June 20th, 2011 Ryan's Manor, Scotland, 10:00 AM BST

I'd kind of forgotten how long this process took for a normal person. I was beginning to think Seras's experience with reincarnation were an outlier. No wonder Luc was such a monster, vampirism seemed perfectly suited to the evil pieces. To my surprise though, it wasn't the natively supernatural Skulduggery, or even the badass Tanith who woke up first.

"I feel like shite." Groaned Val as she sat up. I'd pulled up a chair to do some light reading while I waited for them to get up, and had fallen asleep and then woken back up not long ago. "You didn't mention how painful that was."

I shrugged. "I think it varies. Some of you seemed to take it better than others at least. But forget about the past, let's talk about the present…how do you feel?"

She grinned at me, taking up a fighting stance and dancing through a series of blurring fast punches. I whistled, she was stronger than I was physically, no doubt. I wasn't surprised, as my Queen she would need to be. Her magic was pretty powerful too, and now that she was a devil I could directly compare it to mine. "This is too cool. I've never felt this alive before."

Focusing on our connection, I tried to sense her demonic power, and was shocked to see how abundant it was. More than that though, I was shocked by something else. Some of her magic was feeding back into me through the Queen piece.

It wasn't anything permanent, just a trickle that seemed to be siphoned off her native regeneration, but my own power was already at capacity. As hers flowed in, I felt it start to push at my internal reserves, so minimally I wouldn't be able to sense it without checking. My demonic power was expanding but an infinitesimal amount. I could sense the beginnings of the same feedback from the others, though in even smaller increments.

"You can stop punching the air now." I said with a laugh as Val went through a bunch of katas obviously trying to look cool. "I'm guessing you like the feeling?"

She grinned at me. Her eyes had been circled with darkness when she arrived, but apparently the downtime for the reincarnation had done her good. "I feel amazing. I feel like I could punch out a grizzly bear!"

I nodded. "Bear blasting. Similar to hump catting." At her confused expression I just chuckled. "Ignore that, it was a really niche reference. But I'm glad you're feeling better. Since we have some time on our own to talk, why don't you tell me what's had you so…" I searched for a polite term. After a second, I made a sick face and stuck out my tongue. "Blegh." Nailed it.

"Quite the charmer aren't you. You know I could kick your arse now right?" She was smirking at me, so I knew she didn't mean anything by it, but I still smiled.

"Oh can you?" I asked mildly. "Why don't you give that a try." She looked at me oddly, but I just gestured for her to take a swing. She rolled her eyes, clearly not willing to even attempt to throw a punch. "Spoilsport." I said with a laugh. "You can't attack me unless I'm actively mistreating you. The bond steers you away from violent action unless it's being abused."

She frowned, but eventually nodded. "Right, you mentioned loyalty. Seras said something about devils being extra horny too." She raised an eyebrow. "You expecting me to bend over for you 'my king'." Her voice made it clear if I was I'd be in for a surprise.

"Nope." I said with a laugh. "Though I expect you'll be bending over for someone. Or having them bend over for you, depending what you're into. Devils ARE extra horny, but while at first I expected that to mean anyone in my peerage would try to sleep with me, a second glance revealed that won't be an issue. It's more of a general lustiness, like I have."

Granted, that had caused me no end of problems but I was starting to get a handle on it. With Suzie's help I'd massively decreased my incidences of 'devil dumbness' as my mother so eloquently called it. I was still kind of a horny dumbass, but I'd learned to take a beat and process before making decisions, even when I couldn't consult my girlfriend turned humanity sherpa.

She groaned. "Well, that's less…creepy. Why didn't you tell me about this yourself?"

I threw my hands up. "I wrote you an instructional pamphlet! I didn't want to have to explain this ten times. What kind of moron decides to change their species and doesn't read the literature?"

"Hey!' She yelled back. "You can't call me a moron! I'm your Queen! You have to be nice to me or I'm not going to beat up any of the people you tell me to! So I don't like reading, that's not a crime!"

A burst of laughter rang out from off to the side and I spun to see my mother, holding a cup of tea, suppressing a giggle. "Oh, I like this one. I'm glad you didn't pick Daphne or Susan as your Queen. They're sweet girls but they're too obedient. This one is going to keep you on your toes." She smiled at Val. "Welcome to the family by the way, dear."

It was so weird seeing mom around the house. She'd had glamours on her at the station, but at home with only peerage members around she let them slip and looked only a bit older than me. Weirdly, with her younger I could see more of her in myself. I'd always thought I looked like dad, but some features in her face were strongly reminiscent of me. Or vice versa I guess.

"Mother!" I said in exasperation. "Can you not ENCOURAGE mutiny among my peerage please?"

She shrugged. "It's hardly mutiny dear. Insubordination at worst. Besides, you need someone to stand up to you. Daphne likes to backtalk, but that poor girl is as wrapped around your finger as Susan, she's just subtler about it. Seras depends on you for a food source, and Susan is completely besotted with you. You need a woman in your life who will tell you when you're being an idiot, even if you don't ask."

"Whoa!" Said Val, stepping back as her face flushed. "I'm not…I mean, woman in his life makes it sound like."

My mother patted her head. "Don't worry dear, I won't be expecting black haired devil grandbabies anytime soon." She looked the goth girl over. "Though you've certainly got the hips for it. You're a well built little thing aren't you?" Val now looked every bit as horrified as I did, and my mother burst out laughing, shooting us both a wink. "Oh look, I got the two of you on the same side. Does that abolish your worries Ryan?"

"I wish I'd had a camera for that." Came the amused voice of Tanith Low. I turned to see my Knight grinning as she leaned against the doorframe. "The look on your face, Val. Priceless. But I caught a bit of that and I have to agree. I feel bloody fantastic boss man." She blurred across the room, appearing next to me with a cheshire grin. "So when do we get to spill some blood?"

