort it. They spoke for an hour more before Valkyrie really had to pee and they hung up.

She felt a lot better.

I know it's short, but I think it's sweet. Plus there's a Nadia chapter next which is fun! Thank you all for being patient over the last few days, I've just been busy but I wrote four thousand words for the chapter in the future, so it's not all bad, it was just that the other chapter was way longer (I actually split it so one thousand is a part of the chapter before so it isn't so filler-y like this chapter here, so that's good too). Anyway, I hope you liked the little bit of fluff, and we will see something more fun with our girls in the next one!