Chapter 230

Valkyrie felt a hand on her shoulder and almost immediately reached out, feeling a warmth between her legs at the instant reminder of the night she'd had with Nadia. She had been sure Nadia would be sore, but it didn't seem she was right. She felt out for her and Nadia was right in front of her, lying on her back. She shuffled over and kissed her shoulder, not bothering to open her tired eyes. Nadia moaned, slowly waking up and pressing her body back into Valkyrie.

The hand pressed on her shoulder again and she kissed Nadia in response, wrapping an arm over her and trailing her fingers over her stomach.

The hand shook her and Valkyrie whined and shook it off, getting a moan out of Nadia for annoying her.

The reality of the situation smacked her, and Valkyrie's eyes shot open. She held her breath, hoping the shoulder-shaking had been some dream. But when she slowly turned her head, she saw with the small shadow of light coming through the curtains that Dexter was standing over her with a badly hidden smirk.

"Oh," she squeaked out.

"Up," he said, a laugh clearly in his voice.

Face redder than it had ever been, and a tiredness in her bones, she waited for Dexter to leave her room and then got up quietly, got ready and kissed Nadia until she woke enough to say goodbye, and left her there. Right outside her room, Dexter was waiting.

"So," he said instantly.

"Please don't," she muttered, going to walk away to the kitchen.

"Wait just a moment Val," he said in a more serious voice. "Look, I know you might not like hearing it from me, but you know you and Nadia shouldn't be having sex here."

She glared through her blush. "We didn't."

"I saw the toy on the side table."

She looked at the floor in mortification. "Right."

"I couldn't care less, but it is Corrival's home and he wouldn't like that."

"I know."

"But you did it."

"Yeah."

"It is quite disrespectful to him. You two can go away any time you want," he said softly, leaning against the wall.

"I know. But it's not that easy when I'm awake at stupid hours and I'm in and out the house, Nadia constantly has to look after Laila and she's scared to leave the house in case someone kidnaps her again. We just had a moment and it happened. It wasn't like we planned it."

"I know babe," he said sympathetically. "It's a really difficult time for us all. I'm not saying I disagree with why you did it, hell, if I wasn't so tired I'd have almost done it by now too. But we have to respect Corrival's rules in his house. Okay?"

She nodded.

"Alright. I'm sorry if I embarrassed you, I didn't want to do that," he said, pulling her into a hug she returned. "When we've dealt with Kellaway, take a day or two off."

"We don't have time for that."

"Then at least a night. Take Nadia out and do something. Rest up and reset yourself. We don't have much time now."

"Yeah, I know."

He took a breath and released her. "Come on. We're going to the house Mackin told us about. With any hope, Kellaway will still be there, and we can catch her before she leaves. Are you ready?"

"Of course, but let me eat first."

"Go on."

She got herself downstairs and ate. It was nearly nine in the morning so she'd had a few hours sleep and didn't feel as bad once she'd had a cup of tea and brushed her teeth. Nadia poked her head out the door for a kiss right before Valkyrie left and they lingered together, kissing softly at the bedroom door, Valkyrie's hand on Nadia's cheek, until she heard her name being called and she had to go. Nadia smacked her backside on her way out.

In Ghastly's van to go to the house Kitana was staying at was Dexter, Erskine, Tanith, Ghastly, Anton and Skulduggery.

"Oh, Skulduggery," she blinked, pausing for a moment at the door and then getting into the van. "I thought you were with Tyren?"

"I was, but I heard you were going to Kellaway and I wanted to help," he said smoothly. "Tyren can research without me for a few hours."

"Are you getting anywhere with it?"

"Not yet, but The Engineer has been missing for a few decades now so it isn't unexpected," he said. "How have you been over the last few days?"

She shrugged and pulled her knees up, leaning on Tanith. "Fine. You?"

"I've just been busy," he said simply.

They both fell silent, feeling the lie in each other's words and both unwilling to call the other out lest the conversation land back on them.

The drive was silent, them all getting mentally ready to fight. Anton had most of the weapons in a box beside him ready for distribution and they were sitting around Tanith's bike in case it was needed should they have to chase Kitana. They all knew it was not going to be an easy fight. Skulduggery talked them through a plan he had, though it was half thought out and not very good, but Valkyrie couldn't think of anything better than "hit her before she hits you," so they went with it.

That was, until Ghastly hit the brakes.

"OUT, SCATTER!"

They jumped up and were out the van in less than a second, and then there was a white light and the van was entirely gone, bike and weapons with it.

