Valkyrie thought fast. And apparently not very successfully.

'What about Darquesse?' she asked with wide eyes, feigning ignorance.

She received two unimpressed looks from Ghastly and Tanith. She couldn't give up the game just yet, so turned exaggeratedly back to Skulduggery, his hand lightly holding her upper arm. 'What are they talking about?'

Skulduggery paused for a moment, shrugged almost unnoticeably, and to his credit, went along with the laughable pretence.

'Heavens, I have no idea. What do you mean, Tanith and Ghastly? Have you uncovered a secret about Darquesse?'

Valkyrie scrunched up her face as she turned back to her friends, raising her eyebrows in vague hope. 'Yes, have you uncovered a secret about who Darquesse is?'

For the briefest of moments she wanted to laugh out loud, as she pictured herself and Skulduggery standing there, twins in their ridiculous attempt at a cover up, down to the matching baffled expressions. Then she could cling to the last shred of hope no longer. Tanith and Ghastly were staring them down, their faces a mixture of unease and impatience.

She visibly sagged as she sighed. She had hoped, naively, that it would never come to this. The implications of the situation crashed around her as they revealed themselves in full. There was no going back once she said it.

'How did you find out?'

The admittance seemed to be the unravelling of them all.

Tanith reeled, and leaned back against one of the bollards lining the river. Ghastly ran a hand over his head and back, finally resting it over his eyes. Her partner breathed heavily behind her, and paced away a few steps wearily, tucking his thumbs into his belt. Valkyrie didn't move, not even her eyes. There they stood.

Skulduggery kept up a mental stream of curses for approximately ten minutes straight. He had known they would never be able to keep the secret forever, especially not from their best friends. But he had never pictured this moment, the moment of revelation, of realisation. He had been a fool not to, really. It would seem that being a fool was becoming a regular habit of his. Never in his four hundred plus years had he spent so much time reflecting on things he should have done differently than since he met this troublesome, inescapable girl. Well, not since he had met her, for the first few years he had kept his head. It was only of late…

He turned his attention back to the horrific silence. He needed to be his brilliant, analytic, detached self, now more than ever. They depended on it, his partner depended on it. Things could only get worse from here on in.

The skeleton walked slowly back over to stand beside Valkyrie, shoulder to shoulder. Ghastly gave him a long, hard look. 'Skulduggery…'

'I couldn't tell you Ghastly'

The tailor didn't look hurt; he was too intelligent for that. 'I understand that. But this is… this is…'

'…Too big' finished Tanith. 'This is huge, guys. It's not about how you are embarrassed, or how we might judge you, this is- '

'Embarrassed?' cut in Valkyrie angrily. 'You think I never told you because I was embarrassed?' She practically spat the word. Tanith was taken aback.

'I am terrified' Valkyrie said quietly. 'There are no words…'

Skulduggery's hypothetical heart went out to her. Tanith tried to start again.

'Val, listen. You have to think this through. You have to think of the consequences! You can't keep this to yourselves- '

Skulduggery felt Valkyrie physically tense beside him, head to toe.

'Don't.'

She said it so quietly but so forcibly that Tanith stopped speaking.

'Don't, don't, suggest that I have not thought this through. Don't try to tell me, to tell us, to think of the consequences. How dare- ' she stopped herself with a deep breath. 'How could you possibly assume that you have thought about this more than we have? How could you possibly think that this information has done anything but consume every waking moment of my life since I found out? Have you thought this through? Do you realise what this means?!'

She was trembling, with rage or fear Skulduggery wasn't certain. Tanith, he realised, was crying silently, tears leaking from her eyes and staining her leathers. Ghastly looked pained, so pained, as if he were physically hurt.

'If I can't stop myself, I kill everyone'. Valkyrie wasn't crying. Skulduggery believed she was past tears. 'My family, my little sister, you, him,' she gestured back to Skulduggery, 'the other Elders, everyone in the Sanctuary, everyone in the country…' She sounded dulled, emotionless. Skulduggery understood. She had known all this for so long, been horrified and appalled for so long, that it had lost the shock. She sounded detached. It made him uneasy.

'I'm sorry we didn't tell you' Valkyrie continued. 'And I'm sorry you found out elsewhere. But I'd do it a hundred times over, and if there was any way to stop you from knowing I would pay anything to make it happen.'

The weight of her words settled around them, like dust after an explosion. And they were weighted indeed. Skulduggery was surprised, he admitted to himself. He had always assumed that Val wanted Tanith and Ghastly to know, but knew that she couldn't tell them. This was different, she was admitting to wanting to shut them out completely. By their expressions, he could see they were both realising this as well. He could sense an impasse on the horizon, and could see no bypass route.

'Val,' Tanith began, slowly and delicately. 'I approached that badly, I'm sorry. Of course I can't understand. I can't even begin to try. But we need to talk about this. This is a good thing that we know now. You two don't have to cope with this alone. We can all discuss it together, bounce ideas off one another, try solving it as a team. We are a team in every other aspect of our lives, and you need us more than ever.'

This was positive, Skulduggery assessed. Not that they knew the secret, he was still convinced that was a disaster, but that they were willing to talk about it. Ghastly was still unnervingly silent, however.

