Skulduggery Pleasant: Raising Cain

Chapter 77 - Starting at the Temple

Skulduggery – Crow

Anton – Bear

Ghastly – Panda

Dexter – Wolf

Saracen – Weasel

Erskine – Snake

Solomon – Raven

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Chapter 77

"Hey Val," Fletcher said from her bedroom door. "Do you have a minute to talk?"

"Sure," Valkyrie said in surprise. Fletcher hadn't talked to her, or anyone except Panda, since his operations a month ago. "What can I do?"

"Nothing, I just," he started and huffed out a breath, running a hand over the top of his stupid hair. "I just wanted to say that I, I don't know, understand why you shot me. And I'm sorry I haven't been talking to you. It wasn't fair."

She pinched her finger nervously. "Thank you. But it's okay. I felt really bad when I did it. I still do. I am sorry."

He waved her away in true Fletcher fashion. "It's fine, don't worry about it."

"That doesn't make me think it's fine."

"It is though. So don't worry. I, err, I actually had something else I wanted to ask you," he said more nervously, coming into her room a few steps. "It's totally unrelated to all that, and I'm not bringing it up after that to push you into doing anything or anything, but I just wondered what you'd think if I said I wanted someone to move in with me?"

She left out a breath. "I mean, you can. But if they leave your room the alarms will go off."

"I know, which is why I thought it would be okay if we added her to the system so she'd be safe? We won't get in your way, we'll just use the game room and watch movies and maybe the kitchen when no one else is about. She likes to cook, but doesn't like the tiny kitchen in the apartment thing."

"Butlers quarters," Valkyrie corrected and thought very carefully. "I suppose we can do that. But if anything happens, you'll be held responsible."

He grinned. "That's great! You can meet her now if you want?"

"Fletcher, I'm about to leave–"

"That's fine, it'll be super quick. She's mortal, so everything's good, right?"

"You can't tell her about us!"

"Don't worry, she already knew," Fletcher reassured her. "I've been dating her for weeks. Her house was ruined in the Remnant attack when there were riots and stuff, so I wanted to give her a place to stay."

"Fine," she said, letting him deal with all that himself. It wasn't her business. "But I need to be at the front in ten minutes to leave."

"Cool," he said, and touched her arm and they were gone.

They arrived in Australia, and Valkyrie only knew that because it was night time and by the most beautiful beach she'd ever seen. She breathed it in, thinking about how much closer to Nadia she was in that moment, and wondering if Nadia knew. It was stupid, but she really hoped she did and got some comfort from it.

She turned around and pulled herself out her thoughts when she saw Fletcher standing next to a girl. Maybe girl was not quite correct though. She looked like a young lady, certainly not a woman, but older than Valkyrie. She might have been twenty, so two years older than Fletcher, and had mousy brown hair and light brown eyes, a short cut and was certainly shorter than any other grown female Valkyrie knew. She was probably only just five foot and had a small nose and mouth but big, girlish eyes.