Chuckling at her enthusiasm, I gestured for her to sit down. "We're not doing anything until you all get a handle on your powers. Once that's done, we have two different aims for this summer."

"Two?" Said my mother with a raised eyebrow. "I know about the training, but what's this other goal? Something measured and completely reasonable, I hope? I don't enjoy the thought of you diving into more nonsense so soon after such a close call."

I sighed. "I can't promise you I'm going to be safe. But it's been months, and I'm better trained, and will be training even more. Part of my reason for filling out my peerage is to have more backup and be better prepared. That said, Voldemort is still out there. We need to stop him, and we don't know where he is right now."

"I'm aware." She said cooly. "What does that have to do with your summer plans? Will you be hunting him down?"

"I'll be looking, sure." I said bluntly. "But that wasn't my main point. We don't know where he is, but we know he's going to be trying to amass power. He traditionally does that by recruiting, which means when we DO find him, he's probably going to be fielding an army. While a full peerage will help, we need more than fifteen bodies to handle an experienced wizard cult leader."

Tanith perked up. "Oooh, mercenaries boss? I know a few trustworthy sorts. Want I should reach out?"

"If you trust them, sure." I said with a shrug. "But I was thinking something a bit more…curated. I want to start my own force." I glanced at my mother. "Can you think of any wizarding gangs or criminal organizations I can subsume? If not here than at least nearby?"

She looked surprised. "I…not here. I'm not really in touch with the london underground. But as mobile as you are I'd suggest you don't go that route anyway. London is too easy to link to you. Find something further away. Not to mention you might not need to go with wizards. You're planning to study enchanting. With the proper equipment muggles can be dangerous."

That was an interesting idea, actually. I nodded slowly, considering it, but that was something to deal with later. Though thinking about our people reminded me of one of the few we had a line on already. "When is the hearing, by the way? I don't remember the exact date."

"Fifth of July." She said with a sigh. "We still don't know what is going to happen. I trust Reggie's instincts. If he thinks Sirius didn't do it I'm willing to put my faith in him. I just don't know what we could be missing. We're taking a big risk putting him on the stand under Veritaserum. This could cause a lot of blowback depending on what he says."

I nodded. "Not just for us either. Let Tonks know that we need her to keep an eye on him? I don't want him mysteriously dropping dead in Azkaban before the trial starts."

"Go teach your grandmother to suck eggs." She said with a roll of her eyes. "I was doing this before you were born, dear. You don't need to tell me my business. We've also been slipping him some nutrition potions. He looks…he looks bad, Ryan. Like a living skeleton. If he is innocent we need to get him out."

I heard sounds from the courtyard, and glanced over to the door as the others finally started coming in. Daisy appeared with a multitude of plates, here to serve us breakfast and everyone sat down. I let them all adjust, telling me about how they were feeling and what they wanted to do with their new powers.

Suzie and Daphne sat on either side of me, and I smiled seeing how excited they both were. Seras was sleeping at the moment, but once she was up we could start our training. With just two shy of a full peerage we should be able to get plenty done, and I had training ideas for everyone I couldn't wait to try out, including me.

For the first time since the fight in the shrieking shack, I felt…prepared. Or at least prepared to be prepared. So many things were coming, but we'd handle them as they did. Together. I'd get stronger, learn to fight, learn to protect my people…and the next time, Voldemort wouldn't stand a chance. It was like the man said. I ain't afraid of no ghost.

June 20th, 2011 Ryan's Manor, Scotland, 12:00 PM BST

The discussion and debrief about all the things I'd learned about being a devil went on longer than I thought. It was so draining and time consuming I ALMOST missed what Val had done. When I brought up her problems, she'd deflected with humor, easily maneuvering me into a different line of thought.

Sadly for her, I'm an ornery bastard when I want to be. So I tracked her down after the meeting to one of the training rooms where she was practicing katas. I admit, I stood there and enjoyed the show for a while. Not in a creepy way, or even a sexual one, she was just so…disciplined.

"If you sit there watching me like that for much longer I'm going to start charging." She said without looking up. "I thought we covered the welcome wagon stuff already boss, what do you need?"

I ignored her obvious bait, focusing on the reason I'd come. "Something is going on with you." I said simply. "Something big. Before you reincarnated I left it alone, because it wasn't my business, but what affects my Queen effects me. I need to know what's going on with you so I can help."

She stopped, sighing. "You're not going to drop this, are you?" She said flatly. "I obviously don't want to talk about it, or I wouldn't have avoided the subject."

"Aww, sweety." I said kindly. "What makes you think I give a shit?" At her surprised look, I shrugged. "Look privacy is important and to be respected…for normal people. But we're going to be a unit for ten millennia. If you have problems it affects us all, and I'm not letting your independence fuck with the rest of my peerage. We can keep things between us, barring anything that needs to shared for everyone's safety. But when I ask you answer."

Rounding on me, she glared into my eyes, her own chips of icy blue almost glowing with rage. "You think you can tell me what to do?"

"I know I can tell you what to do." I replied. "Just like I know you could decide not to listen. It wouldn't be pleasant, but peerage members can go against the bond if they feel motivated to. I just don't care. This might be a little intrusive, but it's the only way I can think of for us to work as a team. If you feel the need to go nuts and kill me over it, that'll suck, but either that or sharing your worries with me are the options I'm giving you."

Between talks with Susan and Daphne, and discussions with my mother, I'd come to one inescapable conclusion. I had no fucking clue how to manage a large group of people. I wasn't leadership material, and while I could delegate, I was the King, and I needed to act like it.

The only way I could do that was if I knew what was going on, and if I shared that information among my people. Transparency was going to be the only way I'd retain any sort of control, because any lies would be way too complicated to keep track of. I'd keep personal secrets for people, but everyone had to cough them up in the first place. No exceptions.

