She looked back at Stephanie’s body, tears spilling on to her cheeks. Skulduggery walked over, and he pulled her gently into him and hugged her, and she let herself cry.

36

JOINING THE STREAM

kulduggery was barking orders and issuing commands and people were doing things with determination, with urgency, and all Valkyrie could do was stand there and be numb. Eventually she walked away, went wandering through the Sanctuary, found herself in the Dining Hall. She hadn’t eaten in hours. She got a plate of food, sat at a table by herself, and realised she wasn’t hungry. She pushed the plate to one side and rested her head on her arms.

The numb feeling didn’t go away.

“I heard about your reflection.”

Valkyrie raised her head and wiped her eyes. Solomon Wreath sat opposite her, laying his cane before him on the table and folding his hands over it. Wearing black, as usual. Being handsome, as usual. Looking concerned. Which was new.

“She was more than just a reflection,” Valkyrie said.

He nodded. “So I heard. You have my condolences.”

Valkyrie sniffed. “You’re a Necromancer. Should you really be consoling me when someone dies? Isn’t that against your rules?”

“Consoling someone has nothing to do with the person who has passed on, and everything to do with the people left behind.”

“Remind me again what happens when we die?”

Wreath smiled. “In my religion? We re-enter the Great Stream of life and death. Stephanie will be unique, though. You and I, we would just flow back to where we came from. But from what I’ve heard, your reflection became whole, attained actual life, and as such she would probably be the only person to actually add to the stream, instead of merely replenishing it.”

“Well, that’s Stephanie,” Valkyrie muttered. “Always has to be the awkward one.”

“Has there been any sign as to where Darquesse is now?”

She shook her head. “Scuttled back into the shadows. Anyone with any psychic talents is being watched. If we keep denying her vessels, maybe we’ll starve her out of it. God, I don’t know. I’m too tired to think about all this. What are you doing here anyway?”

“I decided to pay you a visit when I heard you’d fallen prey to your darker nature.”

“That was weeks ago.”

“I was a little tied up. But I get back, finally, and you have it sorted without me. Almost.”

“Yeah, almost.”

“I notice you’re not wearing your ring,” he said. “Is that it, then? When your Surge comes, you’ve decided on Elemental magic?”

Valkyrie hesitated. “It’s … more complicated than that. I lost my ring. Right now all my Necromancer powers are in a dinky little amulet … not that I can access them.”

“The amulet has been taken from you?”

“My magic has been taken from me.”

He frowned. “I’m sorry?”