Chapter 200
Valkyrie's POV
Intense, awful, mind-shattering pain. It was utter torture like nothing she'd ever experienced before, more than Serpine and more than Remnant-Kenspeckle combined, and she hated every second of it. There was no room in her brain for thoughts of anyone, of any breathing technique or comforting thought. Just pure pain. Her body writhed and thrashed on the cold floor and she wasn't even strong enough to force herself to run or ask for help.
She just had to lie there, convulsing, frothing at the mouth, eyes rolled back into her head like it was some awful seizure.
Suffering.
.*****.
Tanith's POV
Pippin Black, possible leader of the Wild Brothers. The only one, they now knew, no one had ever captured on camera or film, much less arrested. No one had lived through it yet.
Around him, eight men and one person. They had thought for a time Black was a misogynistic man, someone vile and horrible that Tanith could add to the long list of sexist men she'd had to deal with. It turned out he was exactly those things, but he also valued gender expression, and his closest partner-in-crime was a non-binary person. Who was also misogynistic. Tanith had never had to arrest a sexist non-binary person, but she didn't mind adding variety to her day considering, according to the prison talk they'd found out, both Black and all the people he brought in to work with the Wild Brothers were chosen specifically for their shared values on women, children and torture techniques.
All their attitudes sucked, essentially, and she'd be thankful for a chance to take them out.
"Tan," Saracen said lowly. Tanith looked down at him from her perch on a wall looking out of a window that had likely never had a pane in it. "Ready?"
She nodded once and prepared herself. They were on the border between Sudan and Libya, called by the Sudanian Sanctuary when the five of the previously captured Wild Brothers had been picked up on security tapes based on Frightening's description. The same five that had taken the God-Killer Sword two or so months ago. There should have been video footage of the leader then, but he'd sent someone in his place to mask his lack of involvement. Not that the English told anyone the Wild Brother's had been in their Sanctuary.
They didn't have the Sword with them, but they had expected that.
The Wild Brothers walked like the cockiest men Tanith had ever seen, perfectly fitting the stereotype of what a mercenary should be. They all looked pale and had taken their shirts off to soak in the sun. Probably from being stuck in some Spiders hideout.
They were getting closer.
No one made a sound. They all held their breaths. Black froze fifty yards from the abandoned building. Tanith could just about see from her new perch on the roof where his boots stopped. The other men, and person, went silent as their boss considered whatever feeling he was having. Tanith readjusted her grip on the sword.
"INCOMING!" Someone from in the building screamed, and then there was a pop from a gun, a short fizzle, and an explosion.
Tanith threw herself out of the small window and fell to the floor, rolling in the hard sand before coming to a stop not far from the Wild Brothers as the building exploded into flames behind her. She didn't think as she threw herself into the fight, gutting the nearest man with her sword.
.*****.
Nadia's POV
"What is it, honey?" Nadia asked sweetly. "Are you hung-y?"
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Skulduggery Pleasant: Raising Cain
Fanfiction(This story is written as a fanfiction, but can be read as a story without having read any of the books.) Valkyrie Cain, the adoptive daughter of the Dead Men, has had a life full of love and magic. But as she gets older, times become scarier and sh...