To my surprise, she laughed at that, the anger melting off her face. "That's…that's so stupid!" She choked out, cackling as she leaned over to brace herself on her knees. I frowned. It wasn't that funny. My expression seemed to set her off even more. "I'm…I'm sorry." She wheezed. "It's just that sounds so much like something my dad would say. I can't help imagining us all around the dinner table sharing what our weekend was like on sunday nights." Her eyes were starting to drip tears of mirth as her laughing fit got louder.

I rolled my eyes. Sometimes you just got a case of the giggles, but I didn't appreciate being the butt of that joke. "I take it that means you're willing to share?"

She calmed down after a minute or two, wiping her eyes. "Sorry. I needed that. Fine. I guess if you're going to be all weird and paternal about it. I've been having bad dreams." She paused. "What do you know about names?"

I shrugged. "What you guys told me. Given Taken and True Names, the one you're born with, the one you choose, and the one that defines you in the grand scheme of things. You told me that witches and wizards don't use magic by tapping into the true name, which makes us different. Although…" I hesitated. "I'm not sure that's entirely true."

Seeming distracted by that, she cocked her head. "What do you mean by that?"

"Just a hunch." I said with a shrug. "The guy who maybe killed my dad. The one who tried to off me a few months ago. He used a pseudonym. Lord Voldemort. Something about that reminded me a bit of the way sorcerers take names. And he recognized and was able to fight against my necromancy. Like he had experience with it. His soul was weird too, unnatural and mutilated."

She frowned. "You think he found some way to access sorcery? Like maybe he did something to himself to let the magic of his True Name slip through? I've never heard of something like that. But maybe Solomon would know? My necromancer mentor. We could ask him?"

I shook off the train of thought. "Something to think about. You were explaining your dreams?"

"Right. Well, all sorcerers use True Names, but only unconsciously. If you know your true name you can tap into your full power, and it's unimaginable in scale…but if someone else learns if they can make you do anything at all. So it's dangerous. Luckily there's only a few ways to learn it. The easiest was a book that used to be in the irish sanctuary."

Raising a brow, I questioned. "Used to be? What happened to it?"

"It was destroyed." She said guiltily. "Long story. I'll get into it another time. But I keep dreaming about that day. It was behind a powerful shield and Serpine, the guy who made the white cleaver, was trying to steal it. So I blew it up. Blasted it right off the pedestal it was on. I still remember it burn-" She froze. "I still remember it burning." She repeated. "Burning. It was burning. Open and burning." Her voice had sped up, her pupils dilating. She was muttering the same things over and over. I stepped up and waved a hand in her face, reaching for our bond as King and Queen I tugged, and she blinked, snapping out of the trance. "Sorry. What was I saying?"

I frowned at her. "You were talking about your dream." I said carefully. "Something about a book?"

"The book was destroyed." She said quickly. "I still remember it-"

"Burning." I finished for her, my eyes narrowing suspiciously. "You mentioned that. Why do you think you're dreaming about the book?"

Her eyes clouded again, but I pulled on the chord between us harder. This wasn't magic, it was more personal. Val didn't WANT to remember whatever she'd been dreaming about. But it sounded important.

"Because I saw it." She said in a daze. "It fell open as it burned and I saw one of the pages. I saw my page." She swallowed hard. "I saw my True Name. It was-"

"Stop!" I snapped. Her mouth slammed shut. She looked at me, her face clearing. "Don't tell me that. Not like this. You don't need to share THAT. I want to know important things that will affect the group, but that's way too personal. Keep it to yourself."

She breathed deeply, regaining her composure. "I…thanks." She said slowly. "Thank you. For not making me tell you. What did you just do? Some kind of mind control?"

I shook my head. "No. I just kind of pulled on our connection a bit. Lent your conscious mind a hand breaking through the mental block you put up. I have no clue how I know what any of that even means, but it was kind of like I could feel what was going on. Sorry, I'll try not to do it again even if it's not mind control."

Nodding uneasily, she sighed. "Thanks. It felt weird. But we have other problems. My name. My True Name. I've heard it before. Someone I know mentioned it. He's a precog, and a really strong one. He saw a vision of someone with that name and she…she destroyed the world. I think. It was vague."

"Huh." I said in numb surprise. "That escalated quickly. World destruction? That's…extreme. Do you know any details? When, where, why? Hell do you know HOW?"

"No." She said shakily. "None of it. I didn't even realize…didn't want to realize it was me. But now that I know…" She glanced up at me, her eyes pleading. "What do I do Ryan? I don't want to hurt anyone. Especially not innocent people. But I don't believe I'd ever do anything like that. If I don't know how it happens, how am I supposed to stop it?

I shook my head. "You're not." I said firmly. "You need info to work off of. Which is why we're going to see this precog buddy of yours again. We'll have him looking into the future for us and tell us what sets you off. Once we know we can stop it. Hell, maybe becoming a devil changed things."

She perked up. "I think…I think I was hoping that. Deep down. I think that was part of why I agreed even if I didn't know it. Well, that and for Skulduggery. I was kind of hoping it would bring back all his…y'know…meat." She winced.

"Yeah, I was curious too." I said with a shrug. "Guess he's just a devil skeleton now. Curious to see how fast he can fly though. Anyway, we can head over to Dublin to meet this guy first thing. While we're there I can maybe look into some recruiting like I wanted to. You know any people over there that might be looking for work?"

She hesitated. "Maybe. The Sanctuary is in this weird Sorcerer town called Roarhaven now. They're like…backwoods sorcerer hillbillies who hate humans. Since all of you can do magic they might be interested."

"We can worry about that later." I said with a wave of my hand. "Just asking in case we have the spare time after we go talk to your friend. Will we set off alarms by going to see him though? I know you're trying to keep this hush hush. Do people know about this prophecy? You work for like sorcerer cops right? I'd imagine they'd keep an eye on someone like this."

