“Not the best,” her mother admitted. “But I’m used to only getting a few hours’ sleep with the Little Miss here.” She put down her toast and picked up Alice. “You were great yesterday,” she said. “Des was just talking about it. You were so calm and collected, and the way you took care of Alice while we were running around like headless chickens… Thank you, sweetheart.”

Valkyrie’s smile was brittle. It had been the reflection who had been there to help. Valkyrie had been too busy with her other life, where her best friend used to be a mass murderer.

She went upstairs, selected a small healing rock from the collection Kenspeckle had once given her, stripped off and took a shower. She soaked a sponge around the porous rock and gently dabbed the sponge against her forehead. The bruise would disappear soon enough, just like almost every other injury she’d ever suffered. She looked at the palm of her right hand, where Billy-Ray Sanguine had cut her with his straight razor. She still had the scar. It would never go away. She thought about Tanith, and wondered how she was. She missed her. She missed having someone to talk to.

The water was hot, and felt good. Valkyrie held her face against the spray, eyes closed, standing there for the longest time. When she was done, she stepped out, grabbed a towel, walked barefoot across the landing. She dried off in her room, pulled on a pair of loose jeans and a T-shirt. Her phone rang. It was Fletcher. Again. She ignored it.

He appeared in front of her.

Valkyrie jumped back, then lunged past him, shutting her door. “What the hell are you doing?” she whispered. “Anyone could have been in here!”

“You haven’t been answering my calls,” Fletcher said.

“I was in the shower!”

“I’ve been calling for days. Val, the last time I saw you, you were in the Sanctuary covered in blood. I’ve been worried sick.”

“You knew I was OK,” she shot back.

“Don’t I deserve a little more than that? Don’t I deserve to see you?”

“Fletcher, seriously, this is not a good time, all right?”

“Ghastly told me Melancholia got away. They’ll get her, you know they will. They have every sorcerer out there right now, hunting them down.”

“This isn’t about that.”

“Then what’s wrong?”

Valkyrie laughed. “Everything’s wrong. Nothing’s wrong. I just want to be left alone.”

He looked at her, then turned to her desk, started playing music. He turned up the volume. “Now we can talk,” he said.

“Turn that down,” she snapped. “Mum’s been through enough without you giving her a bloody headache.”

“What do you mean?”

“She was mugged yesterday. She’s fine, she’s fine, everyone’s fine. She was mugged and the Guards grabbed him, a guy called Moore. I paid him a visit in his cell last night.”