All characters belong to Derek Landy :)

Chapter 1

It felt good to watch Skulduggery throw Ravel into the accelerator, after everything he's done to the people who trusted him. He put the knife through Ghastly's neck. He's the reason Shudder is dead. He used Tanith in her remant state to start the war leading to more deaths. By extension he is the reason my parents know about my other life. The life where I risk my life everyday to save others. Mum still doesn't understand, Dad... well Dad's just Dad he doesn't mind but he worries. Alice doesn't know. She doesn't know what I did and what I will regret for the rest of my life.

"Skulduggery"

"Yes" Skulduggery stood by the accelerator watching Ravel wither.

"I can't do this" He turns to look at me.

"What do you mean?"

"I can't do this anymore" Gesturing to my surroundings

"Well we are leaving in a minute" he teased

"No, you don't understand. I can't live this life anymore" he doesn't say anything just stands there looking at me with his empty eye sockets. "I'm sorry" I sob, Great now I'm crying! Damn you Skulduggery.

"It's okay" he walks forward and hugs me. "At least you didn't die, everyone else seems to"

"Like your last partner" I say into his chest

"He was a good man, he didn't deserve to die. I did tell him where to walk but he didn't listen" after a while he says "He died screaming my name" At that Skulduggery moves away to assess the accelerator.

"I'm sorry" it was all I could really say, satisfied that the accelerator had done its job Skulduggery turned away from it.

"Come on" I followed him out of the chamber "So what are you going to do now?"

"I'm not sure I need to tell Mum and Dad, but I think I'll go to America"

"Why America?"

"Uhhh, Suntan"

"Oh right how could I forget, 'Skulduggery can we go somewhere hot I need to work on my tan'" doing an impression of my voice, which made me laugh. "How could I forget that?"

I smacked his arm "Probably just for a few years though, when I come back we can go back to normal"

"Well we did just save the world from your dark side and stop the accelerator, I think we deserve time off" He joked, it was hard to tell if he was hurt or not.

"Are you okay? I mean when I leave? You're not just going to sulk"

"I'm over 400 years old Valkyrie and you are acting like my mother"

"Sorry"

"Its okay, I'll be fine but if anything happens you phone me, if you get a new phone number you tell me, I want to know your address, who your hanging around with"

"Seriously?"

"Probably not, but I would like to know where you are"

"Fair enough"

"Steph!" Mum screams when she sees me, then she does the unspeakable, she runs over to me picks me up i a bone crushing hug if front of my co-workers

"Mum!" pushing away slightly "You're squishing me"

"I feel I have earn the right to Squish you" she replies putting me down, then I hug dad who is holding Alice. It's easy to forget what I did to her a couple of hours ago. But I still avoid touching her.

"Let's go somewhere else" I suggest, we walk out of the canteen away from everyone's eyes and into a disused office.

"Oh Steph that was awful, what happened out there? Tanith can in to the hospital bit of the place covered in cuts and bruises"

"We're in the Sanctuary mum, but yeah it was awful" taking a deep breath, I notice my father hasny said anything " Dad are you alright?"

"I still can believe Granddad's stories are true"

" I have something I need to tell you" I blink back the tears, I knew this was going to be hard but Jesus not this hard.

"Yes Steph"

"I'm going to America for a while" I blurt out

"What?" they both say in unison

"I need to get out of Ireland for a while, I'm sorry I just need to go" now the tears come and my parent s surround me hugging me with Alice.

"I understand" Mum whispers

I don't hold back the tears anymore, knowing that they could have died and it would be my fault is too much. Getting away for a while is probably best.

Thank you for reading, reviews welcome :) I've been thinking about this since I finished the book.