Chapter 151

A week went by in the blink of an eye, a routine settling in fast. In the very early late-November mornings, the whole house would awaken as a bath was drawn, by Laila being awoken by her mother to be fed and changed, by the sound of the old gas cooker being clicked to life by Anton downstairs. It was an enjoyable part of their stay in America, the part that made it feel like a holiday. They would get ready and do exercises unless they were on a mission in which case the Dead Men would leave early for that. But on the days they hadn't left early on work business, Valkyrie, Dexter, Anton and Ghastly would go out for a sprint around the town that left them gasping for breath, and then they would spend time working out in the back garden with the rest of the family. Tanith and Laila would come out in the morning too. Laila would coo at the clouds and Tanith had begun to take on some easy exercises to begin to get back in shape. Nadia would follow Tanith's lead and struggled a lot, but it was nice to see her put in an effort.

The rest of their time had been easy. All the missions they had gone on had been early morning or late evening, and all of them had been easy with relatively no harm to themselves – at least by their standards, they had still been highly volatile and dangerous situations. Valkyrie had gone back to the Necromancer Temple once more, Nadia and Solomon following her and being unhappy about the idea. Nadia just seemed to not like Norma and her sister, and Solomon was still brewing on the idea of Valkyrie and the Magic Keeping issue. But they were going back for the magic training, so it seemed like she was going to get her choice respected.

She wasn't able to help with Solomon's unhappiness, but she decided it was time to do something nice for Nadia. That day her family decided to go out once more on a trip to see a small town a few miles away for fun. Everyone was going but this time, Valkyrie and Nadia stayed back.

"So," Valkyrie smiled, holding Nadia's hands. "I thought, since everyone is going out, we could have a little date lunch."

Nadia immediately brightened. "Aww, Val. That's really sweet."

"It's alright. I made a little picnic," Valkyrie told her and brought her over to the living room where, on the coffee table, was a wicker basket full of treats and fruits she knew Nadia would enjoy. "It's been a really nice holiday so far, even if I am away working sometimes, but I thought we needed some alone time."

"It's really pretty," Nadia complimented, sitting on the sofa with Valkyrie. "I didn't even see you make all of this."

"To be fair," Valkyrie admitted, "it's mostly just in packets." She picked up a packet of Nadia's favourite chocolate biscuits and handed them to her smiling girlfriend. "And anyway, nothing is too much work for you."

Nadia laughed a little at how cheesy Valkyrie was being and thanked her. They enjoyed the little finger sandwiches she had made that morning. They stuck on a movie they had found in the shops a few days prior and hadn't yet watched, speaking over it as they shared the food, kissed and were generally just very inappropriate on the sofa. They made it to the bedroom before things got too serious.

"You know," Nadia said softly when they had finished kissing and crawling all over each other's bodies. "I could imagine my whole life with you."

Valkyrie smiled softly at Nadia's glowing, beautiful face. She was looking out of the window and couldn't see Valkyrie's gaze.

"Can't you see it? I can imagine living in our new house and going downstairs and hugging your brother's good morning, and all having breakfast together. We'd all go off and work or whatever we all do and come back in the evening and it would be all smiles and small talk about our days and we'd go upstairs to our apartment alone and hold each other. I can imagine all the years, the ones where we are so in love we can't get enough of each other," she said with a sneaky smile. "And I can imagine when we fight and make up, and wait up late for each other to get back, and celebrating our birthday's and all the Christmas' we'll have together. One day we'll be married and have children, Val. I know we will."

Valkyrie kissed the told her Nadia's head and, without moving her body, reached into her suitcase under the bed and grabbed Nadia's present. Nadia was looking out of the window with glazed eyes, imagining their future. Valkyrie held out the Dragon Diamond.

"Valkyrie–" Nadia asked, and her eyes landed on the Diamond. Her mouth opened in surprise at the palm-sized crystal, looking it over with admiration. "What is that? It's so beautiful."

"I know," Valkyrie whispered into Nadia's neck as she leaned back into the pillow and looked at the pink Diamond also. "It's a gift, for you. I was saving this for your birthday in a few weeks. But I think you just stole my speech on how I plan to spend my life with you, so I may as well give it to you now."

"But Valkyrie," Nadia whispered, reaching for it with a finger. As soon as she touched it, the Diamond's colour swirled like smoke and they watched in fascination as it gently faded into a gorgeous rich purple. "It's so pretty."

"It's for you. Do you know what it is?"

"It's a diamond…?" Nadia asked, looking at her with a frown.

"It's a Dragon Diamond."