She grinned. "Oh, they do. But don't worry, we don't have to worry about an excuse to see him. In fact, people wait in line for days to get a chance to talk to him, and it has nothing at all to do with seeing the future."

"What, is he famous or something?" I asked. "Now I'm curious if I've heard of him."

Shaking her head, she chuckled. "Probably not. You don't live in Dublin and you don't seem like the type to run in those circles anyway. His name is well known in specific communities. Finbar Wrong."

"A sorcerer I take it?" I chuckled. The name was actually pretty cool, but it definitely had that chuuni sorcerer flavor to it. Or since I was in the UK I guess flavour. "What exactly is he famous for and how is it going to be a decent cover?"

Her grin grew even wider as she raked her eyes over me in a manner that was more openly predatory than sexual. As if looking for weak spots. "That depends." She almost giggled. "How do you feel about tattoos?"

June 20th, 2011, Finbar Wrong's Tattoo Parlor, Dublin, 3:00 PM BST

Because of the nature of my teleporting, I wasn't able to take us right to the parlor. We dropped in near China's and walked the rest of the way. Val seemed energized in a way I hadn't seen her in months, and I frowned over at her. "How bad has this gotten exactly?"

She shrugged. "The dreams are intense, but nothing I can't handle. I'm not sick or anything, just tired. It's fine."

"It is NOT fine." I snapped. But then I forced myself to calm down. "You didn't even tell Tanith or Skulduggery? I'm sure they would have wanted to help. You don't have to do everything alone you know?"

She snorted. "You know, it's strange to agree with that sentiment. It's been Skulduggery and me against the world for years now. Tanith too sometimes, but she's part of our club more than anything. Now…now we're part of yours. It's not bad." At my stern look she rolled her eyes. "I'm not deflecting, just providing context. That's why I couldn't tell Skulduggery."

"How does that make sense?" I scoffed. "He's your closest friend so you couldn't open up?"

Her face went flat. "He's my closest friend who spent months in another dimension being tortured into insanity by evil gods." She bit out. "Not that he was exactly stable before that, but since he got back he's been…I think this will be good for him. A fresh start. Something new to focus on."

I nodded, not sure what to say to that, as we turned down an alley, heading down the narrow path toward a small door set at the bottom of a small flight of concrete steps. As we approached though, we both froze. The door was busted open, hanging off its hinges. I started to tell Val to wait, but my Queen blurred forward through the open doorway, fists up and shadows gathering around them.

"Damn it." I cursed as I hurried after her. I knew she was stronger than me now, but she was still supposed to follow my lead. I slipped my wand out, letting my own necromancy gather around it in a cloud as my other hand remained free for casting. "Val!" I hissed, knowing her devil hearing would let her pick it up. "Where are you?"

I can't say what it was that tipped me off, some kind of rustle or shift maybe? Or maybe some sixth sense I got from being a devil, but my free hand flashed up and conjured a shield charm over my shoulder.

I was jarred forwards as SOMETHING hit my shield, knocking me off my feet from the feedback, but I was easily able to turn the motion into a smooth roll, coming up facing the direction of the attack with my wand ready. A hooded figure stood behind me, a pair of bulky black metal gauntlets roiling with shadows. A LOT of shadows. Way more than I had.
Narrowing my eyes, I held up a hand and bellowed "LUMOS!" Averting my gaze at the last second as I dove toward the necromancer.

Necromancy, as an art, is powerful. The manifested shadows we use to case are much denser than normal darkness, hence the physical presence. Normal light doesn't do much to them, but as mentioned before, necromantic shadows are just an intent infused type of darkness, so much like I had with that first levitation charm I front loaded a shit ton of intent into my light spell.

I felt the small cloud of power I had manifested around my wand disperse, but I was already blurring across the room toward the shocked and screaming necromancer. I was thrilled I'd managed to disable him and my hands were just about to close around the man when something hit me from the side.

Spinning out and barely getting to my feet, I grimaced as a massive, shambling male form glared down at me, dead flesh showing between the mummy like wrappings. The monstrous man was seven feet easily, with a tall dark top hat perched on long greasy hair and a bare bandage wrapped torso rippling with muscle.

His baggy dark pants and black combat boots were well suited for movement and he bared yellowed oversized teeth at me. "Right." I said with a sigh. "Necromancy. Zombies. That's a pain in the ass. Luckily for me, I didn't come here alone. Also, you might want to duck."

He cocked his head in confusion, and I stepped aside to let him fly past me as a pissed off goth devil girl hurled some kind of reclining chair for tattoos through the empty doorway and slammed it into his back, sending him flying. The hooded figure hissed. "Jager!" And then blurred forward even faster than his friend. Listening close, I couldn't hear a heartbeat. Could zombies use necromancy?

The hooded figure cackled madly. "Well fought Death Bringer. It was our honor to be your prey." He swept into a bow, distracting me just long enough to miss the boiling darkness by his feet before it consumed both of them, somehow teleporting them away. I hadn't know necromancers could do that.

"You ok Val?" I asked cautiously, noting the seething rage on her face. I wasn't sure if that was devil wrath or good old fashioned hate, but I was cautious either way.

She took a long, deep breath. "Yeah." She said after closing her eyes for a beat. "I'm…they hurt Finbar. He's unconscious, looks like they did something to his head. Breathing is fine, but I'm worried about a concussion. His wife Sharonl is taking care of him. She's a nurse. Did they say anything?"

"Less talking, more mancing." I grimaced. "I appreciate the assist. I could have dropped them if I needed to, but I'd have needed to go big. I couldn't get my hands on them to bring things to a necromantic tug of war so fire was my only other option. I assumed turning your buddy's shop into a flaming crater was going to make a bad first impression."

She chuckled, picking the table back up and carrying it into the room beyond. "Good call. Come on, let's go talk to Finbar. Sharon didn't want to leave him down because of possible brain damage so he should be up by now. I want to know what happened."

