Skulduggery – Crow

Anton – Bear

Ghastly – Panda

Dexter – Wolf

Saracen – Weasel

Erskine – Snake

Solomon – Raven

Corrival – Pa

Chapter 109

Tanith's POV

"Do you want some tea?" Ghastly asked, getting up from his workstation.

Tanith smiled and nodded though she could already feel the nausea. She needed food to settle it, something of substance. "Can I have some water too? And a sandwich?"

He smiled at her, more than used to her laundry list requests by now. "Of course."

He left the room and Tanith moved carefully to sit up and closed her eyes again. It was getting harder for her to breath as the baby grew and obstructed her diaphragm, and she knew it was the worst of the pregnancy. Sure, the birth would be hard, but she had ideas and plans for that. There was nothing she could do to even pretend she had control over her lack of breath. At least when baby was out she could do more than one thing, namely, more than sit on her arse and try not to be sick.

The nausea went away and she tried to block out the negative thoughts. In the kitchen, she could hear the kettle boiling and Ghastly getting out mugs and opening the fridge. It was homey in the shop, and she could see why Ghastly had spent so much time trying to convince her to move in at least while the baby was in a crib so Ghastly could work and see his child at the same time, but it was still too small. She tutted aloud and tried to think positive again.

A moment later, Ghastly came in with her water and sandwich. "Here," he said quietly, bringing up the foldout table with his magic and putting the plate and glass on top of it. He sat beside her. "Tea's brewing and I've nearly finished that dress. We can go home when I'm done if you like."

"Could we make another sleeping onesie before we go?" Tanith asked. "The one that's like a blanket?"

He smiled and settled back into the sofa. "I swear, all you think about is the baby."

"It's hard not to when their head is pushing into my lungs and I have a foot in my liver," she told him and washed her bite down with water. "Only two and a bit months to go now."

Ghastly rubbed a hand over his face. "Only a two and a bit months and we don't have a name."

"We'll think of something," Tanith shrugged, a small smile on her lips. "I want to go visit my parents before the baby's born too. They said they'll come when they're born too to help out, but I'm not sure I really want my Mum and Dad hovering around."

"I thought parents need all the help they can get with a newborn?" Ghastly asked, watching her.

Tanith smiled at him, enjoying the attention. "We do need that, but we also have all our brother's and Valkyrie. She said she wants to take time off to help with everything at the start, so I don't think we need much other help."

"I say we save Valkyrie for babysitting later and have your parents help at first," Ghastly told her. "Plus, your parents will want to visit their grandchild anyway."

"I expect them to visit, just not stay," Tanith said. "I'll talk to Mum about it more. It doesn't matter yet I suppose."

Ghastly smiled and stroked her back as she ate. At some point, the phone rang and he got up to talk to whoever it was, probably a client, in the shop entrance. She finished her sandwich while Ghastly spoke on the phone and realised as soon as she finished her water that she really needed to pee, and waddled as quickly as she could up the stairs. It took a few minutes to make sure she wasn't going to wet herself if she stood up and the baby kicked her bladder – she'd had an accident once like that, and it wouldn't happen again – and when she was certain, she wrapped the maternity trousers around her waist carefully and made her way downstairs. She found Ghastly pacing in the kitchen looking pale and worried.

"What happened?" She asked immediately, dread filling her up.

"Oh!" He exclaimed, and then laughed nervously. "Nothing, nothing."

"Ghastly Bespoke, don't you dare try and pretend like–"

"The doctor said not to wind you up–"

"You're winding me up right now."

He was quiet for a moment, obviously picking his battles, and Tanith made an effort to calm herself. After a thirty-second silence had been had and they had both taken a breath, Tanith congratulated her patience and started again.

"Ghastly, can you tell me what happened?"

"The Sanctuary," he said quietly. "Skulduggery blew it up."

.*****.

"Val?" Tanith asked softly, stroking Valkyrie's silky dark brown hair from her sleeping eyes. "You going to wake up?"

Valkyrie made no movements except to continue to barely breathe with the help of half a dozen tubes that had been inserted down her throat via her mouth and nose. Tanith still didn't know the full story, but she did know that Valkyrie had sensed trouble, had everyone go to the safe room in the Sanctuary and went to check things out herself and caught Skulduggery when he was about to blow up the Sanctuary.

Seeing his adoptive daughter hadn't stopped him.

Over thirty Sanctuary staff were confirmed dead already, and more missing. Elder Crow was among the dead. The Dead Men, her brothers, had been in the saferoom and were mostly okay. Practically all Irish Cleaver's were dead. Valkyrie was one of the only ones not in the safe house that wasn't missing or dead.

Tanith took a deep breath and put a hand on her baby belly, her fear for Valkyrie's life and what had happened, how close she'd been to losing her brothers and sister, upset the baby. She left the room with her head down to avoid looking at the miraculous few that survived the blast outside of the safe room. She'd already heard Kenspeckle muttering. Other than Valkyrie, he didn't expect many to live to see tomorrow.

In the waiting room was the Dead Men. They had their heads down and small injuries. All except for Skulduggery and Anton. Anton had been the strongest of them and had run through the flames and still falling debris to find Valkyrie and pull her to safety, leaving him badly burnt. His heart had stopped once already. They all knew he was counted in those not expected to live.

"Hey," she said quietly, feeling a lot like she was breaking a silent commemoration between the men. "I don't think she's waking up today."

