“That’s what I thought was going to happen. Darquesse pushed me to one side so … so completely that I was … I was nothing. I was tiny and insignificant and powerless, and it felt like I was barely hanging on, like if I stopped concentrating I’d stop existing. And it was as if she was watching me and giving me all these chances to peep my head out just so she could chop it off.”

“You should have been stronger,” said Stephanie.

“I should have been,” Valkyrie said. “But I wasn’t. I gave up. It was a huge, unimaginably huge, mistake, but I gave up. It was just too hard to deal with everything that was happening. I should have kept fighting. The moment I gave up, I was just shoved to one side, and all I could do was watch. Well, watch and … When Darquesse did those things, killed those people, it was me, even though it wasn’t. It’s … kind of hard to explain.”

“We understand,” said Gracious. “It’s Jean Grey and the Phoenix Force. We all understand.”

“I have no idea what that means,” said Vex, “but we get it, Valkyrie. We do. We’ve all seen what Darquesse was capable of. To have her living inside your head, as a part of you, that must have been … difficult.”

Stephanie barked out a laugh. “I’m sorry, is that it? Are we letting her off the hook now? She killed people.”

“You killed my cousin,” Valkyrie said.

“And no one is letting me forget it,” Stephanie responded. “But everyone here’s acting like they’re never going to bring up your little slide to the Dark Side ever again.”

“We’ve all made mistakes,” Skulduggery said from behind Valkyrie. She turned, saw him standing there with Dai Maybury.

“Some more than others,” Skulduggery continued. “Long life means more time to work for redemption. We all have a second chance now. Valkyrie is back with us, and Darquesse is a few angry thoughts on the horizon. No Darquesse means no apocalypse. The future we needed to avert has been averted. We won.”

Valkyrie looked at Dai. “I am so sorry for what I did.”

“Wasn’t you,” said Dai. “Deacon wasn’t much of a brother, but I’m still going to miss him. And when I do, I’ll lay the blame squarely at the feet of the person who killed him – Darquesse. Not you.”

Valkyrie gave a single nod, tears in her eyes.