Skulduggery Pleasant: Raising Cain

Chapter 32 - The punishment

Skulduggery – Crow

Anton – Bear

Ghastly – Panda

Dexter – Wolf

Saracen – Weasel

Erskine – Snake

Solomon - Raven

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Chapter 32

Unable to sleep, she tidied up her room, going so far as to pick up things from under her bed which was mostly old clothes she put in the bin since she knew they would never fit again, and sorted out her wardrobe after sitting in bed for an hour bored as hell. It took an hour in itself to tidy it up.

Still tired, Valkyrie sorted through her newly filled hamper of clothes that had sat on the floor for perhaps months and made a dark pile and hauled it downstairs. At least she wasn't going to be sleeping with partly damp hair now. She hadn't quite mastered drying her hair yet. Soon though.

The laundry went in the washing machine and she went to the kitchen for some warm milk.

Weasel and Bear were sitting at the kitchen table nursing cups of coffee. They'd been placed on watch apparently. From the blink of the security system in the hallway, the alarms were all activated too. Preparation for an attack from the Diablerie. Taking a deep breath, Valkyrie felt almost relieved. At least they wouldn't be taking on Nadia or anyone else as leverage if they were attacking her house. Even if the idea of them made her extremely nervous.

"What are you doing awake?" Bear asked her, looking up at her from his hunched position on the table. He looked knackered.

She shrugged. "Can't sleep. Figured I'd make myself useful."

Weasel snored and put his chin on his fists, leaning over the table to watch her get the milk carton out. "Since when did you like making yourself useful?"

She didn't answer that, her tiredness making the statement feel more like an insult than a tease and she didn't particularly feel like overreacting. She had made enough people hate her for one day. She could get Weasel back in a week or two.

She took a sip of her milk, considered, and put it in the microwave. When it was warm, she sat at the table with Bear and Weasel.

"So," Bear said, putting an arm over her chair and squeezing her shoulder. She smiled and leaned into him. "What happened with Crow?"

She sighed and explained, in few and censored words, his protectiveness over her when they got Fletcher and then the dramatic visit to Finbar's where he had seen his friend possessed by the Faceless, and then their meeting with Solomon Wreath.

They nodded and took her seriously when she explained that she saw genuine sorrow in Solomon and didn't get angry when she explained she hugged a random man Crow hated, or that he said she could call him any time. Instead, they treated her as a young woman whose opinion they valued and trusted. She was often right in these situations. While her social skills sometimes lacked due to her hot-headedness, she was always reliable when she said if someone was guilty or innocent, remorseful or merciless.

Solomon, she said, was guilty of what he did but did it for innocent reasons, making him a twisted good guy, someone who had realised his twistedness and was trying to fix it. They believed her and didn't question it. Perhaps they had already known.

The three of them sat silently for a moment, thinking of Solomon's actions and Crow's anger, not just at her but also at Solomon, though Valkyrie knew she didn't know the whole story. She couldn't be certain if Bear or Weasel did either.