“Good God,” he said to his empty apartment.

All of a sudden his enthusiasm came back to him, his interest roaring inside him like a furnace in his chest. Finbar had sent him to meet with Geoffrey so that Geoffrey could work his hoodoo on him, make him walk away from what might have been the biggest story of his career.

Kenny grinned. You’re gonna have to do better than that.

Chapter 20 - Riding Out

Chapter 20
Riding Out

hina gripped the reins and pulled, straining against the horse’s resistance. He was a wilful one, all right. Every turn they made, he tried to shake her loose. Every ditch they jumped, he threatened to throw her into. She’d been fighting him since she swung into the saddle. Her arms ached and her legs burned. Her jodhpurs were splattered with mud and her shirt stuck to her back. Her hands were raw from the reins.

God, she loved him.

A creature of fierce strength and beauty, and one that made her work to get him to do what she wanted. A challenge.

She used to ride out all the time when she was younger, but as her friends fell away or died, or she betrayed them or they betrayed her, it had become a solitary pursuit – and for a while, she preferred it that way. Just her and the horse and the open countryside, the hoof beats that thudded through her body, clods of grass and mud kicked up behind them. No talk, no flattery, no professions of love.

But people change, and she was as vulnerable to this phenomenon as anyone. Decades of solitude had hardened her, but isolation without end was a dangerous thing. Suddenly she didn’t want to be alone on these afternoons.

Valkyrie would enjoy this, she knew. China had heard her talk of when she rode out as a young girl, before she met Skulduggery – just a beginner, but with a natural’s love for it. Maybe one of these days, as soon as Valkyrie got a break from saving the world, China would invite her to the stables. She even had the perfect horse picked out – strong and fast with a hint of mischief. The perfect way to get reacquainted with the saddle.

Providing, of course, that China found a way to settle this Eliza Scorn business. It required not just a single strike against Scorn, or even a strike against Scorn and Prave together, but multiple strikes against multiple targets at the same time. The biggest problem with that, and this was truly the hold that Scorn had on her, was that China didn’t know who these targets might be.