Chapter 131

Valkyrie didn't quite understand how it happened, but there was a flurry of movement, fists and running and then she, Skulduggery, Carrie and Simon were fighting in an alleyway beside the building. Valkyrie could still feel the heat of the roaring building even as far away from it as she was, and even more painfully, she could feel Carrie's teeth biting into her arm through her jacket.

Screeching, Valkyrie smacked her back and ducked when Simon aimed a gun at her. He shot but Valkyrie didn't know where the bullet went. She jumped back up and tackled Carrie with all her rage, slamming them both into the wall, grabbing the cackling woman's hair and cracking her skull back against the bricks.

Another gunshot rang out at the same moment mortals screaming reached higher pitches and the building's roof collapsed in on itself.

Simon glanced at it before taking off running, and the woman spat in Valkyrie's face. Valkyrie didn't waste even a second, she punched Carrie with her fist and broke a knuckle – and probably Carrie's head too, if she hadn't before.

Cursing and knowing she was breaking a lot of rules, Valkyrie took off down the alleyway after Skulduggery and Simon, using screams and gunshots as her way of finding them with all the chaos around her. Thinking quickly, Valkyrie pressed the 'one' on her mobile until it beeped and she knew her family was all receiving signal of her location – they'd come and help she hoped – but she didn't think they'd ever get to her in time. There was another gunshot and this one sounded more like Skulduggery's gun. Grinding her teeth, Valkyrie shoved a woman out of her way and barrelled down a deserted street until she saw Simon fly across the road and roll to his feet with one of the biggest, nastiest grins Valkyrie had seen on an idiot.

Only a moment later, the Skeleton Detective came strolling out of a shop through the wall he and Simon had cracked open.

Trying to stay undetected, she jumped behind a tree bordering the road and looked out at them. They both had guns, and she was sure they both had bullets left. She checked her phone and saw she already had a message from Anton. He was in the hotel though, so she didn't even spare a look at it.

What was she meant to do? Simon was mocking Skulduggery but was also backing away. Quickly, Valkyrie snuck a look at Skulduggery, and he looked vicious – prowling towards Simon with deadly intent, Valkyrie was sure, but she didn't see his gun. He was his most angry when he put his weapon away so he could beat people by hand.

They were almost level with her tree now. She just needed Simon to lead Skulduggery closer and she'd… she'd…

She'd what? What was she able to do to Skulduggery, other than dissolving his bones? Clenching her eyes shut, Valkyrie hoped she'd think of something soon.

.*****.

Nadia's POV

"You okay?"

"Hmm? Yeah, just folding clothes," Tanith said, one hand on her stomach as she stared at a little yellow duck onesie on her lap. "How are you holding up?"

Nadia shrugged and kneeled on the floor next to Tanith, who was in her nursery rocking chair, and began to fold the pile of baby clothes she'd washed for Tanith the night before when she'd been bored and Tanith had been too tired. "I'm fine."

"You don't sound it."

"And you're not folding clothes."

"True," Tanith sighed, shifting uncomfortable and looking at the clock.

Nadia's heart jumped. "Are you having contractions?"

"I've still got three and a half weeks to go," Tanith said quietly, a frown on her face. "And they're far apart and don't last long. I think it's just stress but they did say the baby could come early."

"Do you want me to call the midwives just in case?"

"No, don't be silly. Most births are at night, right? If it's still going on this evening or tomorrow morning, then we can call. But I doubt its anything extreme yet. I was walking around earlier, and I probably just upset my body."

"So… not stress then?"

Tanith grimaced and Nadia knew she was in for a story. "Maybe a bit of stress. I – I spoke to Ghastly today."

"What did he say?"

"Not much," Tanith muttered, a glare in her eye as she finally and furiously folded the duck outfit. "I was telling him that he should be at the birth, and that me or someone in the family would tell him when it was happening, and he goes, and this is the bit that got me really mad, he goes 'oh, don't worry Tanith, just tell me when it's about to happen'. About to happen? What the fuck does that mean? Me in labour is it happening."

