Skulduggery Pleasant: Books 7 - 9

Skulduggery nodded and Valkyrie twisted the sphere a bit more. The bubble grew, enveloping Sean completely. As everyone else in the classroom gasped at his apparent disappearance, Skulduggery slid an arm round his throat. Sean made a sound and his hands flailed as the sleeper hold tightened.

Doran leaped from his chair, eyes wide. “Seriously? We can turn invisible now? This keeps getting cooler!”

Skulduggery backed off and Valkyrie stayed with him. By the time they passed into the corridor Sean was unconscious. Skulduggery laid him on the floor and snapped handcuffs around his wrists.

“Sean?”

Kitana walked out of the classroom. “Sean?” she repeated. “Are you here?”

Skulduggery muttered a curse, picked Sean off the floor and dragged him further away.

Doran came out after her, his face red from straining. “Am I still here? Can you still see me?”

“I can still see you, you idiot,” Kitana said. “I don’t think he’s invisible.”

“Then where’s he gone?”

“I think he’s still here. I can feel him. He’s close. Can’t you feel him?”

Doran shrugged, then turned and looked right at Valkyrie. For a moment she thought he could actually see her, but his eyes moved on without focusing and she relaxed.

“They have him,” Kitana whispered.

Valkyrie looked at Skulduggery. “What do we do?” she asked, her voice sounding unreasonably loud.

“Who has him?” Doran whispered back to Kitana.

“Taking them by surprise seems to work,” Skulduggery said.

Kitana looked around and whispered, “The magic people.”

“If they can’t see us coming, their instincts can’t kick in to save them,” Skulduggery said. He left Sean on the floor and took out his gun, held it straight out, aimed right at Doran’s head.

Valkyrie blinked.

“You think they’re still here?” whispered Doran. “You think they can see us?”

Kitana didn’t answer. Doran waved his hand through the air, trying to feel for enemies. Skulduggery’s gloved finger rested on the trigger as Doran turned his way.

“You can’t just...” Valkyrie said, and faltered.

“You said I’d have to be my usual ruthless self,” Skulduggery replied. “If I take them both out now, they won’t get to harm another living soul. It’s better for everyone if they die right here.”

“You’re just going to shoot them?”

“This is life or death, Valkyrie.” He thumbed the hammer back. “Giving someone a fighting chance is giving them a chance to beat you. What have I taught you about combat?”

She looked at Doran and Kitana as they slowly backed away. “Never fight on someone else’s terms,” she said quietly. She closed her eyes. “Do it.”

She waited for the gunshot, hearing only Doran’s whisperings. She looked up. Skulduggery was putting his gun away.

“Dammit,” he said, then picked Sean up off the floor and threw him straight at Doran. To Doran, Sean suddenly appeared out of thin air and collided with him. They cracked their heads together and went down, and Kitana jumped back, cursing.

“Evacuate them,” Skulduggery said, and used the air to leap at Kitana. He grabbed her, arm round her neck, but a wave of energy rippled out from her centre, flinging him away.

Resisting the urge to jump into the fight, Valkyrie instead ran into the classroom. She slammed the door, deactivated the sphere, scaring the hell out of everyone inside.

“The windows,” she said. “Out the windows. Hurry!”

Windows were opened and there was a frantic dash. They were shoving and pushing and stamping to get out. The teacher was doing his best to orchestrate things but he was making it worse.

Valkyrie clicked her fingers, summoning a ball of flame into her hand. Everyone froze. She nodded at a group. “You. Out first. Go. No one else move.”

The group did as they were told. When they were off and running, she nodded to the next group. “You lot. Go.”

Group by group, they left, followed by the teacher. Valkyrie turned back to the door. It had gone suspiciously quiet out there.

She turned the handle and peeked out. Sean was still unconscious, still in shackles. She stepped over him, ran to the double doors at the end of the corridor. Smoke rose from a huge scorch mark in the wood. She passed through. Heard a crash. She ran, came to the gym. One of the doors was off its hinges. There was a flash of light from inside and she heard Skulduggery cry out. She twisted the sphere and ran in.

Skulduggery was on the floor of the gymnasium. His façade had retracted, and Kitana scowled at Doran as they closed in slowly. “Would you please learn to aim?”

“Don’t blame me,” Doran said defensively. “I got a massive headache because of this guy.”

Kitana looked back at Skulduggery. “So what are you? Are you actually a skeleton, or is this just a trick or something, like a disguise?”

“No disguise,” Skulduggery groaned.

“Why do you wear a suit?” Doran asked.

“Would you rather me naked?”

“No,” Doran shot back. “That’d be gross.”

Kitana sighed. “Why would it be gross? He’s a skeleton.”

“Well, yeah, but he’s a guy, like. If it was a naked skeleton woman, then that’d be OK.”

“So a naked skeleton woman would be hot, would she?”

“Yeah,” Doran said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Because she’d be naked.”

Kitana turned back to Skulduggery. “I want to apologise for my friend. He’s not very bright, and he’s a bit of a homophobe.”

“It’s not homophobia,” Skulduggery said, slowly getting to his feet. “It’s just typical teenage boy bluster. He’ll grow out of it, assuming he lives that long.”

“Is that a threat?” Kitana asked. “Are you threatening us?”

“Not at all. But now that we have a private moment to talk, why not discuss some rather pertinent matters? Such as what you’re hoping to accomplish with all this.”