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"I can't believe I'm missing Christmas," Valkyrie muttered.

Skulduggery glanced over at her. "We're not missing Christmas. As a matter of fact, Christmas is a week away. We'll be back well before Christmas—we'll be back so early, I'll still have to suffer under the holiday cheer."

"Yeah, exactly. We're missing the holiday cheer, which is almost as bad as missing Christmas." Valkyrie rubbed her hands together. "Oh, wow, this town is so cute."

"You've said that about every town we've ridden through."

Valkyrie gestured. "But look. It looks like a postcard. The snow and the chimneys and the little red houses. We should stop and get gingerbread men. And hot chocolate. Or hot something. Seriously, it's cold."

"We'll, we are in Sweden."

Valkyrie sighed. "Yeah. Why couldn't we go somewhere warm for Christmas?"

"You're being incredibly annoying right now."

She grinned at him. "You just don't want to bleach."

"No," Skulduggery said, "I don't want to have to deal with you complaining about sunburn. I'd rather you you'd lose a toe."

"What?"

"Or your nose."

"You would rather me toe-less?"

"Or nose-less."

She frowned at him. "Don't be grumpy. Look on the bright side, maybe we can..." A house caught her attention, and she couldn't help but to watch it whip by them. "Did that house have a barbed-wire fence?"

"I believe so."

"Don't you think that's a little suspicious?"

Skulduggery shrugged. "Oh, I don't know. I mean, this is another country. They probably celebrate Christmas differently than we do. I can see the appeal in a good barbed-wire fence. It would keep out carolers, for one."

Valkyrie laughed, but she turned in her seat to watch the house recede. "It looked like it was cobbled together."

"Did it?"

"Don't pretend you aren't curious. Can we just poke around? Really, really quick, before we're yelled at by the Swedish Sanctuary? Because don't act like it wouldn't be a thousand-times more interesting."

Skulduggery huffed, but he was already pulling over to turn around.

They drove back and circled around the house. It seemed normal. Two stories, blue paint, a decent yard, a chimney with no smoke. Except for the fence, it was another postcard house. The barbed-wire was crudely fashioned together, welded quickly and badly. While there had been lights on in the other houses, or groups of people huddled around outside, this house was dark and deserted.

Valkyrie leaned over Skulduggery's seat on their third pass. "Look," she said, pointing, "the window's broken. Can you tell which side the glass broke on?"

"Not yet."

They pulled over and got out.

"It's fucking freezing," Valkyrie moaned. "Why couldn't we have been ordered here in the spring?"

The sky was gray, and Valkyrie couldn't tell if it was snowing against the endless white of the surroundings. The town was a few kilometers away, and no one had disturbed the snow around the house. There were woods far behind the house, and in front, nothing but an empty field.