"What did you tell him?" Nadia asked with interest as she carefully picked up her stack of sleeping outfits and put them in the dresser.

"I asked him what he meant, and he said that since we're not together I wouldn't need him for the whole thing, so he should just come for the birth. As in, the last ten minutes of the entire labour for the part where I birth them. And yeah, I see that the birth is the important part, but I've heard some people have short births with basically no labour and it flashes by and what if he's not there for it? What's he going to do, set off as I start to push? My mum spat me out in five pushes, and my brother was the same, he wouldn't have even started the van up! I told him that and he just sounded defensive, god did I chew him out. And he hung up on me because, apparently, I wasn't listening. I wasn't, but the point is, he has done the bare minimum when it comes to this as a process and he's expecting me to do it all now. If he wants to be a part of this, surely he can at least come to the birth?"

"I think he should be there," Nadia agreed. "Between you, me, Valkyrie and the other Dead Men, we're going to clean all the nappies, clean all the clothes, feed and burp the baby – and he's going to get a few minutes where they're sleeping."

"Exactly!" Tanith bit out. "Aggh, I'm getting so frustrated with this. I'm not asking for any moral support or anything out of the ordinary. Maybe it's because he's seen more time where men weren't involved in births or something, but I think both parents should be there. His brothers shouldn't be picking up the slack on a baby that isn't even theirs."

"I agree," Nadia nodded, picking up the stack of pressed, perfectly flat reusable wipes Tanith had bought from one of the mothers she'd met at her check-ups. They were all made out of incredibly soft fabric and each one was different. According to Valkyrie's calculations, using reusable nappies and wipes was going to save Tanith over two thousand euros in the first two years alone. And they could be worn for longer if the baby needed them at night while they toilet trained, so long as their tosh didn't outgrow them. Nadia was honestly impressed nappies could cost that much. "Though you know we'll all help as much as we can. We can't wait to meet your baby. I'll definitely help with as many all-nighters as you need."

"I know. You guys are great, you know that?" Tanith smiled at her. Tanith's phone beeped then, and she grabbed it with a suddenly tense look.

"Is it Ghastly?" Nadia asked, closing the drawer.

"No. It's Valkyrie. She's in trouble," Tanith said, forcing herself to stand. Nadia quickly helped her, and they left the room and went downstairs to the parlour room. The others were already there getting their boots on.

"What's happening?" Nadia asked quickly.

"Val's in trouble. We need to help," Dexter told her quickly, standing and throwing his jacket on. "Don't know why. She's in downtown Dublin."

The television, which was on in the other room, suddenly caught Nadia's attention. Saracen and Solomon heard it also and Nadia went to turn it up. On the screen was a burning building. The news reported, now blaring out sound, was reporting the building shooting up in flames in record time and how the roof had collapsed. She could see people running around inside, trapped.

"She's in there?!" Nadia shouted.

"No," Dexter said, checking his phone. "She's a few streets away. Probably with whoever started it. We need to go."

Barely a moment later, and without a second to get her voice in, they were all gone. Her, Tanith and Solomon looked at each other.

Tanith suddenly went impossibly white, doubled over to lean against the couch and hissed in pain. "It's just the stress," she said in a strained voice.

"Nadia," Solomon said quietly. "Could you please call the midwives and make them aware that Tanith is having contractions."

.*****.

Valkyrie's POV

"What are you doing?"

Valkyrie stared at Skulduggery, eyes blazing furiously. "We need to talk."

"Please, Valkyrie, you're better than that. You sound far too clichéd right now."

"Stop it. You know you need to talk to me," Valkyrie growled, forcing herself to her feet even as her broken fist and probably fractured knee shot pain through her. "I'm not arresting you, but you need to come into the Sanctuary."

"You're not going to arrest me?" Skulduggery asked, tilting his head.

"No. I wish I was, but I'm not."

"Ah. There's the difference. You seem very angry."

"Yeah, I wonder why Skulduggery," she said sarcastically. "Why did you do it?"

He paused for a moment, and then his shoulders sagged just a little. "Which part? The bit where I helped blow up the Sanctuary with you in it? The bit where I didn't come to see you in the hospital? The hiding? Sending Nadia straight into Spider territory?"