We made our way up over the shop, to a small apartment on the floor above, and knocked on the door. A harried looking redhead answered the door, green eyes rimmed in red from obvious crying. Her red hair was shaved close to her head, like it had just started growing back in. "Oh, Val. You're back? Are they gone now? Is it safe?" Her voice was hoarse from sobbing, but her tone was steady. She had some serious backbone.

"It's fine." Val said with a smile. "We scared them off. Do you have a place you two can stay for a while? I don't think the shop is safe. I'll contact the Sanctuary and have them post some cleavers at your home if you like. How is he doing?"

A cheerful voice broke in from behind us. "I'm fine man, nothing can keep ol' Finbar down." The tall, spindly dark haired man with black rimmed blue eyes and lip piercings grinned as he stepped into view. He was wearing a Dead Kennedy's t-shirt and waved at us happily. "Val, man. It's so nice of you to visit. Did you finally come to get that tattoo?"

My Queen chuckled. "No, Finbar. I didn't." Her face turned serious. "I came to ask you about what a vision you had before. What the hell happened? Who did this?"

"Solomon Wreath." Said the tall man with a wince, rubbing his head. "He came for…I can't remember. He came for somethin'. My head is kind of fuzzy. He showed up and then opened a box, then I was out of it. Sharon was supposed to take the kid and go, but she came back for me." He shot the redhead a dopey grin, and she sneered.

"Of course I came back you dolt." She snapped. "Do you know how humiliated I'd be back at the cult if the girls found out I let someone ELSE sacrifice my husband? I could never show my face at mass again."

At my raised eyebrow, Val murmured. "She's in a cult. A bunch of them actually. But they're surprisingly solid as a couple. Hard to sacrifice someone who can see the future."

Turning back to FInbar, Val cut in before Sharon could get started on actually berating him, since the woman looked like she was working herself into a lather. My Queen looked deeply disturbed, and I knew why. Solomon Wreath was her necromancer mentor, the man who taught her the discipline like she'd taught me. "Do you have any idea why Solomon would have come here? Anything at all?"

"He thinks you're the Death Bringer." Said Sharon carelessly. "I heard the one downstairs yelling that."

We both blinked at her and she shrugged. "I'm in a few cults, and a couple of them have had run ins with the necros. They're pretentious pricks, and they love to talk about their Messiah." She scoffed. "As if their pathetic little death bringer could bring peace to a world in the sights of Rathgax the Villigifier."

"Right." Said Val slowly. "That's…true. Probably. But what do you mean bring peace. What the hell is the Death Bringer? And why do they think it's me? Peace doesn't sound too bad." Her voice was tight, and I wondered if this was supposed to be the prophecy she'd heard mentioned. She hadn't been specific about it.

Sharon shrugged. "I don't know the details, just the basics. They keep the specifics kind of hush hush. Basically the necromancers believe that death is an endless cycle. Reincarnation, life to death to life."

"That's a common enough belief." I cut in. "But what the hell does that have to do with peace. Or necromancy for that matter."

That got a laugh from the crazy redhead. "Because since its a cycle, it needs to be moving. What happens to a cycle if it stops? No more life, no more death. Just eternity for everyone on earth with no end."

Val looked confused. "But…how the hell do they expect me to do that? The power that would require would be insane."

"You wouldn't do it with power." Said the cultist. "Like I said, they want to jam up the cycle, and that means overloading it with input." At our blank stares, she rolled her eyes. "That means either way more births than deaths or vice versa. Timing that many births would be impossible, so the Death Bringer.."

My Queens face turned green. "Brings Death. They want me to slaughter enough people to BREAK death? How many would that even take?"

"As far as I've been told." Said Sharon. "Half. They want you to eradicate half the people on earth at roughly the same time. They call it 'The Passage'. Like I said though, that's all I know. How they expect you to do that or when I have no idea. But clearly Wreath thinks you're their golden girl."

While she was explaining all this, I had approached Finbar, who looked dazed and a little confused. I put a hand on him, tuning out the admittedly ridiculous news. I tapped him with my wand, letting my necromancy roll over him, and pulled back nearly instantly in worry.

"Val, we have a problem." I said, cutting off their conversation. The goth girl turned to look at me in worry, and I nodded to Finbar. "He may be fine now, but he wasn't before. I'm detecting traces of a wraith, or at least something similar. Whatever Solomon had in that box, it latched onto his soul and took control of him, there's a big chunk missing." I turned to her, worry fresh in my eyes. "I think the wraith bit out part of his magic."

June 20th, 2011, Finbar Wrong's Tattoo Parlor, Dublin, 4:00 PM BST

After a bit of testing we confirmed that yes, Finbar was now unable to see the future. I honestly couldn't tell how the spacey tattoo artist even felt about that fact, though his wife seemed enraged. As we left, Val looked upset, but more scared than angry. "I don't…I don't understand." She said in a lost voice. "Solomon is my teacher. Has he been planning this from the start? To have me KILL half the planet? That's crazy!"

"Well, it ain't sane." I admitted. "People do crazy shit for immortality. If they have wraiths that can eat people's powers we need to tread carefully though. Whatever their plan is it's clearly not anything too urgent. You're staying at the manor with everyone else for now, I dare those necro fucks to go through a small army of devils, newly reincarnated or not."

She giggled a bit at my enthusiasm. "Thanks." She said with a small smile. "But what do we do now? We going to try to track down Vincent? Ask him about the wraith?"

"We'll send him a message with the orb thing Shaggy and DB have in their van. He's a bitch to get ahold of otherwise." Vincent didn't live in the Scholomance, having picked us up when we entered and teleported in to meet us. Now that we had permission to go, he hadn't bothered to show up there since.

