“Her name is also Valkyrie, and she’s my partner. She came into this willingly, after I saved her life at her uncle’s house. She proved utterly capable and, as it turned out, invaluable. Over the last few years I’ve been berated by friends and colleagues over this partnership, and I have been advised to dissolve it. They all thought Valkyrie should be leading a normal life. But she’s meant for greater things than a normal life. She’s meant for amazing things. She has saved lives. She has saved me. She has saved the world.

“I understand your urge to protect her, to shield her from danger and threat. I once felt that urge, too, for my own child. Long ago. But if you think I’m going to apologise for, as you say, dragging her into harm’s way, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. There’s nothing I would change about the last few years. Valkyrie has proven herself to be an astonishing individual and one I would gladly lay down my life for, such as it is. How many people leading normal lives would you be able to say that about?”

“Until the end,” Valkyrie said softly.

Skulduggery looked at her, his head tilting gently.

“No,” her mum said. “I don’t care what you say, or how eloquently you’re saying it. It ends here.”

“Mum, no,” said Valkyrie.

Her dad spoke up. “Steph, you can’t continue with this … madness. You’ll get yourself killed. Do you want Alice to grow up without a sister?”

“Doing what I do is just like being a cop or a soldier.”

“And we wouldn’t want you to do those things, either.”

“Wait, wait,” her mum said. “It’s taking a while for some of this to sink in, so forgive me for being a bit slow. But Steph, are you … are you like these people? Are you magic?”

Valkyrie hesitated. “I … don’t know. I was. But something happened and … I don’t know if I am any more.”

Her mum looked at Skulduggery. “Well, that decides it, doesn’t it? If she’s not magic, then she can’t continue being your student.”

“Partner,” Valkyrie and Skulduggery said at the same time.

“Student, partner, whatever. No magic, no job. That makes sense, doesn’t it?”

“We’ll have to see,” Skulduggery said. “If, by the end of our current assignment, her magic has not returned to her …”

“I’ll make the decision,” Valkyrie finished. “But until then, I’m not stopping.”

“We haven’t agreed that,” said her mum. “We’ll need to think about this. Your dad and I will have to talk about it ourselves, and once we—”

“Mum,” Valkyrie said, “no. You don’t get to make this decision. I love you, but this has nothing to do with you. I’m the only one who gets to decide.”

“Steph, no, you’re still our daughter—”