Skulduggery Pleasant: Raising Cain

Chapter 24 - The attack

Skulduggery – Crow

Anton – Bear

Ghastly – Panda

Dexter – Wolf

Saracen – Weasel

Erskine – Snake

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Warning: Contains offensive language. And other topics of offensiveness. Sorry... Like really sorry, I feel bad! 

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Chapter 24

They went to a nice place near the dance studio for dinner after she had washed, changed and got her reflection out for her homework – she was too busy for that rubbish and Crow was enjoying giving her extra work at the moment, making it too overwhelming a workload to do without it.

They all enjoyed dinner there, and had all seen her swim and dance, but not all at the same time. Crow was once again not present as he couldn't be seen but he was a big supporter of hers when she practised her solo at home. Valkyrie thought he secretly enjoyed pretending to be a dance coach too. Unfortunately, he was good at it and her dancing had improved. His ego inflated dramatically and she had little choice but to do what he said.

She ate a light dinner, had a milkshake, laughed with her friends, then went with them to the studio. She was in the group dance first – no one spoke to her, all going to another school and a bit older than her, so they had their own friendship group that didn't include her – and they practised that. She did backflips and silly things in the back with Tanith and got glared at by the instructor, the queue she needed to get in line with the nine other girls.

They did their well-rehearsed routine, focusing on their movements and each other's bodies to move fluidly in the contemporary dance they were doing. It was fun, despite the intensity of the music and pressure to perform, and she always found herself suddenly being taken over the movements, moving between and with the other girls in time and without thinking.

It was moments before she was done with those two hours of practice she loved the most, the most tiring part. The burn in her muscles, the music beating in her ears, her heartbeat thudding strongly. As the strongest they had in the group, she had to pick up one of the girls for a verse of the slow song they were using and stand on just one leg as she leaned forward and the girl leaned back, guiding them in what was meant to be a heart throbbing moment of the song where Valkyrie held the girl back from throwing herself into the 'lost sea' that was the others. It made her job that much more fun since she had a leading part. She was looking forward to performing it.

As soon as their instructor let them go, Valkyrie grinned and rushed over to her brothers and Tanith.

"How'd I do?"

"It was great," Tanith said enthusiastically. "It's even better than the last time I watched."

"You improved a lot over the month," Bear said. Valkyrie grinned at him, feeling the warmth he was looking at her with. He was always supportive.

Now she just needed to do the competitions!

.*****.

Those competitions came far too quickly. First was swimming, the last day of Year Eight at Secondary School, and Valkyrie was driven by the school to a big stadium in Dublin for it with the other two competitors. It was a boring drive and the pep talk was the worst yet, but they all got in their swimming gear and got themselves ready for their heats.