Skulduggery Pleasant_ Death Bringer - Derek Landy [98]
“Do I have your word on that?”
“Yes. Of course.”
“I’m holding you responsible if anything… magical ever happens to them.”
“OK,” she said.
He nodded, looked out to sea, and then back to her. “I’m sorry I shouted at you.”
“It’s fine. Really.”
“Are you going to be teaching Alice any of this? When she’s old enough?”
“I… don’t know. I’d prefer not to.”
“Then you understand why I don’t want my girls taught?”
“Yes.”
He nodded again, then looked down at his feet. “Give our best to your mother,” he said.
“Sure.”
He turned, started to walk away.
“Gordon couldn’t do magic,” she called after him, “but what about you?”
He didn’t stop walking, and he didn’t answer. He just held up his left hand, and clicked his fingers. Even in the bright sunlight, Valkyrie saw the spark between his fingertips.
Chapter 36
Confiding in Uncle Gordon
he taxi driver peered out through the windscreen. “I know this place,” he said. “This is where that writer lived. What’s his name? Edgley.”
Valkyrie gave a murmur of affirmation from the back seat. “I read his books, you know. Some of them. He wasn’t the best, was he? I mean, he was OK. He was readable. He was no Stephen King, but he was fine. Didn’t like the way he’d kill off his characters, though. That was never nice.”
“Suppose not,” Valkyrie muttered.
“He wrote those books about the army deserter, didn’t he? Corporal Fleece, getting into all those mad adventures with the ghosts of dead wizards and whatever.”
“Dead sorcerers,” she corrected automatically.
“Same thing, isn’t it? Did you read any of them? In the first book you meet him, you think he’s the brave hero. But he’s not. He’s a selfish little coward. Didn’t like that. It was funny enough, in its own way, but I didn’t like it. I like my heroes to be, you know, good guys.”
Valkyrie sat forward. “You can let me out here,” she said. “I’ll walk the rest of the way.”
She paid the man and got out, then walked up the long driveway. She missed being able to call Fletcher, have him teleport her wherever she needed to go. He could be annoying, he could be very annoying, but he always smiled when he saw her, and it was like he’d been saving up that smile all day until they were together. She liked that feeling, as much as she hated to admit it. She liked being around someone who was genuinely happy to be around her.
It wasn’t the same feeling she got when she was with Caelan. There was too much pressure there, too much expectation. He looked at her like she belonged to him, like they belonged together. He was handsome – he was so handsome – and he was smooth and dark and dangerous. But beyond that, there wasn’t much to him. Valkyrie really didn’t see that lasting. She needed someone fun, someone who could make her laugh, who could take her places she’d never been. If she didn’t have anyone like that, then what was the point of being with anyone less?
Valkyrie let herself into Gordon’s house, deactivating the alarm. She went through, passing the rooms she normally visited, noting how clean everything looked and how fresh everything smelled. She pushed open the double doors into the ballroom, turned on the light. Brand-new chandeliers hung from the ceiling, sparkling like diamonds. The floor was polished, with tables and chairs stacked up on one side, ready to be set out. It was quiet right now, her every footstep echoing around the empty space, and she tried imagining what it would look like filled with people. The last time the house had been full was at Gordon’s funeral.
She climbed the stairs to Gordon’s study where he’d done all his writing when he was alive. In here Valkyrie flicked the switch and the bookcase opened. She walked through into the hidden room. Gordon Edgley looked round, smiled, and held up a hand while he finished speaking.
“… it lunged, this thing of claws and fangs and muscle, and with a swipe, it opened the belly of the prison guard, spilling his entrails across the rough stone floor. Recording end.” The