She seemed subdued, and I pulled her to a stop, waiting for her to speak. She glanced around a bit, looking antsy, before sighing and letting her shoulders slump. "Why does this stuff have to happen to me? I don't want to hurt anybody. I just want to solve mysteries with Skulduggery, maybe train with you and the others. I don't want to end the world or be some creepy messiah."

"So don't." I shrugged. She looked at me like I was crazy and I just chuckled. "You're a devil now. You can cross continents in a blink, throw a bus, dodge bullets, plus all the same magic shit as before but better. Nobody can make you do anything. Not even me, really. Where you go from here is up to you."

That got a grimace from my Queen. "I'm not the type to run away. The rest is co- wait, did you just say I can throw a bus?" She blinked at me in horrified fascination.

I shrugged. "Probably. I can do about a thousand pounds, and you're stronger than me. The Queen piece is made to capitalize on all the strengths of the others, whereas the king is just raw demonic power in a more magical sense. I won't swear you could lift a bus barehanded, but if you can't you should be close."

She blew out a breath. "Well, I can't say that doesn't make me feel a bit more secure. So, if we just need to head home to talk to Vincent what are we going to do now? We could leave I guess."

"How about you take me to Roarhaven?" I asked with a shrug. "I want to see the Sanctuary and maybe talk to some possible recruits. Unless you had something else you wanted to do?"

Her face stretched into a malicious grin. "As a matter of fact, I do. Do you remember that whole church attack at the vampire nest? How I told you that someone in the sanctuary tipped them off? Well the same woman snuck a bomb in and blew up the old building. She hates Skulduggery and I and wants to see us dead. And now she's a wanted criminal."

"So what, you want to track her down, kick her ass and shove her in sorcerer prison?" I asked. "Because I'm totally down with that. No better bonding activity than cold hard vengeance. Is she strong?"

She grimaced, jaw tight with anger. "Extremely. She kicked my arse last time I went up against her. Granted I was restrained, and my necromancy eventually won out, but I'm still pissed about it. I want to crush her fucking bones and slurp out the marrow!"

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Stop." I said slowly. "Count to ten." She froze, then closed her eyes, counting backwards until she reached zero.

Her face became a horrified mask of disbelief. "That's…what was that? That was horrible, you don't do that. I wanted to eat a person." Her voice was shocked and disgusted, and she looked ready to vomit.

"Relax. It'll go away." I said soothingly. "Devils embody the seven deadly sins, and the main sin we indulge tends to be the strongest. Mine was lust, which permeated my brain for months after I became a devil. Every thought in my head was about women. It took me a while to slowly learn to filter it out so I could think normally again."

She shook her head. "Being a bit horny is fine, you mentioned that might happen. Not THIS though."

I just shrugged. "Wrath." I said simply. "Seems like that one is your go to. Probably some Pride in there too fanning the flames. Trust me, I get that. Pride has fucked me over a few times. But like I said, you'll get used to it. I know it can be jarring, but it's just a bit more self control you need to learn. I'll be here with you to help, and so will the others. We won't let you turn into a crazy murderer."

Without asking I could tell she was thinking about the prophecy and wondering if she was going to do whatever she was supposed to do BECAUSE of being a devil.

Putting my hand on her shoulder, I gave it a squeeze. "Kings are supposed to stay with their peerages for just this reason. Losing control of yourself and going crazy is called going stray, and it doesn't happen as long as you stay near me. Not every second or anything but my presence will help, ok?"
She sighed heavily. "I guess that'll have to be enough. You know, you could have warned us more about this. You wrote out this whole booklet I guess, though I didn't read it, but none of the others seemed to expect this. Don't you think you could have been clearer?"

"Not really." I said as I took my wand out and activated a point me spell. Davina Marr. That had been the name of the woman Val mentioned when that crazy priest showed up. My wand spun slowly on my palm, pointing in a direction and I set off, walking as I talked. "You can't tell me the mechanical process of breathing can you? Or tell me the steps you take to digest food. I AM a devil, this is all just normal to me. Sure I had to work to manage some of it at first, but at this point its just part of me. Also, do you think she'll be in the city?"

She trailed behind me, shooting the wand an interested look. We still had to get them for the others. "Probably. My ex is the only teleporter around, and there's no way he'd help her. Otherwise she needs to find a way out of town on her own."

I made a considering sound. "Fair, but walking would still be slow. Hold on, let me try something. I practiced this a bunch after Daphne showed it to me, so I think I can manage. Take my hand."

She did, and I closed my eyes, funneling my intent and power into a spell that I'd trained repeatedly after seeing its use. I swung my wand around myself before tapping her and both of us vanished, a film of invisible material rolling over us, giving the feeling of an egg cracked over my head.

She let out a low whistle. "Wicked." She said in an impressed tone. "Why the hand holding though?"

"Because." I said, spreading my wings and lifting off the ground. "When we fly over the city I don't want to get separated." She yelped in surprise and spread her own wings with a whoosh and we drifted off the ground, skimming up into the sky and then forward, following my wand along the city of Dublin's skyline toward our target.

At our speed, it didn't take too long before we found what we wanted, a desolate looking farm with boarded up windows and an overgrown driveway.

We touched down, outside the farm, up on a hill overlooking the property, and began to scan the place for signs of life. "Alright, so what's the plan here. What's this chick's discipline anyway? She a necro? Wallwalked like Tanith?"

She grimaced. "Elemental. Fighting them is a pain in the arse. She's not as good as Skulduggery, obviously, but nobody is." Her eyes narrowed. "She's also not a huge blonde man in a creepy mask. Do you see that?"

I narrowed my eyes, squinting across the farm to see a man matching her description walking purposefully toward the place. "Any idea who that is?"
"None." She said slowly. "He looks tough. Are you sure we should still go in there? We can find Marr later. No need to take a risk like this." She seemed more worried for me than herself, which was sweet, but I just shook my head.

