Authors Note - has anyone else noticed the Valduggery's popping up all over Wattpad? Check out the last three, ÜBER cool! Makes me wish that I'D thought if that.... Oh yeah, my writers block has passed! This chapter might be a tad scratchy because the block is hard to break my friends.... By the way... Has anyone guessed my age? NO TELLING DAD!!! But seriously though... Anyone? I can tell from the pictures for most if you, any guesses for moi? The last chapter has been what we've all been waiting for, Valkarie finally confessed, as has Skulduggery! Whoop whoop! (just like to say that I've never said that before in my life....) Shout outs, fan of the update and pleasant rambles at the end of this chapter, I'll try to make it longer than the last one! Phoenix... OUT!
He was saying her name over and over So quickly she could barely make it out. But there was something that Valkarie needed to do, what she had woken up to do. Taking a deep breath she pushed him away. The second that they parted, Valkarie felt like a part of her had been ripped out with him. His arms were still out to her, body refrozen, staring at her. Valkarie had to be strong, all she wanted right now was to fall back into his arms.
She looked up, breathing quickly.
He met her gaze unwaveringly and a certainty filled Valkarie at the ep sight of him.
She wanted this.
She needed this.
Se needed him.
Valkarie loved him, she had to say this.
Heart racing, Valkarie opened her mouth, knowing that she had to be quick before she could back out.
"Skulduggery..."
Time slowed. Stopped.
"I love you."
...
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Chapter Nine
SKULDUGGERY
Love At Last
"I love you."
Skulduggery froze alongside time and all sense of reason, his heart he didn't have flipped as it pounded against his ribs. Had she really just said that? Could it be possible that he did love him?
Looking into her dark, tear filled eyes, he looked for the answer, found it ready. Yes.
"I love you too."
She let out a slightly choked laugh that wrenched on Skulduggery's heart, he leaned in slightly. Her head dipped slightly, and when in came up again large tears were dripping off her jawline.
"I know. Or so I've heard." she smiled as inwardly Skulduggery mirrored her. He leaned in more using a hand on her back to pull her closer, Valkarie made no move to stop him... So he kissed her.
Chapter Nine
VALKARIE
Love At Last
The lack of lips did nothing to ruin, nor dampen the feelings of the kiss, Valkarie smiled into his teeth as her arm wrapped around his neck, their remaining hands clasped tightly.
Valkarie wasn't sure how long the kiss lasted, seconds stretching into blissful hours. She didn't want to be the first to pull away. So it came as a surprise , even to herself when she did. Starring again, deep into his eye sockets her heart swelled even more than before, even without eyes she could see his love for her as his forehead pressed against hers, closer than before.
"I." he stated, as if it was by far, the most simple thing in the world. "Always have, and always will... Love you."
"Likewise-" his mouth cut her off and although at first her reaction was surprise, eyes widened. She soon gave in to the passion that only came with a kiss from the one you loved. Valkarie folded into his arms like a marionette doll, legs crumpling fawn like from a crouched position, her dark lashes fluttered, eyes closing.
After what seemed like a lifetime they broke apart, Valkarie was still weak though, and found this out the hard way as she crumpled on the bed. Her arms were still around Skulduggery so he snaked one arm behind her head to support it, the other was a gentle reassurance of loving safety around her waist.
They lay down on the bed, Valkarie's head bowed as she tried to tell dream from reality. Skulduggery's skull came to rest atop her's, her hair tickling his chin.
Heaven on earth was an understatement by far...
Chapter Nine
NYE
Love At Last
Years of medical training, not to mention years of cutting people up had prepared Nye for a world of possibilities of what he might see in a hospital.
All those blood splattered cloths and rusted instruments making jagged slices in patients had prepared him for the foulest of things he may come across. The smell of infection needn't be smelt out, it could be sensed, a delicately accurate seventh sense it had honed throughout its life.
Nye had seen things that most sorcerers wouldn't see in a lifetime, wouldn't want to anyway. He'd occasionally tried to explain this to the people he met, how everything inside the human body was a small miracle in itself. They always seemed to be distracted by it's long fingers dipping into them, retrieving organs for examination however... A shame, they had always missed out on the hearts many arteries.
Yes, it had been prepared, seen or experienced what Nye had thought was everything you'd ever see in a hospital...
"But what?" it thought angrily, "Are you supposed to do when this happens?"
Through the window Nye could easily make out ever kiss the skeleton and girl shared. Not only for them did it turn away, to it's dismay however, the collection of very reflective material showed it too much 'love' than it would need in a lifetime.
Closing it's eyes, Nye sighed. Love, kissing and everything....else... Was all fine and well but, well surely there was some kind of rule about this? Not a big or superbly important rule, just one that would let it check her over and then shove them both out. Let them take their...canoodling elsewhere... Canoodling, was that even a word people used these days? Probably not.