Valkyrie looked up and saw Kitana and Seán floating in the air, grins on their faces. Seán's arm was outstretched towards the van and now he lowered it. He was still in the outfit he'd been given by the Sanctuary while Kitana was in her jacket.

There were trees on both sides of them, they scattered into them. In the cover, Kitana and Seán now lowered slightly to the ground, their forcefield in place. "You wrecked their car!" Kitana said loudly. "That was so cool."

"It was," Seán said with less enthusiasm. Focusing. "They're all split up. Where did the skeleton go?"

"He went right," she said. "I'll go with you."

"Don't touch him," he warned.

She rolled her eyes. "I won't. I'm just following to kill the others. Then we'll get the other side."

The two touched down on the ground and Valkyrie locked eyes with Tanith, who was crouched behind a tree not far from her. Tanith got the gun out from the back of her trousers and threw it to her, and she caught it with a soft slap of metal against skin. Neither teenager noticed, however, as they had begun to shoot their magic into the trees and turn them to ash.

"Fuck," Valkyrie whispered. She glanced at Tanith. "Stay down."

Valkyrie stood and left Tanith, jumping in the air with her magic while the two were distracted and, taking aim, shot magic as hard as she could at Kitana's back.

The forcefield took it, but Kitana fell to the ground with a shocked scream. Seán span from the still collapsing treetops to catch sight of her above them and held out his hand to blast her. She dove low and further away, making it far harder to hit her, but Kitana held her hand out and shouted at him to stop. Seán turned his head to argue with her and she sent out a beam of her own white magic at the same time a bolt of purple electric, bullets and fireballs went flying at the two. They didn't duck or seem more than annoyed.

"Fuck," Valkyrie whispered, dropping to the floor. She had no idea how they were meant to get through their force fields. She lay on the ground in case they took out the trees and felt her phone vibrating. She grabbed it quickly, answering.

"Valkyrie," Skulduggery's low voice came. "Do you have your Cloaking Sphere?"

"No. You?"

"Yes. I'm going to get close and try to choke them."

"How?"

"Remove the oxygen."

"Their force fields won't–"

The trees around her suddenly went white. She closed her eyes and protected her head as the teenagers took out the trunks around her, sticks and leaves falling to the ground some few seconds after the beams of white had moved past her. The noise was incredible, drowning out her scream when a log fell over her legs.

She fought the urge to struggle, knowing they were looking for her. Valkyrie could only grit her teeth and hope they wouldn't notice as she tried to pull her legs out from under the log. She tried slowly at first but they didn't move, and then harder she yanked until her right leg came free – the unbalanced treetop now had more weight on her left leg, making it too hard to pull free when she was lying on her front.

She panted and grabbed her phone back. It was still on a call with Skulduggery. She pressed it to her ear. "Skulduggery?"

His voice was instantly there, normal and clear. "I'm here. I'm close to them. They're on the other side again. Move in to blast them if their–"

"I'm stuck," she breathed. "I'm under a tree."

"Ah. Okay, stay put and I'll get you."

"Are they looking at my side?"

"No."

Valkyrie twisted and sent a beam of magic into the tree, turning a chunk to ash. She pulled her leg out of the hole it left. "I'm free. If I stand they'll see me."

"Come slowly. I've taken the air from around them. They'll notice soon."

"It'll take too long. And they're flapping the magic around, they'll get you in it."

"That's just another risk we take. Try getting close."

"I can take their magic and see what it does," she suggested.

"It didn't kill them last time."

"No, it distracted them and one died. It won't distract them again, but I bet I could learn a few secrets."

He considered it. "Do it." He hung up.

She stuffed her phone away and moved into a crouch. She could see the tops of the teen's heads above the tops of the trees and thick foliage. They were facing the other side as Skulduggery told her, but they were in the air looking down on it. She went cold, knowing it was only a matter of time before they found one of her brothers.

She flicked on her Aura Vision. Kitana and Seán were a dark orange, floating in the sky. Directly above them was Skulduggery, his bright red gleaming. Three orbs of light were on her side with her, lowered to the floor. Three were on the other side, two lowered down, one of them further to her right and standing. Flicking it back off, she saw the direction the teenagers were looking. Right between two of her brothers lying low. Carefully, she jumped over the log in front of her and then under the next. She was almost on the road right near the small remainders of the van.

Close enough, Valkyrie lowered herself and felt deeply, feeling for Seán's magic. When she found it, that small pocket in the Aura storing all that valuable power, she pulled it back to herself.