"I don't think we CAN find her later. If he's here for her chances are good she might be dead by then." I stood up, stretching. "Besides, all that caution is misplaced. We're devils, and you're my Queen. We can take on basically anybody. I might be wary about fighting Voldemort, but I can't think of anyone else who would be a problem."

She looked skeptical, but didn't argue. With a slow nod, she joined me in drifting up off the ground as we skimmed over the grass towards the house. Even without the invisibility out soundless approach was more than enough to ensure we weren't noticed.

We were so silent that my enhanced hearing was able to pick up the crackling of wood before the wall of the house blew out, a massive blonde form in a mask hurtling through the wall.

A woman stepped out, classically pretty if not for the sneer on her face. "Tesseract! Who sent you?" She barked in a really jarring Boston accent. Wind swirled around her fingers in orbs of compressed air. "Who wants me dead?"

The man rose from the ground, seemingly uninjured. "Doesn't matter." He grunted in a russian accent. "A job is a job."

"Then-" She froze, hands up and eyes straying over his shoulder. Her jaw hung down as she took in my Queen floating menacingly in the air, wings outstretched behind her. "What the hell, Cai-"

She stopped and dove sideways as a massive blast of fire exploded over the area she'd just been standing. The big man sprinted for her, aiming right at the woman, but sadly for him I intercepted. Val wanted to fight her old enemy, and I trusted her enough to keep her head now that she knew she had to watch it.

I waved at him. "Hi there. I'm Ryan. Tesseract huh? What a weird name. Or is it like a quirky way to say your real name? Is it Tess R. Act?" Snarling, he blurred forward. He was fast, faster than almost any other pure human I'd ever seen barring Shaggy and MAYBE Tanith. Of course, I was a devil.

He blurred right past me, and I smashed a backfist into the base of his skull, not hard enough to kill him but enough to seriously disorient. Or it would have been, if he hadn't somehow jerked to the side last second and grabbed my arm. I roared in pain as I felt the bones in my limb fucking SHATTER, lashing out with a kick to his ribs that sent him flying into a nearby building. I sighed, looking down at my arm. Fucking Sorcerers man, so cheap. I cracked my neck, pushing down the pain in my right arm. Round two then. His turn to get some bones broken.

June 20th, 2011, Aranmore Farm, Dublin, 5:00 PM BST

My blood was pounding in my ears, my heart was racing, and every fiber of my being burned…with excitement. I could almost taste the violence. The chance to test any number of spells I'd trained with over the course of the year. I wanted to fight, to break this asshole like he broke my arm. My wrath and pride boiled inside me, battling for dominance, and for once I didn't fight them.

I was sick and tired of losing. Sure, we beat Lucius and his lackeys, but that had been mostly mom. I'd lost to Voldemort, lost to Anderson, I had so much power and it kept falling flat. I hated it.

Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out a small vial, tossing it back and grinning nastily at the monster of a man in front of me as my arm knit itself back together, bones clicking into place as they were repaired completely by the elixir of life I carried around with me just in case. I swung my arm, testing the range of motion as I stared right into Tesseract's eyes.

"Interesting." Said the russian man slowly. "Not many recover from my power with such speed. If at all. "I wonder what that potion you just drank was? I suppose I'll have to pry the secret from your corpse."

I considered multiple possible methods for fighting the man, ways to crush him with magic or overwhelming force. But in the end…I wanted to feel his bones crack like he'd felt mine.

Blurring forward, I attacked, fists flashing toward his head almost too fast to track. As I came in fast, he read the intention of my charge from feet away and dropped under it, hand flashing out to try to grab my knee. It was pointless to even try, weightless, I rolled midair, letting his body flash under me as I stomped down on his spine.

He cried out, falling to his knees, but drove through it, whirling to try to grab me. I just laughed and slid away, floating out of reach as I grinned down at him.

Getting to his feet, eyes burning he grunted as he fumbled in a pocket. I readied a defensive spell in case it was a gun or something, but to my surprise, it turned out to be a syringe. "You are strong." He said with a solemn nod. "Defeating you will be a challenge."

Without any hesitation he jammed the syringe of…from what I could tell blood into his arm, then pressed the plunger. The blood flowed into his veins, and through his heave mask, I saw his eyes blaze with a golden light. I grimaced as the gold started to run through his veins, his muscles bunching and expanding.

"Re'em blood." I sighed. "That shit is super rare. Where did you even find it?" Taking off my robes, I tossed them aside, pulling my wand and letting the darkness waft off it as I took up a defensive position.
Re'em blood was one of those things I'd only read about but never seen, having found some references to it in the blood magic book and looked it up. Re'em's were basically fucking oxen the size of small towns, and they were FREAKISHLY powerful. Drinking their blood provided a massive physical boost for a short time, and it was one of the main ingredients in strength potions.

Tesseract, sadly, was finished talking, blurring forward at me, hands extended as he lashed out with a dizzying flurry of open hand attacks trying to get his fingers on me.

While he was stronger, and as such moved much faster, he still wasn't quite at my level of speed, so I was able to slip aside from his attacks. Thank the gods for three dimensional motion from my wings. As he came in, I countered with necromancy, a series of dark blades lashing out at him.

To my shock, he drew a combat knife and managed to deflect all the really deadly ones, his skin and flesh splitting under the edge of the dark constructs in places he could survive.

With my off hand I sent out a flurry of quick, brutal jabs, sure to be able to pull them away so he couldn't touch me. This guy was…good. Really good. Like better than Tanith at physical combat. If I wasn't stronger than him I'd have lost this fight by now…which made me mad.

Snapping out my free hand, I erected a bubble of shield charm around my hand and threw a haymaker at his face. It smashed into the mask, sending hum stumbling back as his grasping fingers slid off the shield, and I grinned as I followed it up, smashing multiple harsh blows into him, using my necromancy to coat my other arm as I began beating him violently about the head and body.