Taking a deep breath as if it was preparing to step off a cliff, Nye knocked on the glass door as it entered, head bowed.
Chapter Nine
VALKARIE
Love At Last
Valkarie raised her head at the sound of knocking shattering her blessed state. Needless to say the sat up sparkly, nearly dislodging Skulduggery as she did so, watching Nye enter.
It's head was bowed, long arms and legs awkwardly held as it shuttled with almost an embarrassed state thirds the bed. The way it held its self, reminded Valkarie of a poorly orchestrated puppet. Skulduggery sat up, arms tightening their grip as he shifted Valkarie onto his lap. She made to protest, but the way she was being held had caught all discomforts on her tongue before they melted happily away.
Nye made no argument though, instead it peered into Valkarie's eyes and checked her reflexes as quickly as possible before leaving for the door with an air of someone trying their hardest not to sprint. Shooting a quick "You may leave." over hunched shoulders it closed the door.
Valkarie looked around, saw her clothes on a plastic hospital issues chair and made to untangle herself from Skulduggery's arms. After hopping unsteadily onto unused legs she turned to him.
"Hat." she nodded at her clothes, Skulduggery understood, though she could have sworn that his skull had a bemused look about it as he raised his finely tailored hat in front if his eye sockets.
Valkarie leapt quickly into her clothes, furiously blushing. Just as she was zipping up her jacket before tuning she found Skulduggery's arms already around around her as he pulled her up to him for a kiss. It was shorter than the last two, yet each one grew in joy.
They stood there for a moment, holding one another as if the other was the last life line in an endless storm. When they did, Valkarie had found something to say, to end the tongue tied loving silence.
"So..." Skulduggery faced her and Valkarie felt her words catch, she had to fight the rest if her sentence, "What now?"
Skulduggery tilted his skull, causing a blush to paint itself across her face, she ducked her head, trying to use her hair to hide the red.
"I meant about the vampires." she mumbled, skulduggery chuckled and pressed her head to his chest. "And Dusk?" instantly she felt Skulduggery stiffen under her touch. His breath stopped and he took her head and raised it to his.
"Valkarie..." there it was again, that tug on her heart... "For what that thing did to you... I can never forgive. Seeing you, broken in that tower room, it shattered my heart. But watching you wake up, telling me that you love me in return, my heart belongs to only you from now on. Dusk will never be forgiven, even though you are fine now, he will pay. He will never hurt you, or lay eyes on you again."
Valkarie had never felt so loved, she clung to him tight. Not daring to blink incase she missed a second of him, didn't want to let her mind wander incase she tuned out a single word he said.
"I cannot say how much I love you. Till the end of the world, through everything we will face, until the end of time we will be together."
Valkarie didn't say anything, a sharp intake of breath did it for her. Instead she just rasped herself up on tiptoe to kiss him.
The feeling of love followed Valkarie all the way out to the Bentley, hanging around her usually sharp witted thoughts and it wasn't until they were pulling away from the dreary building that a question occurred to her. She frowned,
"Wait, where's Fletcher? Ghastly?" butting her lip Valkarie had guessed the answer to the first persons whereabouts, not here.
"Ghastly is personally supervising the Cleavers while they conduct a final sweep of the castle and nearby. Fletcher-" he broke off to look at her, a fool would have wondered if he was stuck for how to continue. Really he was leaving the rest to Valkarie. She turned her attention to the building whipping past her , doors and windows, people and cars all blended into a surreal portrait if the world outside the two of them. Representing perfectly how Valkarie's mind felt.
"Did he visit?" she tried voicing it casually, yet it somehow sounded hoping. The answer Skulduggery gave surprised her enough that she was momentarily deaf to the goings on around her. "Ever night, once the hospital was closed to visitors. He left flowers."
There was no jealousy, no anger or frustration in Skulduggery's voice, on the contrary he came across almost sad, faintly hollow. Valkarie remembered now, the smell of the flowers when she'd woken up, a bouquet spilling over with lilies, freesias and what she could only assume to be tokens from all around the world.
She'd left it, the bouquet, left it in that sterile cold depressing room. A spot of colour on a blank canvas. It was too late to go back now, besides they'd probably been cleaned away. The sent still lingered on her clothes, stronger than Valkarie thought it would. Out the corner of her eye, she suddenly caught sight of something red poking forlornly from her coats breast pocket.
She pulled gently, eventually freeing a crimson red blossom, it looked to be from abroad. Valkarie twirled it by the short green stem, the blossom now looking like a a ballerina pirouetting on the spot to an audience if two. She thought of Fletcher. What if he came tonight, and she wasn't there? Would he guess what had happened? Would he come to see her?
