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From Skulduggery Pleasant kinkmeme post. Ahaha.

"Valkyrie is the death bringer. Unlike Melancholia, her power is consistent and strong. But she's still reluctant about leaving Skulduggery.

Until Tenebrae lets her in on a little secret.

Angst. I want it. But the ending is up to you- make it as sad or as happy as you want."

Everyone thank bubblemoon666 on Tumblr for the Beta'ing.

Please, just stop talking...

...

"Dead?" Valkyrie took a sip of her water bottle. "Do they know what happened?"

Solomon watched her, head tilted, waiting patiently to resume their lesson. He always waited for her, and sometimes she wished he would kick her chair out from underneath her and tease her. But he just shrugged.

"Craven has been mumbling something about surges and experiments. Understandably, the Temple is not amused." He shrugged again. "It's a sorry thing. I'm looking into it. Did you know her?"

Valkyrie stood and stretched, shook out her ring hand. "Yeah. Sort of. She was annoying and prissy and thought she was, like, the best thing in the entire world because she respected Tenebrae."

"I'll look into it. Ready?"

Valkyrie curled the shadows around her fist. "Were you not going to look into it?"

Solomon flicked his cane, and a wave of darkness crashed toward Valkyrie. She cut through it with her own slice of shadow, following through to make sure the shadows didn't sneak around to trip her up. He did that, sometimes.

...

Valkyrie landed on her back, and the breath whooshed out of her. She struggled to recover, arching her back and sucking in a gulp of air. She pushed the air, skidded away from Skulduggery to give herself time and room.

"You're distracted," he commented.

Valkyrie rolled neatly onto her knees, struggled up, circled Skulduggery.

"Fight me."

"I am."

He stepped forward, threw a punch she dodged, ducked under his arm and slammed against him. He was so smooth on his feet, and he easily adjusted, got her into a lock, arms pinned at her side.

"Were you with Wreath?" Skulduggery asked, too casual for what he was really asking.

Valkyrie caught her breath, and he set her back on the ground. She stretched out, wincing when a stitch in her side twinged. She didn't answer, rolled her hands, shook them out. Skulduggery watched her, and she threw her hands in the air.

"Yes, yes, I was with Wreath. I forgot to text you. Did I miss anything interesting?"

"That depends if you think blackmailing is interesting."

Valkyrie hesitated. "I do."

"Too bad."

She scowled. "Oh, tell me! Who's blackmailing who?" She pulled on her sweatshirt, the chill of the outside getting to her. At least in the Temple, they had a whole training room to themselves.

Not that it mattered.

"Skulduggery..."

He shrugged. "I feel as though our dear friend China is hiding something from us. I'm not sure what, but she's hiding something. Some of her informants have defected, and they're all tight-lipped when questioned about the reason. We're going to figure out why."