Cross Your Ts [Valduggery, Skulduggery Pleasant Fanfiction]

And the Darkness...

There is a sequel planned yay!

Zalla Dane's apartment was neat and clean, with a bag in one corner that was filled with clothes that weren't hers. There were books—not on bookshelves, but on a table or two. All were open. All were empty.

Zalla sat on her couch, hunched over, hand covering her mouth, staring at a box of letters. Well, at blank pieces of paper. She was having trouble breathing, and Valkyrie sat across from her and had absolutely no idea how to help.

"Everything?"

Zalla threw her phone on the table. Valkyrie picked it up, scrolled through the one-sided texts. Smilie faces and winkie faces and not a single reply. Valkyrie set the phone back on the glass, turned to look at Skulduggery standing behind her.

"What did Beleaguer write?"

"I told you, she didn't—just histories! Recollections of things! Reports on wars and political stuff, trials! Who the fuck is doing this?!" She sobbed, covered her mouth with her hand. "It's like they want to take her away," she said, so soft.

"It's not personal," Skulduggery said, picking up one of the abandoned books and flipping through it. "I feel as though it might have been a side effect of corrupting Beleaguer's work."

Zalla let out another sob.

Skulduggery gave her a moment, then snapped the book shut, took out a notepad. "That being said, I need you to give me as many book titles or subjects you can think of. Or enemies—"

"She didn't have any."

"Book titles, then," Skulduggery said, voice quick.

For a moment, Valkyrie didn't think Zalla was going to say anything. But the other woman sat up, closed her eyes, concentrated.

"There was the most recent one, didn't have a title yet. Necromancers. Uh, the one about the New Zealand conflict, and the title was War of Proximity, something like that. Another one on China's diplomacy with France, it was called something like that, too. And then..."

She opened her eyes, looked at Valkyrie, away just as quick.

"And then?" Skulduggery asked.

"Well, the whole... the whole war. She covered from the War of the Sanctuaries, how it bled into..." Zalla took a breath. "You know. Everything. The rebuilding, the warlocks. Firsthand accounts from that."

Valkyrie frowned, and she wished Zalla had put a fan out. Her mind felt like a swamp, and she rubbed her forehead, tried to get her thoughts straight. She didn't want to be here. She wanted to be with Alice. No, not Alice, that made her heart hurt. She wanted to go back to Skulduggery's house and take a cold shower.

Not to Finbar's, either.

Skulduggery was talking, and Valkyrie tuned back into the conversation.

"We'll call you. We're going to check with our sources, see if any other authors have experienced something similar to this. It's a pretty unusual happenstance, so it should have been reported somewhere."

Zalla nodded, grabbed a throw pillow, hugged it to her stomach. "Yeah."

Skulduggery touched her shoulder, and Valkyrie stood, hesitated. "I'm sorry. About Bel."

Zalla didn't answer, but there was something in the look she gave Valkyrie that made her want to turn away.

Valkyrie followed after Skulduggery. She winced as she heard another stifled sob as they shut the apartment door. Skulduggery handed her the book as the descended the stairs, and Valkyrie flipped through it, frowned.