The window shattered in on top of them. Valkyrie gasped as Crux was wrenched away from her. Shadows swirled and a thousand arrows of darkness flew at him and he dived, barely avoiding the barrage. He snarled, flinging himself out through the broken window.

Solomon Wreath turned to her, checking that she was OK, while shadows wrapped themselves around the cane in his hand.

The door hit the bed and it moved sharply. Wreath followed Crux out of the window and Valkyrie shoved her bed aside. Her parents barged in, her mother wrapping her in a hug while her dad searched the room for an intruder.

“Where is he?” he yelled.

Valkyrie looked at him from over her mother’s shoulder. “Where’s who?” she asked, not having to act a whole lot in order to sound shaken.

Her father spun to her. “Who was here?”

“No one.”

Her mum gripped her shoulders and took a step back so as to look at her properly. “What happened, Steph?”

Valkyrie scanned the room. “A bat,” she decided.

Her dad froze. “What?”

“A bat. It flew through the window.”

“A…bat? It sounded like you were being attacked in here.”

“Wait,” her mum said. “No, we heard the window break after everything else.”

Damn.

Valkyrie nodded. “It was already in here. I think it was in the corner. It must have flown in a few days ago and, I don’t know, hibernated or something.”

“Stephanie,” her dad said, “this room is a war zone.”

“I panicked. Dad, it was a bat. A massive one. I woke up and it was fluttering around the room, and I fell against my desk. It landed on the floor and I tried to push the bed over it. Then it flew straight through the window.”

Valkyrie hoped it wouldn’t register with her parents that all the broken glass was on the inside.

Her father sagged as relief spread through him. “I thought something awful was happening.”

She frowned. “Something awful was happening. It could have got stuck in my hair.”

After enduring another few minutes of her parents worrying about her, and checking her feet to make sure she hadn’t cut herself, her mother helped her set up the bed in the spare room and finally said goodnight.

Valkyrie waited until she was sure they were back in their own bed before she sneaked out of the window. She let herself drop, using the air to slow her descent. Her bare feet touched wet grass and she hugged herself against the freezing cold.

“He’s gone,” Wreath said from behind her.