Skulduggery Pleasant: Raising Cain

Chapter 101 - Where's my magic?

Skulduggery – Crow

Anton – Bear

Ghastly – Panda

Dexter – Wolf

Saracen – Weasel

Erskine – Snake

Solomon – Raven

Corrival – Pa

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Chapter 101

She barely made it halfway around the building before she got lightheaded and began to succumb to her hyperventilating, shock and panic. Wolf was already with her, but the problem was, his hands steadying her and keeping her leaving the damn fish market was making her panicking get worse and worse, but she knew if he let go she'd fall to the ground and probably start pulling her hair and that was making her panic more because then people would be even more likely of seeing her. She couldn't breathe. It was like her throat was closed up as tears had filled her eyes and her breast throbbed in pain. Her ears rang and she dug her hands into her forearms so much she could see she was scratching herself badly, but when Wolf tried to gently pull her fingers from the skin, she whined with massive, panicking eyes–

And passed out.

Valkyrie woke up in Kenspeckle's hospital and immediately started sucking in deep breaths. There was no one else in the ward and after looking around a few times, she felt her heart slow down and her breathing get easier. Was this what it was like for Snake? When he had just left the Spiders and realised everything was a lie, and he was constantly stressed? Just, unable to breathe. Unable to be with people, but at the same time, worried now there was no one there – her nails stuck into the palm of her hands. She was so on edge and she hated it.

There was a light knock on the door and she took a deep breath, sat herself up on the bed and swallowed before croaking, "Yeah?"

Wolf carefully opened it and stuck his head in. "Can I come in?"

She smiled nervously. "Sure."

He smiled back and closed the door gently behind him before taking a seat next to her bed. "How are you feeling?"

"Physically? A little sore but not in pain. I'm tired."

He put his hand on the bed, palm up and welcoming. She slowly put her hand in his, testing her own boundaries given how sensitive her heart felt, and was happily surprised when she felt a thousand times better with his hand gently folded around hers. "And what about the emotional and mental side?"

She bit the inside of her cheek. "Not so good."

"Yeah?" He said, welcoming her to talk. She smiled when she realised she'd picked that up from him years ago.

"I feel jittery. And I guess jumpy. If I even think about moving from here my heart jumps, and it's all because I'm nervous, but I don't need to be," she said, trailing off at the end.

"Why's that?" He asked.

She bit her lip. "Will you keep a secret?"

He sighed. "You know I don't like keeping things from the others, Cub."

"I know. Just until I can talk about it more," she said quietly, get stomach clenching horribly. She put an arm around it.

"I suppose I can do that for you."