"That bit!" Valkyrie shouted. "The part where you sent my girlfriend on a suicide mission with no help, no backup, no nothing! What were you thinking? You are insanely lucky that she's alive!"

He didn't say anything, just looked at her.

"Answer me! Why did you do it!?"

"I don't know," he said after a moment.

"You don't know!?" She screamed. "What do you mean you don't know?"

"I don't know," he told her more assuredly. "I didn't know what I was doing. It felt like I was being compelled to send her there. I don't know why, there's no way someone like me could be manipulated to do that, but it was impossible to stop."

"That doesn't make sense."

"I know. But that's what it felt like."

"But you knew what you were doing? Surely that was enough to stop."

"I couldn't Valkyrie!" He suddenly snapped. "I don't know what happened! It just did!"

"Don't get mad with me! I haven't done anything! These last few months have been fucking awful, and it's all because of you! You sent me into a sex dungeon alone, I lost my magic, you got yourself captured with your own stupidity, I tried to save you and Bliss was killed. You helped them when you could have tricked them, and yeah I know you were tortured, but you still could have made a damn attempt!"

"You don't understand, Valkyrie."

"I don't understand? Skulduggery, I've been tortured, I understand what it's like, but I don't understand why you hid and pretended what you did was okay when you could have admitted you were wrong and your family could have helped you overcome this. You hid from us and worked behind our backs."

Skulduggery was very quiet, and even with the roar of flames and screams in the distance, it felt heavy and almost awkward. "I don't know what happened Valkyrie."

"Let us get you help," Valkyrie told him, get stomach feeling nauseous. "Our family is on the way. Please, I just want you to come and talk at the Sanctuary and then come home with me so we can get you the help you need. Solomon is there. Him and Nadia will forgive you so long as you just admit what you did was wrong and make an effort to get help."

"And you?"

"Me? I will forgive you Skulduggery. I've never blamed you for anything, even with what I know of your past. I'm glad to have you in my life. But you need to step up and act like you should. God, Solomon acts more like a dad to me than anyone else and he's been here for a few days compared to you. I just want you to be there, to try and get help, to admit you did the wrong thing and face it. Is that so hard?"

Skulduggery shook his head. "It's not that easy Valkyrie. I didn't mean for all of this to happen."

A car screeched to a halt on the other side of the little shop they were stood in the middle of. With the walls blown through from her and Skulduggery's fight that had landed them in the wreckage of a building they were in, it was easy to hear. "That's them. Please Skulduggery, I'm just asking for you to talk and come home. That's all."

"I can't do that right now."

"What? What do you mean?" Valkyrie asked, her voice shooting back up in anger.

Skulduggery didn't answer as Dexter rounded the corner to the messed-up shop, and the two of them took off after Skulduggery but they stood no chance. The moment they were in the open air, Skulduggery flew up into the air and was gone faster than they could blink. Valkyrie watched him, feeling all sorts of angry, furious words boil within her, and as soon as he was out of sight, the emotions dissipated and Valkyrie's eyes watered. She kicked a brick as hard as she could.

"What happened?" Dexter asked quietly, sitting on the dusty, broken road. There were footsteps behind them and Valkyrie pulled herself onto her shaking legs as her Sanctuary team rounded the corner with open mouths and bulging eyes.

"You're too late." Valkyrie looked at her family. "You should go home. I need to debrief the team and report to Pa."

Saracen winced and put his hand up like a child in school. "Might not be possible. I just got a text from Nadia. Tanith's getting some contractions. It looks like she's in labour."

Woot woot wooooooot! Baby time, baby time! Seeing Skul and that stuff was interesting but baby time baby time! It's been a long build-up, we all deserve it at this point, I think we can all agree on that.

For the point of it, I do hope you enjoyed this chapter for what it was meant to be though - Skulduggery being confronted for the first time about his actions. Very important chapter. But not as fun as the next one will be eeeeekk! Leave a comment so I can see how excited you are to get the next chapter, it encourages me to write so it works in your favour ;)