Do you believe?

Chapter 9

"Are you ok Val? You look a bit shaken up." Arabella looked concerned for Valkyrie, she wouldn't stop shaking "Oh...yeah I'm just a bit shaken up from the challenge."

"Ah! I wont ask what you had too do!" Arabella said and smiled softly at Valkyrie "Thanks." she replied simply. She didn't feel like talking after what had just happened she felt terrible, she couldn't think of anything else except from the pleading faces of her closes friends as she pointed the gun at them. She kept telling herself that it wasn't real but it didn't seem to be working if she could go back in time and kill the man instead of Dead Men she would have. They were her friends.

Her family.

It had been a few hours since the challenge and Valkyrie was missing Skulduggery immensely, she couldn't get him out of her head. No...she couldn't be...falling for the skeleton detective could she? As she was trying to convince herself Skulduggery was nothing more than a friend she heard talking on the other side of the door so she climbed slowly out of bed and tip toed up to the door and tried to avoid any creaking floorboards and put her ear against the door so she could hear what was going on outside "Do you think she will notice?" Lorcan asked

"I don't know. We will have to keep a low profile when doing this though." Duke whispered

"Why not let her go?" Arabella asked "She's a nice girl! She deserves to be the new Grand Guardian!"

"Arabella! She doesn't know what she is doing! She cant do a simple challenge without crying for gods sake!" Were they...no they couldn't be talking about...Valkyrie could they? And what were they talking about "We have been here long enough!" Lorcan said and Valkyrie could hear Duke sigh "It doesn't matter how long we have been here! We are the rightful Guardians of the magic world! We will just have to kill the girl."

"NO!" Arabella yelled and Valkyrie gasped as she heard the sound of flesh hitting flesh. Had she been slapped? Valkyrie couldnt go out there to help her, she didn't want to let them know she had been listening "Miss Cain will have to die." Duke said and Valkyrie clamped a hand over her mouth as she heard footsteps fading away down the corridor. They were talking about her! What will she do? As she was coming up with a plan she felt the air shift around her so she whirled around and positioned herself in a fighting stance "Hello?" she asked and when she didn't get a reply she stepped forward a little bit and heard the floorboard creak underneath her so she stepped back but as she did her body collided with another so she swung around but didn't have time to see who was there because a bag was thrown over her head and she was being dragged out the room.

A while of kicking and screaming later the person who had kidnapped her had put her down on the floor and Valkyrie could feel there presence "What do you want from me?" she asked and the beg was lifted of her head and she could see the person clearly now, the girl in front of her had dark hair that tumbled down to her waist and dark eyes that twinkled in the light. She wore all black and all skin below her neck was totally covered "Who are you?" Valkyrie asked and the girl smiled "I'm Bella!"

"Bella who?"

"Just Bella is fine."

"Oh...ok then! But what do you want from me?" Valkyrie asked and Bella laughed faintly "I don't want anything from you but your so called Guardian friends do."

"I know! I heard them talking about how they wanted to kill me."

"Yes! Well at least Duke and Lorcan do. Arabella couldn't hurt a soul!"

"But why do they want to kill me?" Bella walked up to her and sat down beside her "Because as time goes on the Elder Guardian can sense new Guardians rising and there is a rule there can only be four guardians so the current Guardians will be replaced. That's why they want to get rid of you so they can last  bit longer."

"That makes sense I guess. But they were talking about the Grand Guardian. Whats that?" Bella's eyes widened "The Grand Guardian? That is the most important guardian in the world!"

"But what do they do?"

"They are like the rulers of there fellow guardians."

"Who is the grand guardian currently?"

"Duke." Bella said and Valkyrie suddenly felt sick "Those challenges..."

"What challenges?"

"The challenges that determined what your the bringer of!" Bella grew pale "No! You don't need to do any challenges to find out! The elder guardian already knows. If you did any challenges then they would have had an effect on anyone who was involved." Bella said and Valkyrie grew pale and felt like crying "No...NO! The dead men! I killed them!" she yelled and broke down into sobs as Bella hugged her tight "I'm so sorry Valkyrie." she whispered.