Valkyrie has a gun

the real monster?

I had never heard him make that sound before. A sound of hopeless agony. We had fought death bringers, witches, sorcerers and gods and I never heard him sound as lost as I did now. Looking up at him from the ground, I could see his body struggle to free itself from the chains. The dagger burrowed deep in his bone emitted a low glow around his neck. I looked over at my father and felt my voice shake. 

 "What did you do to him?"

This man who had taken care of me and had loved me looked at me now with a look of pure hatred. "That dagger will slowly kill him in the most painful way possible. I knew it was going to be hard to kill an undead man so I searched for a long time for that dagger."

"No," I whispered. "He can't die. No dagger can kill him." I desperately wanted that to be true. But the hard smile my father gave me made me doubt my deepest beliefs.

"That dagger is infused with what you call Necromancy magic. I paid a pretty penny for that spell and for someone to put it into the dagger. Apparently that stuff can be pretty potent to a dead thing," he said, spitting in the direction of Skulduggery.

I jumped up and tried to run to Skulduggery but my father grabbed my arm and swung me back.

"There is no helping him and pretty soon you will be dead along with him."

I looked up in shock at my father's grim face. Tears fell down my cheeks.

"Why are you doing this?" I screamed. "Why are you torturing him?"

"He must pay for turning you into a monster. For making you into this Valkyrie," my father growled as he reached behind him. "And you must be punished for what you have done."

I felt the pain of that memory come back. I knew what he meant but I needed him to say it, to confirm to me his whole reasoning for all this craziness. Skulduggery writhed behind him, not even screaming anymore. I needed to hurry. I wasn't sure how much longer he had.

"What did she do dad? The monster?" I asked, watching him carefully as he revealed another dagger.

He pointed it at me.

"You know what you did," he whispered, pain filling his voice.

I walked slowly towards him.

"What did Darquesee do?" I asked him.

"YOU KNOW!" he screamed. "You know that YOU killed your mother!"