Unlike Kitana had, Seán didn't fall. His powers filled her. She pulled her own forcefield around herself and put an arm out towards him, pulling the heat of the unnatural magic forward and pushing it out of her hand. It shot through the air and hit his forcefield, glowing around it like a flame. Both teens turned towards her as she felt the burn deep in her, sapping her energy quickly. She kept going as Kitana backed away from Seán, squinting her eyes against the bright light of the magic.

She couldn't feel it around the burning in her hands that was slowly increasing, but she could see from the corner of her eyes as Kitana kept backing away, her mouth opening. She didn't stop at all, holding the power until the heat was so much she began to feel a prick of fear along her spine. She let the power stop, sagging under the sudden relief. Standing in view of them both, she realised the power had gotten through the force field a small amount, leaving Seán with singed hair and burnt skin. He looked at her with fear now, and Kitana watched her with interest.

"How are you doing that?" Kitana asked her.

"I can take your magic and use it against you," she growled, holding out her arm and doing the same thing again the Seán.

She could tell he was scared now, scared enough to hunch down and try to reinforce his forcefield rather than move and risk it falling apart. Kitana stayed where she was, watching the scene like her friend wasn't one lapse in concentration away from dying. Valkyrie took her chance to walk towards them, the beam slowly narrowing in on him more and more the closer she got. When she was close enough, she let the power go again and surged forward – merging her force field with his and tackling him to the floor.

They went down, Valkyrie grabbing a fistful of Seán's hair and smacking his head once, twice against the stick and log covered ground before he snapped his eyes open and punched her in the stomach. If she hadn't had his identical magic, she'd have folded under his strength. But with his magic, it was as if they were equal – or rather, as if there was no magic at play. Just their strengths and skill.

She didn't react to his fist, though it did hurt, and pulled her hand from his hair to punch him in the nose and then the chest repeatedly. She grabbed his arm and they rolled, her pulling on top and getting him in a chokehold to take him out.

And then, without warning, the strength left her. The magic left and she was her normal self.

She didn't think Seán instantly realised, but he did when he wriggled slightly to get away from her and she barely had the power to hold onto him. There was a short pause from them both, and then he took hold of the arm around his neck and pulled her entirely over him.

She landed as best she could and tried to jump on him and shove her fingers in his eyes, but he easily swatted her hands away and grinned at her, pushed her down and started slamming fists into her torso and arm covered face. She waited for him to get into a better place than their awkward jumble of limbs, and when he did, she sent her knee between his legs, heard his scream and immediately repeated herself.

Out of nowhere, Skulduggery's foot kicked Seán in the head. Valkyrie tried to slip from under him, but she was too big, and his arm didn't leave her shoulder, pinning her in place. She dodged one of his fists and he howled when it struck something hard below her, and then he leant his knee on across her hips and stomach, using the position to much more easily punch her, trying to break through her arms, bruising them deeply and threatening to shatter the bones with every hit. Finally, he broke through, getting his fist between her forearms and punching her in the cheek.

Her vision went black and spotty, her arms slacking instantly. Her ears rang and his weight left her. She could still think around the shaken feeling but couldn't move. She wanted to keep her arms up, but they were lying splayed around her head, she wanted to stand up, to move, to fight, but her body only rolled to the side lamely.

She heard Skulduggery's voice saying her name, and Kitana and Seán shouting. She felt her ears pop and she could start moving again, opening her eyes wide and forcing her body to slowly move.

"We agreed she's mine!" Kitana screamed at Seán. "You were going to kill her, you fucker!"

"I wasn't, I was just beating her up! I wasn't going to kill her, fuck off! Go get some of the others!"

"And leave you to kill her? Not a fucking chance!"

Kitana was in Seán's face, ready to start a fight, but Seán beat her to it – he punched Kitana, throwing all his power and rage into the throw, and sent her flying. Skulduggery instantly snapped his wrist out and while she was still in mid-air, sent a gust of strong wind towards her, sending her body spinning up and away.

Valkyrie almost wanted to laugh at her cartwheeling body flying over the trees. Skulduggery shouted out, "Everyone else, gather weapons, call the Sanctuary, get together to fight! Follow Kitana, keep her from mortals! GO!"

She flicked on her Aura Vision as Seán turned on his heel and stalked towards her and Skulduggery, saw her family jump up. One Aura remained on the floor, unmoving.

She flipped it off and pulled her own magic to her hands, sending it into Seán. He pulled up a forcefield for a moment to stop the magic, and then it fell away as he ran at her and Skulduggery. They both jumped, Valkyrie to the right and Skulduggery into the air, the Cloaking Sphere falling out of his hands. He fell past them and then jumped into the air, going for Skulduggery. He started trying to punch Skulduggery, taking big swings Skulduggery could avoid from the air.

