Valkyrie couldn't help but savour the looks on their faces when they saw her dress.
She had originally gone to buy a black dress, like she usually would, but her eye had been drawn away, towards the white dress. It was stunning. She had decided to opt for a break in tradition.
She met them at the end of the path. Dexter was smiling ridiculously. Saracen's mouth was open like a goldfish.
But the real compliment came from Skulduggery; he'd taken his hat off.
"Wow." Saracen breathed. Valkyrie shrugged.
"I hate to sound cliché," Skulduggery said softly, "but you bear an uncanny resemblance to an angel."
She smiled. "Of course I do. I'm a wonderful person."
She managed to bully her way into the front seat of the Bentley and had a minor explosion when she realized the seat had been adjusted before turning on the radio. She sang along softly to All I Want for Christmas is You by Mariah Carey and managed to get everyone bar Skulduggery singing along too. In fact the car became a karaoke session, and Valkyrie was well and truly in the Christmas spirit when they arrived at the Sanctuary.
Outside, it looked no different than usual. The inside, however, was a different story. The overall theme seemed to be gold. Cleavers remained grey, but everything else was draped heavily in something gold, be it tinsel or silk or chiffon or georgette, or maybe things were painted gold or had gold glitter sprinkled over it.
The mages and sorcerers and operatives of Roarhaven had well and truly gone to town. Dresses of every colour, tuxedos of varying sharpness danced around the hallways, the crowd thickening as they drew closer to the Hall, where there would be drinks and dancing. Had Valkyrie not known better, she'd have said they were...on the verge of celebrating.
And another thing that struck her as odd was this; as she walked past, people turned to look at her, but she got the feeling they weren't staring at her dress, although some were. No. They looked at her with something dancing in their eyes, something Valkyrie recognised and identified as hope.
The hall was big and more beautiful than Valkyrie had ever seen it. People danced and laughed in the centre of the room, and anyone who wasn't dancing was standing to the side and sipping champagne or expensive wine.
"Who organized this?" Valkyrie said in awe. Skulduggery tipped his hat down slightly.
"The people," he said simply, and then they found some chairs to put their coats before going off to mingle.
Valkyrie had always detested mingling. She always picked the wrong people to mingle with; but mingling was the pinacle of any social event, and as much as Valkyrie couldn't stand it, she knew it had to be done, so she walked gracefully around and before long started looking for China. What would China be wearing if she were here? Something unbelievably elegant but at the same time incredibly sexy. Maybe an emerald green. Yes. An emerald green dress with a slit down one leg, and she would stand alone, champagne in hand, quietly dignified and screaming sophisticated beauty.
But China wasn't here; China was in New York, maybe drinking in the beauty of the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Centre, and Valkyrie was here in the Santcuary, and that made her sad.
She talked to people - the hall was packed predominantly with Sanctuary operatives, some of the Roarhaven citizens had come along as well. But they all had one thing in common. They looked at her in the same way, as if they were looking up to her, admiring her, waiting for her. When she left to talk to others, she felt them watching her walk away, and although her dress was well and truly the spectacle of the evening that's not what they were looking at. There was a quiet excitement rippling outwards from her, and she couldn't understand it and she didn't know why, but the people of Roarhaven were hoping for something, and it was something to do with her, and they were sure that whatever it was she was going to...what? Accept? Decline? No. That's not what she felt as they watched her. They were watching her like she had seen people watch Meritorious, like some had watched China, like everyone had watched Skulduggery. They were looking at her as if she were a leader.
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?"
Tanith scoffed. "Nah, I couldn't leave you for that long. Where would I be without my little sister, eh? Besides. I was called back for some important stuff."
Valkyrie tilted her head like Skulduggery. "What important stuff?"
Tanith half smiled. "Confidential stuff. No worries. It'll be over in about a week and a bit, and then I'll go home."
Valkyrie frowned. "Tanith?"
"Yeah?"
"Are you here for the New Year's Eve meeting?"
Her smile faded, but she didn't reply, so Valkyrie took that as a yes.
"Right. What's happening at this meeting? No-one's really told me anything about it but it's all so suspicious. And also, people keep looking at me weirdly. I don't get it."
Tanith wrapped and arm round her shoulder and they looked out onto the dance floor, where Saracen danced with a beautiful red-head named Kayleigh.
"The less you know for now," Tanith said, "the better. You'll find out soon enough. I can only tell you this. Some changes are about to be made here, and they're going to be made quickly. Hopefully, it'll put a stop to most of Ireland's problems with the rest of the magical world. You've done everyone a big favour in solving the mystery of the drug cartels, and, as the saying goes, Ireland is going to strike while the iron's hot. More specifically, Roarhaven."
Valkyrie and Tanith were silent for a moment, and then she let it go and just try to enjoy having her big sister's arm around her once again. Since the remnant had been ripped out of her by Darquesse, Tanith ahd been regaining her memories, and she was handling the past a lot better than Valkyrie. She had to admit - Ghastly's death had torn her down pretty good, but grief didn't do as much to a seasoned swordswoman like Tanith as it did to Valkyrie. Although she was still mourning, she was coping much better. Valkyrie was sure to point her towards music.
