“Don’t worry,” Melancholia said, “I’m not going to kill you. I’m just going to cut you all over. When I’m done, there won’t be an inch of you that doesn’t have my mark on it. And even if you get to a doctor and they heal you right up and make all the scars disappear, you’ll know that some scars are deeper than that. You’ll know they’re there, and every moment of every day, you will regret all those little jibes and taunts. Providing you don’t bleed to death while I’m having my fun.”

“Don’t,” Valkyrie said. Blood dripped from her torn lips.

“Are you begging? Is the mighty and fearless Valkyrie Cain begging me for mercy?”

“Don’t,” was all Valkyrie could manage.

Melancholia sent the shadowknives upwards and they cut through Valkyrie’s T-shirt, making furrows in her flesh, changing the pitch of her screams.

Chapter 14 - The Call

Chapter 14
The Call

alkyrie awoke, lying face down on the grass. She turned her head slightly, tried to blink, but her eyelids were slashed. There were objects in front of her. It took her a while to register what they were. Her phone, and her ring. She moved a hand. It wasn’t easy. Some of her muscles had been severed.

With trembling, blood-caked fingers, she speed-dialled a number.

“Hey,” Fletcher said when he answered. “They’ve got the pizza almost ready. It smells delicious.”

“Fletcher,” she said softly. “Help.”

Chapter 15 - The Doctor is In

Chapter 15
The Doctor is In

hastly braked beside the Bentley and jumped out of his van, hurrying up to Skulduggery as he stalked through the Sanctuary doors. “I just heard,” he said. “Any idea what happened?”

“None,” said Skulduggery, not slowing down. “She called Fletcher, said she was on the cliffs. She lost consciousness as soon as he arrived.”

Sanctuary officials dodged out of their way, flattening themselves against the corridor walls.

“She’ll be OK,” Ghastly told his friend. “We have a new doctor. Apparently he’s brilliant on a level with Kenspeckle Grouse. Madame Mist brought him in.”

“Fletcher said she’s cut deep. Kenspeckle would take care not to leave scars.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

Fletcher paced outside the operating theatre. His head snapped up when he saw them. “She’s still in there,” he said. He was pale. His voice shook.

Skulduggery barged through the doors, Ghastly and Fletcher behind him. Ghastly froze. Valkyrie lay on the table, eyes closed, covered in a blood-drenched surgical sheet. Above her stooped a creature dressed in a smock, with arms and legs longer than Ghastly’s whole body. Its eyes were small and yellow, the lids punctured with black thread where they had once been sewn shut. Its mouth had received similar treatment, and its nose had been cut off. There was a scab there now that refused to fully heal.