Skulduggery Pleasant: Raising Cain

Chapter 53 - Back to normal?

Skulduggery – Crow

Anton – Bear

Ghastly – Panda

Dexter – Wolf

Saracen – Weasel

Erskine – Snake

Solomon – Raven

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Chapter 53

When Valkyrie woke up, she sulked in her room, having worked out exactly why she was upset with Crow.

She was jealous that he liked someone else. It didn't even matter what type of like, whether it was friendship, companionship or something more, she just wasn't happy about it. He was her friend, her kind-of father and when she tried getting Crow and Raven to be friends again she hadn't exactly counted on Crow suddenly ignoring her or passing her over in cases because of it.

So she did what she always did when she got bored and upset – she cleaned her room.

That was probably the only upside of all that. And talking with Nadia on the phone all morning as she worked since it was the weekend.

"But why would he cut you out?" Nadia asked her through the phone as Valkyrie worked on sorting through her papers and schoolwork. "I get before when he was upset with you, but now it makes no sense."

"I don't know, it's just what he's doing," Valkyrie griped.

Nadia hummed. "I think he's just excited."

"Excited?" Valkyrie asked, pausing to look at her phone. "I'm not sure about that. More like insufferable."

"Val, he just got his friend back, I bet he is quite excited to catch up. Especially since you did say that you think he always liked Solomon, he just hated him at the same time because of a handful of stupid things Solomon did. It was a long time to like him without talking or doing anything together. He lives with you, but he only has so much time of the day with Solomon."

Valkyrie shook her head as she sorted through the books. "No, that can't work because – well I don't know, alright, but even if it was true he still shouldn't push me out just because he found someone else to be happy with! He's my adoptive father, he can't just do that. Even if he's not really my father or anything. Just a guardian."

"I know baby, I know, I wasn't saying that," Nadia said softly. Valkyrie pouted a little as she continued to clean, wishing she could see the girl. They hadn't seen each other in over two months. "I was just saying why he might, not that it's right."

She sighed. "I know. I'm just upset, and I know I was being stupid so I don't want to see him, but I also do and want to just get it over with. I don't want to lose my job, I love my job and I love working with Crow every day. I'd hate to stop. But I – you know what I mean, I just don't want to be passed over. God, my head is all over the place."

"Yeah, I can tell. Just keep tidying, I'm sure your room needs it."

Valkyrie smiled, looking it over. "I mean, it's a little better. I just have a lot, like a lot a lot, of washing to do. I have four used towels in here to wash. That's a lot of towels."

"Why do you own so many towels?"

"I don't know, there's so many of us we just keep them all in one place and share. And I mean share them once cleaned, not share after someone else used it," Valkyrie verified. "We're close but not that close."