Skulduggery Pleasant: Raising Cain

Chapter 137 - We need to talk

"You're back," Solomon greeted when the group walked back into the front door after their day trip to Haggard.

"Yep," Valkyrie smiled, giving him a hug. "Have you had lunch?"

"Of course," Solomon hugged her back. "I'm not incapable you know."

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Valkyrie took her shoes and coat off and hung both hers and Nadia's coats on the hook. "We saw my cousin on the way and I said I'd invite her over for dinner soon."

"Who's that?" Solomon asked.

"Crystal, one of the Toxic Twins," she smirked. "She's really nice actually. Her sister seems like a dick, but she's cool."

Solomon nodded and they all went towards the parlour. Laila was ready for another feed – had been since almost the second they had set off home and had cried the whole way back. Tanith had just wanted to get home quickly to do it since it was only a ten-minute drive. Valkyrie had safely managed to get them back in seven minutes. She was a good aunt.

Ghastly was sitting slightly more comfortably with his brothers, and his brothers were acting slightly more kindly towards him. He and Tanith had a short, pleasant conversation while they were out which had helped the situation. There were still some tensions, but it was getting better.

"What's on the agenda next?" Valkyrie asked, looking around the room. They all looked at her, Solomon with a little more confusion seeing as how he hadn't been on the trip. "Don't even start."

"Valkyrie..." Tanith said lowly.

"No," she demanded. "I'm not saying a thing."

"Why not?" Nadia asked quietly. Valkyrie looked at her and she could see the worry, and even fear, in her eyes. She hadn't said anything about Valkyrie roughly removing her from the flower shop, although Valkyrie worried under her jacket that there might be a bruise. She'd only pulled her out of fear of Mr Hagan, but she still felt some guilt that she might have really hurt her girlfriend. She was a whole lot stronger than Nadia after all. "You're making me think the worst."

Valkyrie deflated. "Nothing bad happened, I promise. I just really don't like that man, alright? Really."

Nadia was definitely unconvinced. Looking around, her brothers and Tanith were too. Even Solomon was getting alarmed.

"Look, guys, please. Nothing happened. Nothing will happen. I just hate him, he was a mean guy to me. I'm just, you know, remembering how much I hated him as a child. He told me off once and shouted and I always hated him since. That's all."

"That didn't happen," Saracen quietly said, looking at Valkyrie sadly. "You don't need to lie to us Valkyrie. We're here for you. Always."

Feeling more defensive now, and upset he used his powers to call her out, she just gritted her teeth for a moment before sticking to her story. "There's nothing to talk about. Okay?"

The others seemed reluctant to force her into talking and Valkyrie took that opportunity to move on. They got some tea and split off around the house to do their thing. Valkyrie took a phone call from a member of her detective team on a possibly whereabouts of Skulduggery that had been reported. Valkyrie didn't put much weight on it but sent three of her team to go and have a look from afar.

Solomon found her sitting in the snug looking over some things that had been emailed to her by Tipstaff.

They sat quietly as Valkyrie read over the material, their silence going on for an hour until the sun coming through the window had become orange as it set over the trees behind their house.