Traffic [Valduggery, Skulduggery Pleasant Fanfiction]

Subways : Part Two

"Hey, at least I have feet."

Valkyrie saw Skulduggery look down in the light of the subway car. "I'm sorry, but do you think I don't have feet? I'm afraid to ask, but what am I standing on right now?"

Valkyrie heaved a deep sigh. "Yeah, I know you have feet, but you don't have, like, tendons and stuff."

"I see the anatomy lessons paid off."

Valkyrie snorted a laugh. "Shut up, you coat rack."

The subway car shuddered, and Valkyrie slammed herself against the wall. She was not going to get crushed underneath a subway car, not today. She had horrific flashes of her fate—metal tires, the sound of screeching filling her ears, sparks, her fragile tendons, dashed in the dark of this sewer subway.

The subway car trundled of in the other direction.

It was now pitch dark.

"Skulduggery," Valkyrie said loudly, "are you still here?"

"No."

Valkyrie slid her foot forward, toeing the ground to make sure she wasn't going to fall right on her face.

Without the subway car, it was creepy. No light, just distant dripping and scattering of something nearby, a rustling. Sound bounced off the stone, and Valkyrie suddenly lost all sense of how far away the walls were. Strange drafts played with her hair.

"No light?" Valkyrie asked, voice echoing.

"Your plan. And besides, you need to practice with your magic. You certainly can barbeque an enemy, but you lack the subtleties you were just beginning to develop with your elemental and necromancy magic."
Valkyrie flexed her fingers. Her magic was like an excitable dog; Valkyrie had a very worn, very thin leash.

The magic bubbled down her arm and into her fingers, eager to come out and play. Valkyrie closed her eyes and went through the steps Skulduggery had drilled into her.

A breath. Her heartbeat in her ears. The magic, buzzing in her soul, jumping from cell to cell. She was not to fight it. It was a part of her. Like the air in her lungs, in her blood. She didn't have to fight the air.

"Am I doing it?"

"Open your eyes."

Valkyrie opened her eyes. White light crackled from one fingertip to the next. She grinned.

"I'm the best ever."

Skulduggery nodded. "That you are. Shall we?"

"Right." Valkyrie marched off in her awesome combat boots.

Her awesome combat boots sloshed loudly in the puddles. In smelled of mold.

"Oh my God, ew."

"Now, are you referring to the rats, the sewer water, the—"

Valkyrie blanched. "There's a mushroom."

Skulduggery looked around. "Where?"

Valkyrie pointed. "Look, right there! God, it's so—so gross."

Skulduggery shook his head. "One day, your mouth is going to get me horrifically killed. And it will be because I am a noble protector, and I'll dive in the way of some gruesome death magic, and disintegrate, all because you insulted a mushroom."

"I ate mushroom pizza once." Valkyrie looked into space. "It was really, really gross."

"I don't have a tongue, and can't comment on what you once said, however for the sake of a conversation, I'm just going to talk because I know you're going to only say something if I fill the silence."