Skulduggery Pleasant: Raising Cain

Chapter 123 - Short China visit and thanking Fletcher

Chapter 123

After informing her brothers, who were still sitting silently in the parlour, that she had full control of the search, Valkyrie took Tanith's motorbike and set off to China's library.

She was glad to get on the road and have some alone time to clear her head, so much so she was walking with a skip in her step when she got to China's. She still had to thank the woman for saving her at Bliss' house when she stupidly thought China wasn't expecting her brother to save her. He had done, after Valkyrie put her own life in danger, meaning China had to pull her out and use up her magic on healing her instead of herself. Something Valkyrie hadn't expected but did appreciate.

China was actually in the hallway when Valkyrie got up the stairs and had a smile waiting for her.

"Valkyrie, my dear," China softly smiled. "You've recovered."

"Yeah, as of yesterday."

"And your family let you out without an escort? That is a surprise," China commented, opening the apartment door to let them in.

"Yeah, well, they had to take some time off for themselves," Valkyrie started.

"Oh? Tell me more," China smiled, sitting on a beautiful new velvet chair and pouring some tea.

"They haven't been acting like themselves. They essentially left Nadia by herself to deal with everything to do with me and haven't spoken to her once. I know they don't have to talk to her in normal circumstances, but they got her from her house, threw her in the hospital, and didn't say a thing," Valkyrie explained carefully.

"And of course there are the rumours she was the one that rescued Mr Wreath," China suggested.

Valkyrie smiled tightly. "You know, then. Yes, Skulduggery manipulated her into going by saying she was the only one able to fit in some ventilation system and that if anyone else went they'd surely die. She's already going through a lot mentally so I don't think she could think of a way out of it and being so stressed at the time... it's insane she actually managed to do it."

"It is an impressive feat," China put in, stirring a sugar cube around her cup.

"I know, I was honestly in shock. But when it came to telling me yesterday, my brothers tried to trick me into thinking Fletcher did it all like they told the public, and Nadia's struggling a lot with everything and I got her to tell me the truth. It turns out the Dead Men can't cope very well with breaks within their own, just like the Spiders were counting on. So I told them to take a few days, got full control of the search, and came to speak with you."

"And how are you feeling?" China asked, sipping her tea. The light was shining beautifully on her hair, giving her a dark halo.

Valkyrie shrugged. "A little shocked. Maybe a little hurt that they did all those things, but I guess I understand. I'm more mad with Skulduggery than I am with anyone else. To be fair, Tanith is dealing with too much to be held responsible, Anton was in hospital for a long time and didn't seem to speak to her any more or less than usual. It was just Dexter, Saracen and Erskine. And Ghastly, but he's decided not to talk to anyone so that's a whole other thing. I thought they'd be the ones to understand, given how close we are. So yeah, definitely hurt. But now I just want to fix all this so the rest of us can be happy."

For a moment, China watched her with a small smiled, and then put her tea down. "Well, I know some things that you don't."

"I was counting on it."

"I've been going through my dear, deceased brother's home and I've found some correspondences I believe he left specifically for me in the event he died. Seeing as I have no interest in the nature of the information he was giving me, I passed them on a few days ago," China explained and Valkyrie felt a pit in her stomach. "I found out later that the day Skulduggery came to get that information, he had already taken young Nadia to the Spiders and left her there for dead."