Skulduggery Pleasant: Raising Cain

Chapter 147 - Some serious thinking

Chapter 147

Heaving in lungful's of breath, Valkyrie threw herself out of the way of a stream of bullets, little black shadow circles thrown at her by Norma and her sister, Helana, who both had all the ease and patience in the world. They were trying to make her use her magic whilst throwing stuff at her, but since she had accidentally used her magic in the correct way when she almost got hit in the head once, they had decided she needed high-pressure situations all the time. She was hating it.

Mostly because it worked. She dove past another stream and threw her magic out of her hand, whipping through the air and smashing the vase into a million pieces. The shadow bullets stopped. Valkyrie panted and stayed on the floor where she had fallen.

"That was great!" Helana squealed excitedly, jumping up and down. "You're getting really good!"

"Thanks," Valkyrie wheezed.

"Aww, come on," Norma smiled, rolling her eyes and offering her a hand. "It's not that bad, is it? We can have coffee and cake after this."

Valkyrie glanced at Nadia and Solomon who were sitting next to each other at the other end of the hall impatiently waiting for Valkyrie to finish training. They were both mad at her, but Valkyrie was sure it was for different reasons. She wasn't certain if Norma had worked out that Nadia just didn't like her, or if she thought Nadia was in a bad mood, but Valkyrie had noticed her girlfriend's evil looks. It would be cute, except Valkyrie was certain she was in for a shouting at when she got home and that was before they all found out about the little ritual she was going to go through.

She shook her head. "I think I need to get going soon actually," she said, standing herself up and not looking at the hand Norma offered her. She put it down. "I've already got a better hand of it though."

Helana nodded. "Definitely! You're a really fast learner."

"Thanks," Valkyrie smiled. Helana was very nice, a lot like Erskine was at times though without the mood swings. "Will I be able to come back to train soon?"

"Sure!" The sisters said at the same time.

Valkyrie got changed and after some goodbyes, left with Solomon and Nadia. She was physically exhausted and could already feel herself becoming emotionally exhausted. This procedure to lock her magic to her soul so no one could steal or control it seemed to be the best, and only, option to keep her and everyone else safe. Sure, she'd have to go to Nye or some other probably unsavoury people, but she was willing to do it. Her brothers had also told her Nye was harmless when threatened, so it wasn't that bad of an obstacle.

She just didn't want to have a fight about it. She wanted to have a lie-down, a big dinner and maybe a movie or just snuggle in bed with Nadia. Though, Nadia didn't seem like she wanted to cuddle when she refused to hold Valkyrie's hand.

They were home quicker than Valkyrie expected, and she excused herself to the bathroom to wash before anything could be said. Tanith, Laila and Myra were there but it was otherwise perfectly silent.

Luckily for her, the bathroom was perfectly clean and fully stocked with all sorts of goodies so all she needed to do was fill the bath with steaming hot water, create some bubbles and get herself in. There were even some vanilla flavoured bath salts. Valkyrie took her sweet, sweet time, letting her muscles relax after her hard work out. She thought carefully about how the session had gone in terms of controlling her magic and was certain she already had a better grip of it but was also tired enough that soon she was just lying there enjoying the heat.

When she heard voices downstairs indicating her brothers, including Erskine and Saile, were back at the house, she pulled the plug, wiped the bubbles from her body and dried herself off, not incredibly worried over if she would need a second bath later because of her wasting time and not properly washing.