Cross Your Ts [Valduggery, Skulduggery Pleasant Fanfiction]

Janet

"We need to see Finbar."

Darquesse pushed through the sky, fingers wiggling. Her hair was wild and crazy, and she looked down at them and grinned. Skulduggery kept walking, right underneath her. Darquesse pushed herself through the portal, but the edges were sticking.

Valkyrie was hot, but she felt the breeze.

"Why are you so against it? Why have you been?" Skulduggery asked, too close.

Valkyrie's heart was in her throat, and then the shadows of the trees grew into a doorway and sadness crushed Valkyrie's heart. Skulduggery stood there, thumbing through a blank, blank Gordon Edgley book.

It was dark and Valkyrie's body ached. The Bentley was purring. Valkyrie laughed, doubling over, straining every muscle in her body. Skulduggery patted her back, but she heard him laughing, too.

"That was—"

It was dark and the bed was soft and she blinked as fire danced in front of her eyes. She was stunned, stumbling around, but Skulduggery's hand was like an anchor. He pulled her out of the way and something roared.

Her head rattled and she stumbled.

Skulduggery cursed and dragged her, but her feet caught on something and then they were flying through the air. She slammed into a wall, the breath whooshing out of her. She laid on her side and tried to seem small, tried to hide so she could recover her breath, recover something.

The world danced back into view, and a dragon was in the Sanctuary's front lobby.

Valkyrie laughed.

The dragon's head whipped around to look at her. It was a huge, horned thing, but it didn't seem right. Its wings were too small, its legs too gangly, body too fat. It stumbled over to her, jaw clicking together.

Valkyrie rolled neatly to her knees, but even though she was well out of the way, the dragon swung its tail and hit her. She went flying again, right toward a hole in the wall—where the dragon had made its entrance—but she hit more wall. The wind rushed out of her again.

Skulduggery called her name, but fuck did her everything hurt. She should be dead, because these clothes weren't doing anything.

"Valkyrie?" Skulduggery yelled again.

Valkyrie managed to raise a weak hand.

Fire swirled along the ground, but the dragon swam through it like it was water. Skulduggery planted his feet, the ground cracked, but the floor didn't stick to the dragon. The dragon danced over the marble that wanted to trap its feet.

Valkyrie finally managed to get her feet back under her. She let electricity run over her arms, waited until the buzz of magic blotted out the pain, and she raised her arm and fired.

Absolutely no effect, but she did manage to get the dragon's attention again.

Valkyrie's feet flew out from under her, and she skidded across the ground. She yelped and kicked out, but when she saw she was sliding toward Skulduggery, she relaxed. She spun to a stop at his feet.

"You're going to get yourself killed," he said brightly.

His phone rang, and Skulduggery pulled it out. Valkyrie rubbed the back of her neck, flicked her hand to rid herself of the sweat. Not Finbar's, no, no.

Skulduggery's whole posture stiffened, and Valkyrie froze. He marched around to the driver's side, and Valkyrie knew she got in after him.

"Hey, Finbar. Skulduggery and I are on a case, and we might need you to do your voodoo. A couple of men with no memories were guarding something, and they've disappeared. And I've been getting bad vibes about the whole thing. Nightmares, if you could look into it, that'd be great."