Skulduggery Pleasant: Raising Cain

Chapter 189 - Nadia. Therapy. Now.

Chapter 189

"Hey Aine," Valkyrie smiled, coming up behind her cousin. "How are you feeling?"

"Sore but alright," Aine said with a small smile. "I didn't think it would hurt so much."

"Yeah. I was lucky, my Surge was sort of an opposite. I had no magic for a few weeks and then it just came back how it is now. I'm sorry it hurt you," Valkyrie smiled, placing the flowers from herself and Nadia on the hospital side table. They were at Kenspeckle's, as that was the only place Valkyrie had thought of when Aine had called her about an intense pain and feeling like she had 'too much magic inside'. He assured her that staying home on bedrest would have been suitable for her cousin, but since they were already there he had allowed Aine to stay anyway. It had only lasted six hours.

"Oh, why was yours different?" Aine asked.

Valkyrie let out a short bark of a laugh. "Err, well, my Surge happened accidentally. It didn't happen naturally like yours, or anyone else's, where they chose a magic. Although I know you didn't have many options to choose from, but it's still a choice in a way. My magic had been drained by a bad guy, I was under a lot of stress and I guess something just went wrong. I ended up pulling on some other magic and now I'm left with this stuff," she smiled, flicking her hand and making white energy flicker between her fingers.

"Oh, cool," Aine grinned, happily ignorant of the other not so fun facts. That was probably for the best. "Did you see your house yesterday?"

"Yeah, it's coming along really well. Me and Nadia saw it and then had a little date night after getting samples for the flooring," Valkyrie grinned, thinking back to her and Nadia's new favourite thing to do. Again, nothing Aine needed to know. "They think they'll be done in a month or so but then they need to finish the insides, and that's before the furniture is found and brought in. So it'll be a good four months I expect. That's with good weather and not including the more intricate woodwork Nadia and Erskine have planned for the new staircase and library. Some things won't get finished until after all the Spider mess is done, I bet."

"That's not awful, considering how much you're changing the house. It's basically going to be brand new other than some exterior walls."

"Exactly," Valkyrie nodded. "Nadia's actually looking at wallpapers and paints now, which is why she isn't here. She says hi by the way. I think, because she grew up with magic, the whole idea of a Surge is just a bore to her. It's only interesting when you're a kid and then it's just this thing that'll take ages to happen and takes away a lot of the magic you learnt as a teenager. So she's not as interested as me."

"Has she had her Surge yet?" Aine asked.

"No, but I doubt it'll be long now, she's eighteen. Most people Surge before they're twenty, but that's not to say it might not take a little longer after that even," Valkyrie told her. "What did you tell your folks about staying away the night?"

"I didn't tell them a reason, I just texted them that I wasn't coming home. I bet they're really mad," Aine said, her face falling immediately. "Honestly I don't want to go home right now."

"Yeah, I can imagine," Valkyrie said, sitting on the edge of the bed. "If you like, you can come and stay with me and Nadia at my – well, he's not my father, he's my kind of adopted father's kind of ex but not really ex-boyfriend. He's great though, I love Solomon a lot and he's honestly the most responsible, sweet father figure I've ever had. He really cares about me. And he hasn't done a lot of the crap Skulduggery has."

"Skulduggery is getting treatment right now, though, right? I know he's done a lot of bad things to you, mostly right before, you know, he had to leave, but maybe you should wait and see how he is after the treatment to make your final judgement," Aine suggested, looking at her with concern. "I mean, you know him better than me, but I figure, if he's in therapy and he's really trying, maybe he deserves a last chance to make it up to you. If he messes up again after that, I wouldn't blame you for being really angry though."