"We don't want to kill you, Seán, but we need you to work with us," Skulduggery was saying. "You can't stay like this forever. We'll never stop hunting you. Even if you kill the Dead Men, there are hundreds more people just like us waiting for a chance to hunt someone of your power. They'll not hold back like us."

"Don't hold back!" He snarled.

"You need to calm down," Skulduggery said. "You'll do things you'll regret forever if you stay so angry. What about Kitana? You could have killed her."

"She isn't dead."

"I doubt she's your friend anymore."

"She's a bitch," he said, almost landing a hit on Skulduggery but ending up with a punch in the face instead. He reeled back and then went back in. "She'll kill that girl and be happy about it."

"Her name is Valkyrie."

"I don't care what her fucking name is."

"How did you get out of the Sanctuary?"

"I'm not telling you."

"That's okay. I'll find out as soon as we've taken you into custody," Skulduggery said, calm as could be.

"That's not happening, I'm killing you today."

"No you're not."

"I am!" He shouted, getting a punch in, sent Skulduggery flying into a fallen treetop. Seán dropped to the ground and stomped over to Skulduggery. "I'm going to kill you, I'm going to kill the guy that killed Doran and I'm gonna–"

"Dexter," Skulduggery said.

"What?"

"The man that killed Doran is called Dexter," he said in a conversational voice.

"I don't care what he's called!"

Seán thrust his hands out and white light shot out. Skulduggery jumped into the air out of the way right as Valkyrie sent her own white light into Seán's back. Seán shouted out but he seemed to have some forcefield around his body keeping him safer from Valkyrie's magic than he was before. He turned on Valkyrie and she had no chance at avoiding his fist. He punched her in the sternum and she staggered back, avoided his next fist and then sent one of her own into his cheek, followed by a rapid second and then clutched the back of his neck and kneed him in the stomach three times before he ripped from her grip and battered a fisted slap into her face, sending her flying to the ground.

He went to stamp on her face, to kill her, but Skulduggery was there, tackling him and sending them over Valkyrie's body. They rolled, fists and legs flying everywhere as Skulduggery tried to grapple him into staying still and Seán trying to hit Skulduggery with whatever fist or kick he could.

"Give up, Seán," Skulduggery grunted, getting an elbow in his ribs, surely breaking something. "You can't win."

"I'll kill you!"

"I'm already dead."

"I'll kill you again! Fucking idiot, you think you're so smart–" yanked his head out of another hold Skulduggery tried to put him in "–but I'm stronger than you or anyone else!"

"You're not. You are a normal young man with a chance at a normal life."

"Says who? You'll send me to prison!"

"You can have a life after that."

"No I won't! I'll be there till I die! I'm just going to kill all the magic cops and live free!"

"What type of life is that? Killing people to get what you want, no one as your friend, hunted without rest."

"I'd rather that than live in a cell!"

"Why did you start killing people to start with?"

"For the fun of it!"

"Is that all you want? To murder people to get your way and entertainment? You're starting to sound like a child, Seán."

"I'm not a fucking kid!" He tried to blast Skulduggery but wildly missed.

"You're only proving my point."

"I don't give a shit what you think! What any of you think! I'm going to kill you and the girl and Kitana if I have to! I'll ruin your Sanctuary and burn the world! You're just a stupid skeleton with nothing to live for! What are you going to do if you win? Stand in the corner and collect dust? Watch people eat and live while you can't? You can't even die properly! Your version of an afterlife is a joke!"

Seán suddenly got the upper hand, pushed Skulduggery to the ground and threw a log sideways that flew into Valkyrie, sending her backwards.

"I'm going to kill your whole family, bone man! I'm going to rip them apart and shred their bones! What Doran did to his brother? That's going to look like a joke compared to me!"

Valkyrie blasted off the log in time to look up and watch as a shadow bloomed from Skulduggery's chest and pierced through Seán's shoulder. Seán was quiet and she couldn't see his face. But she watched as he was dropped to the side, unmoving, and the shadow vanished.

Skulduggery slowly turned his head to her.

"He's coming."

She felt bile in her throat. "Who?"

He stared at her and she watched as his bones darkened, shadows crawling under his suit. "Run."

Thank you to every commenter that's been here supporting me while I struggle to write! I did a chapter today, so I got a chance to post, which is so exciting!

Thank you XQueenValX and Avexy!

Thank you Aggro Vex for all your comments, honestly it's been keeping me going seeing your name pop up in my emails, I love hearing where you're at in the story!