"Where's your sword? And your leathers? I can't believe you parted with them," Valkyrie smirked. Tanith smirked back.
"I'll admit to the leathers, and that was difficult. But I'd part with life before I parted with my sword, and that, I assure you, is close by."
Valkyrie clocked the slit in her dress and knew the sword was in a scabbard, hidden by the dress but accessible in an emergency. Tanith hadn't changed one bit, and Valkyrie was thankful for that.
On and on went the evening. The Dead Men reconvened at regular interviews and allowed Tanith to join in. Valkyrie noticed that her right was never occupied with a drink or a bag. That hand was reserved only for her sword, and that made Valkyrie chuckle.
The dancing didn't stop. Faster music called for faster dancing, and slower music called for swaying, but the end of evening waltz was yet to come, and although she'd been asked by about ten men, Valkyrie wouldn't be dancing to that music. She didn't like dancing, for one thing. For another, dancing without Skulduggery wasn't worth it.
Tanith wasn't dancing either. Like Valkyrie, she had only one to dance with, and that only one was no longer breathing. They toasted to the departed, they toasted to what used to be the Dead Men and then they toasted to the future, and the fruits it would bring.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Dexter had taken a break from mingling and as he stood with a glass of champagne in his hand, he noticed Valkyrie, standing a few feet back from the edge of the dance floor, eyes locked on someone in the crowd. He frowned as he followed her gaze, and noticed she was staring at Skulduggery as he danced with Tanith. Right. That was it. SHe'd been acting oddly all evening, especially around Skulduggery. He was going to do some digging.
He walked over and she barely even noticed he was standing behind her when he spoke.
"Enjoying yourself?" He asked. She smiled and nodded.
"Absolutely. It's beautiful, Tanith's here...what more could I ask for?"
Dexter took a sip of his champagne. "What more could you ask for?"
Valkyrie tore her eyes from SKulduggery and tilted her head. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"You're distracted, Valkyrie. There's somehting on your mind."
"There's always something on my mind these days."
Dexter blinked a few times. "Not like this. This is something...different."
Her wry smile started to fade and she couldn't help but look back at the dancefloor, where Skulduggery had finished dancing with Tanith and was now being asked by Kayleigh to dance. Saracen looked slightly put out, but not too bothered as he gladly accepted a glass of red wine from a butler.
"For about ten minutes you've barely stopped looking at Skulduggery. In fact, you look almost sad when you look at him, and yet your shining. You're a bit like a star, in that way. You shine when you're happy. Most people in here are shining tonight, but you shine the brightest of them all."
Valkyrie looked at him again.
"And no star shines brighter," he continued, "than a woman whose heart is beating for another."
The look on her face told her he'd hit the nail on the head, and he felt sorry for her. He said nothing more and squeezed her shoulder. She shook her head.
"I don't know what to do," she whispered. Dexter tilted her chin up.
"Yes you do. You know exactly what to do."
Skulduggery suddenly appeared at her side, along with Tanith and Saracen just as the end of evening waltz began to play - Take it to the Limit, by Eagles.
Skulduggery held his hand out to Valkyrie.
"Dance with me?" He said. Valkyrie sighed.
"I don't dance."
"Maybe it's time that changed."
Valkyrie bit her lip, and then she smiled and took his hand and they walked onto the dance floor. Their dance wasn't as spinny or as impressive as the others, but it meant more, and that was clear to everyone in the room. Valkyrie never took her eyes away from his gaze once, and at one point SKulduggery leaned down and whispered something in her ear, and she smiled, eyes close, a look of complete contentedness and happiness on her face. She leaned her head against his chest and they almost stopped dancing, just swaying slightly. It's like there was a bubble around them.
The look on Tanith's face was one of shock mixed with confusion. She leaned in to Dexter.
"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" She asked. Dexter shrugged.
"I don't know what you're seeing," Dexter said, not taking his eyes from the dancer's, "but I see a woman who's very much in love dancing with a skeleton who's spent most of his life hiding and is finally letting himself be shown."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
You guys.
The Dying of the Light came out on Thursday. I completed it within twenty four hours of purchase (because I had to sleep). Towards the end, I had two life threatening feels attacks, but SPOILER it had a happy ending!!! I'm thrilled. The book was everything I hoped it would be, if not more. I loved it so much, but it's so sad it's the last book.
Have any of you read Dying of the Light? If you have, the comments section below is a SPOILER ZONE. You can say whatever you want about the book, spoil whatever you want, but if you haven't read it or you are in the process of reading it don't go browsing the commens for spoilers. Don't ruin it for yourself. You know our Golden God wouldn't want that.
Of course, you can also just use the comments section to post regular comments. Just be warned, okay?
Vote and comment, fellow Skuttlebugs.
I love you all.
MTWYS77 xxxx