Here's to Christmas - Skulduggery Pleasant FanFic

Chapter 16: The Christmas Ball

She disregarded it and carried on smiling and shaking hands.

The evening ticked on and people still danced, the music still loud and perfect, although she felt it wasn't a patch on her bands. Thinking that reminded her of the All Time Low concert she wasn't going to, and she sighed.

"Are you thinking about that concert again?"

She looked up at Skulduggery standing a little behind her to her left. She smiled and looked down. "I might be. I can't help it. They're going to be so close and I won't be able to see them."

"You'll survive, I'm sure."

"That's the thing, though," she paused to politely decline a butler offering champagne. "I think in some way, music has saved me. It's made my life better this last month or so. It's given me refuge, something to hold on to. I don't know if I would have survived without music."

Skulduggery tilted his head and she avoided his gaze.

"Music will get you through anything. That's what Mitch Lucker said. And he was right. Just the thought of seeing ATL live makes me have butterflies. I think about...shouting out I'm coming with you! at the top of my lungs at the end of Dear Maria. I would sing Weightless and The Reckless and the Brave and then Therapy...the crowd would sing so loudly during Therapy Alex would stop singing. He wouldn't need to."

Skulduggery brushed a piece of hair out of her face. "Well. Don't lose hope. You'd be surprised, you know. Miracles happen."

She pulled a face, half smiling, half frowning. "What? That's not true. there's no such thing as mircales. You've said so yourself."

"Maybe not divine miracles. But human miracles? Manmade miracles? They exist, and they happen all the time."

Valkyrie raised an eyebrow. "You know something."

"I know lots of things."

"You know something I don't know."

"I know lots of things you don't know."

"You know something I don't know and you're deliberately keeping it from me."

Skulduggery seemed like he started to respond, but came out with nothing for a long time. "Yes," he said finally. Valkyrie smiled.

"What aren't you telling me?"

Skulduggery adjusted his hat before leaning down so his jaw was right next to her ear.

"I'd love to tell you," he whispered, and it sent shivers down her spine, "but you have another guest to talk to."

Valkyrie sighed, part of her frustrated he didn't tell her, another part of her missing the close-ness of the whisper, but all that vanished when Skulduggery walked away and she saw Tanith Low striding towards her in a stunning red dress.

Valkyrie had enveloped her in a very unladylike hug before Tanith even got a chance to get her bearings.

"Good to see you to, Val," she chuckled, squeezing back. Valkyrie smiled at her.

"You look amazing, Tanith."

"You don't look so bad yourself," she looked Valkyrie up and down, clearly impressed. "You look...different. Refreshingly different. I thought maybe you'd wear black."

Valkyrie wasn't even thinking about her dress. "Well, I thought maybe you were still in England and I wasn't going to see you for...oh, I don't know, maybe a few years?"