Nadia's eyes bugged out of her head for a moment, and then she sat back and looked at it with a smile. "I'm not even surprised. You would just have a Dragon Diamond. I have no idea what I'm going to do with a diamond the size of my face though."

"And I'm not surprised it changed colour. A Dragon Diamond only does that if both the original owner, me, and the person I give it to, you, are in love. I'm looking at it as a promise ring. By giving this to you, I prove my love to you and promise that I will love and look after you forever. Will you accept it?"

Nadia smiled, looking at Valkyrie with so much love and happiness in her eyes. "Of course I do. You know I always will. I love you Valkyrie, even when you're cheesy as hell. Forever."

They smiled at each other. The Diamond was thrust onto the side table as they took advantage of being alone once more.

.*****.

"Big day tomorrow," Saile said from his place on the sofa next to Erskine. He had his feet on the coffee table and an arm around Erskine who looked absolutely shattered to the great amusement of everyone else. "They have a lot riding on this mission."

"We know," Dexter nodded, sipping on his can of beer. Most of them were having a small drink, nothing too much because they were, of course, working the next day, but it was nice to have a few sips of something nice. "They only told us about it this morning."

Saile shrugged. "They do that to us too sometimes."

"How do you feel about it?" Tanith asked, looking at Fletcher with a hint of a smirk on her face.

He nodded, an expression of 'yeah sure, I got this' on his face. "I'm good."

"Ready to fight?" Valkyrie asked. "Dodge some bullets, catch some knives?"

"That doesn't happen," he said confidently, but his eyes still flickered over to Saracen who just raised an eyebrow. "It doesn't."

Valkyrie shrugged. "If you say so. But just to be sure, what would you do if someone threw a knife at you?"

"Teleport away."

"What if there was a hostage behind you? Maybe a child hostage. You can't teleport away if there's a child behind you."

He stuttered and looked around for help.

"Aww, leave him alone!" Aurora said, throwing a pillow at Valkyrie. "There isn't any hostages."

"Any known hostages," Nadia chipped in, texting her friends.

"Shush. Fletcher, there aren't any hostages," Aurora told Fletcher, who nodded quickly. "Hey, can I hold the baby?"

Tanith had just finished feeding her for the millionth time – Valkyrie felt like Tanith spent all her time sleeping and feeding the baby – and she was happy to give her over. Valkyrie had to take her and walk to the other side of the room and give her over. Aurora agreed to burp her.

Valkyrie and Tanith sat back and it only took a moment for Laila to spit up on Aurora.

Valkyrie laughed and Tanith threw the blanket over. Aurora swore at Tanith and wiped the spit off of her trousers and Laila's face. "You're lucky you're cute," Aurora muttered, putting the blanket over her shoulder and holding Laila better. "Too pretty for your own good."

Valkyrie wasn't sure if Aurora was talking to Laila or Tanith, but it was fun to watch anyway. It had been fun, having Aurora and Saile come over every day or two, just for a few hours. Aurora made Tanith joke around more, and Saile made Erskine happy. Plus, when Aurora was here Tanith stayed downstairs which gave Valkyrie a lot of time with Nadia upstairs. She was sure Tanith had caught on to what was happening but she was letting them do it anyway. She was the best sister ever. It helped that she had no boundaries and did not care about sex in the slightest.

"Valkyrie," Aurora said, snapping Valkyrie out of her thoughts. "Are you ready for tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I'm good," she nodded. "Not going to get blown up this time."

"Good," Aurora agreed. "What does Nadia do when you're gone?"

"She is right here," Valkyrie said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, but she's busy."

"She mostly does things around the house and spends time with anyone at home. At home in Ireland, she'd spend time with Gordon," Valkyrie thought, thinking over everything. "She reads a lot."

Aurora wrinkled her nose. "Sounds dull."

"It's okay," Nadia said defensively.

"I don't think it'll be a long term thing," Valkyrie added. "We've been really busy recently. I've quit work at the Sanctuary so I'll be home a lot more, and we'll start doing things together."

"Yeah, but at home all the time?" Aurora questioned.

"I don't know. We can do what we want really," Valkyrie said, looking at Nadia, who was looking at her.

"I need to go back to school," Nadia said suddenly. "After the Spiders and this whole, you know, war problem thing is fixed. Then I can get a job and do more. I bet you'll go back to work after that Val."

"I will?"

"You'll get bored at home after a while."

Valkyrie thought about it and then nodded. "Yeah, probably. I don't know if I'll be a detective though. Maybe I will be."

"I bet Skulduggery will go back to the Sanctuary," Aurora put in, looking at Laila.