"It's already night," Ghastly told her, a hand over his mouth holding his head up and muffling his words a little. "Did you see Anton?"

"No," she admitted. "There's a missing bed in the ward. I think he was taken to surgery."

"That was quick," Erskine whispered so quietly she almost didn't catch it. The hospital was so deathly silent it almost sent a shiver up Tanith's back to hear Erskine's hollow voice.

"They'll be alright," Saracen said, putting a hand on Tanith's back comfortingly. Ghastly was staring vacantly at the floor. "Kenspeckle's a genius."

Tanith nodded. She could hear the tense uncertainty in Saracen's voice.

There was a long, long pause before Dexter quietly asked, "What could make Skulduggery do this?"

Tanith felt the tensions rise immediately as the men thought of their theories. "We need to wait before we do anything," Tanith said before anything could happen. "When Valkyrie wakes up she can tell us."

"Meanwhile Skulduggery's in a cell in the middle of nowhere, safe and sound," Wolf said bitterly.

"We don't know what happened until Valkyrie tells us," Tanith whispered.

Ghastly sighed and rubbed his face tiredly. "Tanith's right. If we talk to Skulduggery now, we won't believe a word he says."

"How could we?" Dexter agreed. "No matter what, he's dug himself into this hole. He still came in and set the bomb, we've got the recovered footage of them leaving it in the downstairs boiler room. He did that. He didn't have to. He could have pretended and set off the alarms so we could dismantle it."

There was a long pause as they agreed. "Do we know where Solomon is?"

"Honestly, I don't give a crap right now," Dexter told her, leaning his head back against the wall. "Until Valkyrie and Anton are awake and healing, I don't give a crap about either of them."

Tanith had to agree, at least in her mind. She liked Solomon, and she didn't much like any Necromancer she'd ever met, and she certainly trusted no Necromancer except perhaps Solomon. Too many secrets. Too much pent-up hate within them. Too much superiority. Solomon was different, and Tanith appreciated and respected his willingness to admit how much was wrong with Necromancy and teach not just Valkyrie but also answer her own questions, which she knew was forbidden for him to do. But between being with Valkyrie or trying to find Solomon? She'd pick Valkyrie every time.

Another family came into the waiting room a few minutes of silence later, the two children clinging to each other and their father practically in tears already. She had to close her eyes, knowing no matter if their other parent lived, those children would never unsee or unhear anything they witnessed tonight. She wrapped her arm around her belly protectively.

Hours passed, families coming in and out of the waiting room as they tried to find out if there was even so much of a body of their loved ones left, some crying, others putting up a brave front, but in the end, no one stayed all night the way the Dead Men and Tanith did, unmoving and solid even with their inner doubts and troubles. Even Tanith was comforted by the faces the Dead Men showed the world, enough to get a little sleep.

In the morning, at barely five a.m., Stentor came in looking pale and hands shaking with exhaustion. "We completed the operations Anton needed," he said, making them all look at him tiredly. "He's stable, but not out of the woods. He lost a lot of blood. We've ordered more for a transfer, but his body is weak and unhealed from his previous injuries."

The Dead Men nodded but didn't say anything.

"Civet says Valkyrie's status hasn't changed. She is healing, but slowly. We're flying in more doctors and nurses to help all the victims," he explained, holding on to the doorframe to keep up. "Sorry, I need to get some sleep. Doctor Synecdoche is supporting if you have any questions. We'll keep you informed on them both."

He left and Tanith stared at the doorway before forcing herself to stand. "We should go," she told them.

Dexter shook his head slightly, barely able to move more than that. "We can't," he said quietly, his voice groggy and slurred.

"They'll tell us if anything happens. No one's going to wake up any time soon, we're just hurting our backs. Come on," she encouraged quietly.

It took time, but she got Ghastly and Saracen up, which convinced Dexter, and between them they woke Erskine and got him moving out the door too. They were barely in the foyer when Fletcher and his girlfriend popped in front of them.

"Hey," he said immediately. "I just heard what happened. Is everything okay? Where's Valkyrie? What about Anton?"

"They're fine," Tanith said tiredly, feeling herself get lightheaded. "Teleport us home, Fletcher. I'm going to faint."

Finally!

Anywho, thank you for reading, sorry for the wait and if you want to ask any questions, please review or PM me and I will do my best!

Lonelygirl702: On Darquesse, she is not about because Serpine never got to the Book of Names and so Valkyrie never saw her name. I dodged it really well. So non-existent, but I will go over some other bad bitch book parts, though I won't spoil it. You know the white magic bit anyway, so some things will happen, and I plan on using some story elements but direct it a little differently. I'm writing Valkyrie to be extra intelligent and mature, so she will kind of see through the bullshit and get straight to what she wants, what she thinks is right, and will be able to make those decisions that might make people think they should fear her power. Just in a different way, and we can all encourage her and think she's awesome. Obviously, we all know about Vile existing, and I mixed up the Erskine/Snake thing so it's different but the same, since I love the Dead Men but also want book Erskine/Snake to suffer. We're agreed on how much we're hating Skulduggery, by the way, I'm really struggling to write him being such a dick, but it's for the plot, but I just want to go, 'oh, it's just a mistake, come back!'. But I can't because I also want him to go fuck himself. Aahh I don't know anymore! He needs to sort himself out!