They followed her up the stairs and Finbar, who hadn’t said anything for the past few minutes, wandered into the other room. While Cassandra went to the kitchen, Valkyrie looked at Skulduggery. Her headache pounded. It hurt to even move her eyes.

“My parents were there,” she said quietly.

“We can change it.”

Her voice shook. “My parents, Skulduggery.”

He laid a hand on her shoulder and his voice was soft. “You’ll save them.”

“You saw what I did. I let them die.”

“No. She let them die. Not you.”

“She is me.”

“Not yet.”

“There’s no use. She saw what we saw, she knew it was coming and she still just stood there and let Darquesse kill them. That’s what’s going to happen.”

“No, Valkyrie. You’ll find a way to save them. I have faith.”

“My head hurts.”

Cassandra came back, handed her a glass of water that she only took a sip from, and a folded leaf, the kind Kenspeckle had, to numb the pain of the headache.

“I can only imagine how hard that was to watch,” Cassandra said. “But this is about more than you, and more than your parents. This is about everything.”

“The end of the world,” Finbar said, rejoining them. He looked tired. “That’s the bit I saw in my vision – the darkness spreading across the planet. I didn’t see the other stuff.” He looked at Valkyrie. “I didn’t see you and your folks. I’m sorry.”

“We’re not dead yet,” Skulduggery interjected. “Well, I am, but the rest of you have a bit to go.”

“You know as well as anyone,” Cassandra said, “that visions of the future are subject to change and to interpretation.”

Skulduggery turned to Cassandra. “Do you have any idea of a time frame? When is all this going to happen?”

“I don’t know. Valkyrie looked three or four years older than she is now, but we can’t be sure. The only thing we know for certain is that Darquesse is coming, and she’s coming to kill us all.”

Skulduggery put on his hat, dipping it over his eye sockets. “Not if we kill her first.”

19 THE NEW PET

19
THE NEW PET

Valkyrie had to go home. The moment they left Cassandra’s cottage, she knew she had to go home, to see her parents, to make sure they were OK. She was trying so hard not to let Skulduggery see how badly she was hurting, or how much she wanted to cry. She barely said anything on the drive back to Haggard.