Skulduggery – Crow
Anton – Bear
Ghastly – Panda
Dexter – Wolf
Saracen – Weasel
Erskine – Snake
Solomon – Raven
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Chapter 64
Three weeks later
"No changes then?" Valkyrie asked.
"None," Nadia said from the mirror, brushing her hair into plaits for bed. "I think they've chosen the school I'm going to but they haven't told me. Daadii is coming to babysit while they look at it in person, wherever it is. They're getting a plane and going for a week, that's all I know."
"Whose coming to babysit?" Valkyrie asked.
"My grandmother," she sighed. "She's lovely until she's mad. And she gets really, really mad when anyone she considers a child disobeys, and I definitely class as a child. I'm not looking forward to this. I don't think you can visit so long as she's here."
"Is she just coming for the week?" Valkyrie asked hopefully.
"No, she's staying for two weeks after my parents get back."
"How long until they ship you away?"
"Three and a half weeks." Nadia got up, went over to the bed and sat down. "I might only get to see you one more time."
"Baby, don't say that," Valkyrie whispered, coming up behind her and rubbing her shoulders. Nadia relaxed into her and Valkyrie tried to work out the tense muscles. Nadia had lost a little weight since she had stopped talking to her mother and it hadn't gotten better since. She was eating, Nadia had reassured her, but it wasn't a good situation either. She kissed her shoulder. "I will see you. I'll travel to France or Africa or India or wherever they take you and stay there. I promise. I'll visit you and be with you as much as I can, and we can talk every morning and night, and I'll send you cards and letters, and presents and flowers. I'll do anything to keep you happy and remembering me."
"Val," she said, turning in her arms. "I'm not going to forget you. I'm going to miss you, but I won't forget you."
"You say that now," Valkyrie said quietly, grim sadness on her face, "but soon you'll be in a private fancy school with all these pretty fancy people with all their money and prettiness and they'll all be in skirts all the time and you won't get to see me very much. Everybody says that those things tempt people. They all do. And then you'll forget all about me and I'll never see you again except with some pretty, fancy girlfriend with loads of money and it won't be fair at all."
She glared at her. "So you think I'll just throw you away because some other girl is standing near me?"
"No–"
"That's what it sounded like."
"That's not what I meant."
"It's what you said."
"No, I meant that I'll not be there and they will–"
"And that I'll be disloyal and cheat on you. Or that I'll decide you're not worth it after two and a half years of dating. Is that it? Is that really how little you think of me?"
YOU ARE READING
Skulduggery Pleasant: Raising Cain
Fanfiction(This story is written as a fanfiction, but can be read as a story without having read any of the books.) Valkyrie Cain, the adoptive daughter of the Dead Men, has had a life full of love and magic. But as she gets older, times become scarier and sh...
