Skulduggery Pleasant: Raising Cain

Chapter 15 - Nadia Robin

Skulduggery – Crow

Anton – Bear

Ghastly – Panda

Dexter – Wolf

Saracen – Weasel

Erskine – Snake

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Chapter 15

"Hello," she said to Billy, trying to not seem awkward. "I'm sorry about that. I was pulled away before I knew what was happening."

"It's fine," he grunted quietly. "Let me show you my friends."

He was an absolute bore, Valkyrie soon discovered, and so were his friends who looked as if they had been pinned down and groomed by their parents with a struggle before coming to the party. They didn't say anything between themselves except to comment when they saw someone trip or make a slight mistake dancing, or to say how much they hated someone's dress, or how a person had apparently slept with someone once upon a time and the scandal of it.

Valkyrie sighed. She opened her purse and looked at her phone. She'd been sitting there for at least ten minutes with nothing to do and the nerves were gone now, replaced by impatience. She sighed again, loudly.

"I'm sorry," one of his female friends, whose name she had forgotten, snapped. "Are we boring your highness?"

She looked at her with annoyance. "Yes."

She sneered at her. "You're as irritating as they say."

"Considering that comes from criminals and people annoyed that I'm better than them at catching criminals, I don't see that as much of an insult," she replied with an eye roll.

"Great," she sneered. "Take your entitled-ness and ugly dress elsewhere."

Valkyrie sighed sadly. "Anton isn't going to like hearing this. I really didn't want him to have to hurt anyone tonight."

She got up and noticed the friends look between themselves quickly in a bit of a panic, but she walked away. The other teens were in packs talking just between themselves and she didn't feel like intruding, so she left through one of the balcony doors into the cold, late summer air. The door had been open a crack so it wasn't so bad. Outside were some younger people than her, but not so much as the other children within. It seemed as if people nearer her own age were here.

"Hello," she said, gently pushing the door to.

"Hi," one of them said, a probably the youngest there. "You're Valkyrie Cain."

She nodded. "I've been told," she said. "They're being incredibly boring inside. Is it okay if I stay with you a while?"

They shrugged and said it was fine and got back to talk about something that had happened at one of their schools. Valkyrie didn't listen but did stand beside a few of them to look into the grounds. It was a manicured look, unlike the hills and trees of the much smaller grounds Valkyrie owned. She loved the woods though. The manicured look was already getting boring.

"Who are you?" She asked randomly to the girl beside her.

"Nadia," she said hesitantly, then stuck her hand out to shake. "Nadia Robin."

"That's a pretty name," Valkyrie said with a smile. She looked to only be a year younger or maybe a few months. "What are you doing outside?"

"Same as you, it's boring inside. I have no one to dance with," she complained with a small tug on her lips that made her seem as if she didn't want to make a big deal of anything. "I want to dance all night and no one even asked. So I'm just standing here waiting for my parents to be done."