She frowned, the blossom suddenly ceasing it's dance, poised to continue. Why wasn't he here? Why had he only come at night? Where the hell was he? She'd had no calls, no messages. Just flowers and silence. What gave him the right to be sulky? He was acting like a stroppy little boy,hiding himself away like this... No more. What she'd felt for him that night on the road was gone so far that she couldn't even pull her thoughts together enough to know what it had been. If he wanted to see her, this time it would be on her grounds.
Pushing at the air to open the passenger window she held the blossom out. Cold air whipped the petals so violently that they nearly tore. The flower clung desperately on to Valkarie's thumb and finger, but the dance was over, no encores, the curtain had fallen. As soon as she let go, the blossom was torn from her grasp, a flash of red could be seen momentarily before the scene outside changed back to dull. Skulduggery's hand held hers gently.
Valkarie turned away, trying to fight tears.
Chapter Nine
FLETCHER
Love At Last
The flower landed with a final tumble at my feet but I carried on watching the car drive away. I watched until it was just a black dot that blinked into nothingness.
If I'd been an hour sooner, I would have been the one she woke up to, me. Skulduggery would have to be the one that ran around that god forsaken hospital looking for her when he'd found an empty bed. The skeleton could stand there while the blue haired girl told him that she'd woken up and left, with the one she loved. He could find the flowers had been casually dropped in a dustbin by a nurse. Let the dead man die inside.
I picked up the flower, I'd seen her, she held it out the window and dropped it like a wrapper. The petals were worn, the stem had been twirled, I could see where she'd held it. The smell filled of it filled the air around me.
I tucked it into the button hole of the casual jacket I was wearing and hoisted up my shoulder bag. The flower drooped saddly but stayed, as if a ruby red butterfly had been pinned to my chest. Just over my heart.
Grudgingly I started walking in the general direction they'd driven in, shoving a hand inside the bag I could feel the knife, the edge of it cut deep into my thumb. My lip twitched but I just gathered my thoughts concentrating hard on where I'd found them.
Then I was gone.
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Authors Note - hey! Sorry for the wait but I've been trying to get a hold of the new Skulduggery Pleasant book, lucky for me the WHSmith isn't quite up to date....
ME: hello?
BOOK ASSISTANT: yes? How can I help?
ME: yeah, I was wondering if you had the new Skulduggery Pleasant book? Book seven? I can't seem to find it.....
BOOK ASSISTANT: what's Skulduggery Peasant? Sounds a but dark for someone your age.... Do your parents know that you're buying it? Just asking of course!
ME: eh yeah, my mum knows.... I've read all the other books...
BOOK ASSISTANT: we'll I don't let my children read anything so dark.
ME: o.......k.....?
BOOK ASSISTANT: no sorry we don't have it. We do have some twilight though?.... And other books your age * gestures vaguely to her right, I look over to see that she's pointed at a held if fifty shades of gray.....*
Yeah, skeletons and magic aren't my age but THAT BOOK is.... I'm off to amazon! Shout outs go to: evermore_360, kathyk1995, AmyWatkinson, xXUnBreakableHeartxX for summoning the immense strength it takes to press the ALMIGHTY fan button! TheInvisibleGuy, Monkey423, LeaCarosella, kathyk1995 and evermore_360 for their comment (GOD I LOVE COMMENTS!!!) support goes to ChristopherHopkinson and my friends outside if Wattpad who put up with me shamelessly bragging to them about how great you all are! No joke! This time reads are up to 357 and votes at an all time 15! Please vote some more guys! You know that you CAN vote for each chapter riiiight?????
Ok so before I do FAN OF THE UPDATE I'll sum up and talk about the chapter above ^^^^. Both sides of Valduggery have confessed now in this little chapter, sorry that it's so short..... A point if veil from Nye has earned me a few laughs at his awkwardness I hope? Oh yeah, and a mad Fletcher is now out to try and win Val back.... With a knife.... ONT DPOIL THE NEW SP BOOK FIR ME ANAZON IS SLOW IN DELIVERING!!!! Any spoilers and I swear to god I will shut down this book.... Deal with it!
Ok ok.... FAN OF THE UPDATE!!!!!
This update.... For their comments and reassurance about the new book despite my lack in fanning them... :/
*drum roll*
TheInvisibleGuy!!!!
Well done!!!
It's a mark of how nice a person is when they comment....well for me it is!
Feel free to leave the following in the comments below: CONSTRUCTIVE criticism, advertisement of your own books, anything you'd like to see me write in the next chapter! You control it!
Smile! It's FRIDAY!!!!
(anyone who types up anything to do with Rebecca Blacks Friday will die. As in I will find you, kill you, and then use your account to delete your stupid comment! I don't care where you want to sit! Pick front! I don't like your voice that sounds like you've swallowed a tin can! Well done! You know the days if the week!)
Hah.....
Ok well that's all! Comment fan and vote if you want a speedy update!
P xxx