Valkyrie nodded, standing as close to Skulduggery as possible. He wouldn't let this ruin everything, he swore to himself. This would not be the beginning of the end.

Tanith resumed, her eyes earnest, leaning towards her best friend. 'You agree? We can tackle this together? For everyone's sake.' She glanced at Ghastly, standing half a step behind her.

Skulduggery knew his friend too well; he knew what he was thinking. In hindsight, he had always known how Ghastly would react to this, in the back of his mind. It was why, perhaps subconsciously or perhaps not, he had known not to tell him. And he could understand his reasoning. For God's sake, it should be his own reaction. If he were in any other position, if it were anyone else, the solution would be clear, and unavoidable. But it was not anyone else. It was Valkyrie. He was acutely aware of the hypocrisy, of the danger and the risk. Which is why when Ghastly finally spoke, he could anticipate almost down to the exact words what he was going to say. And which is why Skulduggery had made up his mind about what they had to do before Ghastly had a chance to speak at all.

'Valkyrie, Tanith and I have spent the last three days pondering this at length. We think that the best thing to do is to inform the council. This cannot be kept a secret from the mages that run our country.' Ghastly spoke without flinching, a steeliness in his face that couldn't mask the sadness in his eyes. Skulduggery admired him for it; for making the decision and for saying the words to her face. He knew Ghastly was aware of the consequences of his suggestion, that the council would kill Valkyrie without hesitation, sanctuary official or not. And he knew that Ghastly loved Valkyrie, there was no doubt about it. Fighting alongside someone for the guts of ten years had that effect. It made his decision even braver.

But Skulduggery was in too deep for that, too far gone for the honourable choice. He felt Valkyrie sag a little beside him, but she held her head valiantly. 'I understand' she said, no tremble to her voice. 'I always knew this was the only way.'

'While I agree this is the only option, there is an intelligent way to go about it, that doesn't necessarily end in Valkyrie's immediate death' said Skulduggery brusquely. 'I have a few suggestions I've been contemplating for some time. Can we reconvene somewhere more private and sensible than the banks of the river Liffey?' He had a bite to his tone that he knew was necessary.

Tanith looked troubled but less distressed now that Valkyrie appeared to be willing to hear them out. Ghastly's expression was dubious, but there was a touch of relief to his features as well. Despite their words, they acted as though they didn't fully trust Valkyrie any more, as if they were relieved that she had just agreed to her own execution. Skulduggery both understood it and loathed them for it. That was the trouble with this whole set of circumstances; he was able to completely rationalise how everyone else was to react and behave, but for the life of him (figuratively) he could only do the opposite. No one else was in her corner; best friend, sister, employer, boyfriend, whoever – they were all more concerned with the fate of the world. As he should be. This was insanity.

Ghastly had started speaking again, he realised. 'You're right,' he conceded, 'this is madness. Come to the shop, we can speak privately and be warm.' Skulduggery nodded and led Valkyrie back to the Bentley. Ghastly gave Tanith's hand a squeeze and headed presumably towards his own van, while Tanith swung a leg over her bike and donned her helmet with the distinct air of resignation found in a soldier heading to battle.

Valkyrie slid into the passenger seat and drew the seatbelt over her shoulder slowly, reluctantly. Skulduggery started the engine.

She looked up at him, her expression both resigned and fearful. 'It was inevitable, I suppose' she said, with more optimism than her face could muster. 'This is for the best, it takes the choice out of our hands.'

He looked at her and said nothing, his head cocked to one side, then put the car into gear and pulled away from the curb.

'We've needed an ultimatum from the start, the only problem was that neither of us could bring ourselves to set one,' she continued, in that same strange high-pitched voice that was unsettlingly unnatural. 'Both of us were too invested; I in my own life, obviously, and you in my excellent skills as an irreplaceable partner.' She looked at him again and gave a weak smile.

Skulduggery didn't respond, didn't even look at her this time.

'Come on, Skul, it couldn't last forever' Her voice caught. 'At least it's our friends, at least we can do it on our terms…' He looked away from her, as they sped through empty, narrow streets. She could tell he was angry from his grip on the steering wheel; she didn't even need to see how he held his head.

Valkyrie felt it all catch up with her. Her temples pounded and her throat ached with the effort of trying to hold back tears. She crumbled, noiselessly, and let the tears flow. If Skulduggery was sinking into a place of anger now when she needed him most, she didn't think she would manage to find the strength to face Tanith and Ghastly, or the council, or anyone at all. She wasn't sure if facing death was possible when you had left so much unsaid to the living.

She wept silently, staring out the window, hiding her face from Skulduggery while he drove in silence at break neck speeds. They passed buildings, giving way to housing estates, and then suburban parks and roads, then fields, then mountains…

Mountains.

Valkyrie sat up, and peered out the window, pressing her hand against the cool glass. There were no mountains on the way to Ghastly's shop.

'Skulduggery?' she turned to him, forgetting to dry her eyes. 'Skul, where are we? Where are we going?'

He turned his face to look at her, and suddenly she realised he wasn't angry, he was filled with that unyielding, all-consuming determination that he kept reserved for only his most remarkable plans. She felt her heart start to race, not entirely sure why.

'I think you deserve a little more than an ultimatum, Valkyrie'