Valkyrie watched her closely. She seemed casual, nonchalant, but Valkyrie wasn't convinced she hadn't heard something in her voice. She answered anyway. "Yeah, I guess so. He's a really good detective."

"No argument there," Aurora said, sitting Laila on her lap and supporting her neck and back so she could look around with her giant blue eyes. At only seven weeks old, she was hitting all her milestones beautifully and none of her family could be prouder. "How far are you guys in looking into the Spider dens?"

"Not that far," Valkyrie admitted honestly. "We know they moved from their last known place, and we have information about what they did there, but not much else."

"I heard they had assassins."

"I expect they do. I would be a pretty rubbish attempt at taking over the country and world at large if they couldn't kill off select people, wouldn't it?" Valkyrie told her. "They have mercenaries as well. We don't know much about them all, but they've hired a few people, probably with promises of special places in their 'new world'."

"They sound serious."

"It is serious," Valkyrie told her sharply. "They're underground. We should have seen they were at their old castle site, but they were able to hide under the rubble and ruins. It was checked several times but no one ever found anything, and no one reported seeing anything, even now – the people who checked had their minds scanned by Sensitives to make sure they weren't lying too. They're damn good at hiding."

"I'd expect so," Aurora replied. "They always were good at it. But you realise not all the Sanctuaries are taking you seriously. They think Ireland is organising a coup. To take over the rest of the world."

Valkyrie stared at Aurora. The rest of the room stared at Aurora.

"What?" Dexter finally said.

"It's true. It's why the American Sanctuary jumped on you coming here, especially with Fletcher. No one can get Peregrine to come help us, but he isn't helping Ireland either. So the guys up top pushed at getting the Dead Men plus the only teleporter willing to help a Sanctuary in centuries. You're Ireland's biggest threat to the rest of the world," Aurora told them matter-of-factly. "That's why they sent me and Saile here. We're meant to be watching you."

"Are you?" Tanith snapped.

"No," Aurora snapped back just as strongly. She kept bobbing Laila on her lap. "We hardly have to lie though. We just tell them that you're either quite about Ireland or that you maintain what is happening and that you all seem genuine. We tell them that you're enjoying the local areas to visit, you act like a family and that you like to train but you're not any worse or crazy than you ever were before."

"So you're telling them the truth," Valkyrie said flatly.

"Basically," Saile yawned. "You guys don't do much."

"The only thing the Sanctuary is interested in is how you train. They're convinced you're turning Valkyrie and Fletcher into secret assassins or super warriors or something to fight armies single-handedly or something stupid. And we tell them as it is. You're teenagers and you act like them, albeit one of you is trained by the Dead Men and their friends. You're no way near what the Dead Men are, but still a threat."

"So, the truth. Again. Why are you telling us this now?" Valkyrie asked.

"We think they're planning something," Saile said more seriously. He was still sitting as relaxed as ever, but his voice got deeper, more authoritative. "We don't know what it is they're doing, but there's been a lot of meetings. International meetings kept under the table, without record. We don't know what they're talking about but we haven't heard anything about anyone Irish at all, or African or Australian. We think they're planning a coup to retaliate against Ireland's coup, except you don't have one. They're just using the idea of it happening as an excuse to fight the Cradle countries. If they can manage it, that is."

"Oh my God," Valkyrie gasped. "You think they'll all go to war?"

"We don't know, but it's what it feels like," Aurora finished, getting up and giving Laila to Tanith. "We don't really know why they've decided, but you guys know how they've been about Ireland in the past. They've always been wary."

"We need to stop them!" Valkyrie cried, looking at her brothers.

"Val…" Saracen said tiredly, rubbing a hand on his face. "I don't know if there is anything we can do."

"What do you mean?"

"If we go guns blazing and call them out for something like this, even if they are doing it, it's going to be denied. They can pretend it's because we're paranoid and unfit for work, unstable and untrustworthy," Dexter explained. "They could turn the people away from us around the world, even people within Ireland. I mean, even Nadia's parents have left Ireland because the Spiders are threatening war, and there is no way they have a big enough army to destroy the Irish Sanctuary long term and stick around. But people are frightened and that's what the Spiders really need for success. What do you think they'd do if around the world everyone turned their backs on us?"

"But, how are we meant to stop it then?"

Her family looked at each other, all as unsure as the rest. Valkyrie and Nadia locked eyes. This was going to get a whole lot worse, and soon.

Oof. I had you in the first half, but then I destroyed your happiness :)

I'm loving all your reviews, please keep them coming! Two more chapters and we're officially the longest chaptered story for Skulduggery Pleasant fanfictions on this website! :D