I felt bones creak and he gave ground as I tore into him, excitement fueling me as I got in closer. "Ryan!" Bellowed a voice from behind me. I threw myself sideways, only to see a column of air smash into Tesseract and send him flying away, smashing him through the barn behind him.

I whirled, eyes blazing as I glared at the now terrified looking elementalist who had just tried to sucker punch me. Blurring forward, I grabbed her roughly by the face and smashed her entire body head first into the ground. Her hands flailed, explosions of air and fire battering my body, but since I was in so close she couldn't hurt me enough to matter.

"Do NOT!" I snarled, grabbing her arm and twisting hard, feeling her elbow snap. "Interrupt me!" I yanked up, separating her shoulder with a crack. "When I'm FIGHTING!" I let the limp arm go and punched her in the rotator cuff hard enough to fucking powder the bone, getting an agonized scream from the woman.

I stood up, forcing myself to calm down. Val looked surprisingly unbothered by the hyperviolence. I hadn't killed her which was apparently nicer than she'd have been. The goth girl took obvious pleasure in flipping the injured woman over and forcing her destroyed arm into handcuffs, as she announced that she was under arrest for terrorism and mass murder. I shrugged and turned back to my previous opponent, excited to pick up the beating where I'd left off…and finding nothing.

"What the fuck?" I said in annoyance. "Hey Val, did you see where mask dude went?" Beating Davina down so easily had definitely helped vent my frustration a bit, but I'd been impressed by Tesseract. I wanted to put him down fair and square.

She looked around cautiously. "No." She said in a wary tone. "But he might have found a tunnel or something. I recognize this farm. It used to belong to a dangerous cult. Probably honeycombed with passages. Do you want to track him down?" She sounded a little uncomfortable being here, and I wondered what kind of cult we were talking about.

In the end, I sighed. This hadn't been to make me feel better, it had been for Val. I could mix it up with comrade kickass another time. "Nah, let's head back. Bet this bitch has all kinds of fun answers for your Sanctuary friends." I walked over to tower over her. "Isn't that right Davina?"

"You're a monster!" She spat through gritted teeth. "Since when does the Sanctuary employ freaks like you?"

I grinned at her. "Oh they don't. Not that there are any freaks quite like me. No, I did all this for free, just to amuse myself. Not that it was much trouble. Looks like Val had already fucked you up pretty bad." I turned to my Queen. "How did she get that shot off at me anyway?"

She blushed. "I got a little excited seeing her run around like a rat in a maze. I was herding her with fireballs from above and she managed to get some cover. Sorry boss."

Waving her off, I just snorted. "It's fine Val. You warned me before the attack hit so I'll call it even. How does it feel though, beating your big bad so easily? You said she kicked your ass before right?"

"In handcuffs." She sneered. Then she looked over the captive with a slow grin. "Actually…maybe we should let her up, see if she wants a round two. I want to know how tough SHE is in magic suppressing handcuffs." Davina's red face went pale as she stared up at her in horror.

The bostonian woman stammered. "You can't…that's not…you're supposed to be the good guys, right? You're sanctuary detectives. I surrender, you've got me. Now take me in, let them interrogate me and sentence me. That's the right thing to do."

"She's appealing to our better angels?" I cackled to Val. "The irony is obviously not something she would grasp, but I can't help but laugh. Your call queenie, this is all for you. You gonna hand her over or you want to play kick the karen for a little longer? Because I'm fine to keep this up. She makes funny sounds."
I had calmed down by this point, and I was playing up the devil may care attitude a bit, but not much. I wasn't a fan of pain for pain's sake, but Davina Marr was every bit the monster she accused me of being. Looking down at her there on the ground, I didn't see some helpless woman. I saw a vicious conniving snake. Someone like Quirrel. Willing to be used as a weapon against me.

Val, however, seemed to be every bit as strong willed as I expected. She gave her head a firm shake. "I'd love to make her bleed." She admitted. "But at the end of the day lots of people besides me lost loved ones in the bombing. They deserve revenge every bit as much as I do." She grinned nastily. "Besides, she was so proud of her reputation. Public humiliation will be a longer and more painful punishment than a beating."

"Alright." I shrugged. "Can you call your ex to give us a life?" I hinted. I didn't want Davina learning about our ability to teleport. I was sure it would get out, but exposing strengths to enemies was just asking to get screwed.

Val fished out her phone, dialed a number, and then chuckled. "Fletcher." She paused. "Well why are you sleeping in the middle of the afternoon?" She rolled her eyes. "Well whose fault is that? I need you to come pick me up. I found Davina Marr. Yes, a friend and I caught her. She's got some assassin after her. We're at Aranmore Far-"

"Are you ok?" Called a blonde guy about our age as he appeared about fifty feet away. "Whatg assassin? Who's that?" He glanced at Davina. "Whoah, what happened to her?"

Val smiled. "In order. Yes, he's gone, Ryan, and us. Davina put up a fight, and we taught her the error of her ways. We need a lift to Roarhaven, can you help us out? Davina is dangerous and needs to be handed over to Ravel and the others."

He looked unsure, but eventually nodded, making his way over to us. He held out his hand. "Fletcher Renn, teleporter. I'm Valkyrie's ex."

"Ryan Black, necromancer." I said to keep things simple. "I'm Valkyrie's boss. Thanks for the lift."

He didn't seem to know how to take that, so he just nodded while Val and I lifted Davina up between us. I'd silenced her before we did it (such a useful spell, I was so glad I'd learned it) so she didn't scream about the pain. Fletcher looked at her suspiciously but when she said nothing shrugged and flicked a hand, opening a portal.

We stepped through, and when we arrived Val grinned and waved a hand around the dingy looking old town around us. I took in the old wooden buildings and the dark and dingy atmosphere as she smirked. "Welcome to Roarhaven."

As usual pat-reon has the advance chapters at that site /malcolmtent hope everyone enjoys.