"I doubt he has spare time anymore," Skulduggery mused. "But he'll make the time, if he has to. He asked for you specifically, and today if possible. Something about warding himself. And if you could tell me what unholy magic you employed to get Valkyrie to agree to that, I would very much appreciate it."
Far from snapping aloud her irritation, like she'd done before Skulduggery arrived, Valkyrie simply sulked. "He's way more persistent than you are."
"I'm very persistent."
"Skulduggery, you give up the moment some other bad guy appears and I point out how much extra training I need to be useful."
Skulduggery's head tilted to the side. "That's hardly my fault. That's reasonable. If you didn't need to sleep all the time, we'd be able to get a lot more done."
Valkyrie blinked. "We're blaming my biological priorities now?"
"No. We're blaming you. In all seriousness, Valkyrie, how often have you gone to school yourself in the last year?"
The teenager suddenly became very interested in her shoes. Ghastly decided not to try and catch her eye, since he was just as much at fault in that respect. He hadn't tried to make her go. Neither had Tanith, although Tanith at least brought up the idea several times. Tanith believed Valkyrie shouldn't be such an outsider to her own life. Ghastly believed Valkyrie should have as much a chance at normalcy as possible. He had to admit, that belief slipped while he was focusing primarily on getting Skulduggery back, because Skulduggery didn't deserve that hell and Valkyrie didn't deserve his death as a reason for being forced back into normalcy.
Things were about as far from normal as it was possible to get right now, and that was precisely why Valkyrie should be taking over more of her old life again.
"You're not the only one," Ghastly told Dexter, lowering his voice to keep this particular conversation between the two of them. "I ran into Him at a bar a few days ago, too. I needed the help just then." Once he'd gotten over the initial shock, of course. That couldn't have been healthy. That had to be the psychological equivalent of a heart attack. "Skulduggery and Gabriel spent the last year powerless and running from a psychotic man in an alternate dimension before Gabe rescued Skul from the Faceless Ones. They've had a lot of time to sort things out. It's just a little difficult for the rest of us to wrap our minds around right now."
God-sanctioned love between Lord Vile and an Archangel. Yeah, Ghastly was still having a hard time picking it apart.
"And I'm sorry about your voice," he added, a little dumbly. "I didn't know he could do that. Or would do that." A somewhat mischievous grin began to spread. "Try praying nicely for it back, though. I'm sure he'll listen."
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Far from snapping aloud her irritation, like she'd done before Skulduggery arrived, Valkyrie simply sulked. "He's way more persistent than you are."
"I'm very persistent."
"Skulduggery, you give up the moment some other bad guy appears and I point out how much extra training I need to be useful."
"She's right," Ghastly nodded absently, rereading Dexter's scrawl. "You do."
Skulduggery's head tilted to the side. "That's hardly my fault. That's reasonable. If you didn't need to sleep all the time, we'd be able to get a lot more done."
Valkyrie blinked. "We're blaming my biological priorities now?"
"No. We're blaming you. In all seriousness, Valkyrie, how often have you gone to school yourself in the last year?"
The teenager suddenly became very interested in her shoes. Ghastly decided not to try and catch her eye, since he was just as much at fault in that respect. He hadn't tried to make her go. Neither had Tanith, although Tanith at least brought up the idea several times. Tanith believed Valkyrie shouldn't be such an outsider to her own life. Ghastly believed Valkyrie should have as much a chance at normalcy as possible. He had to admit, that belief slipped while he was focusing primarily on getting Skulduggery back, because Skulduggery didn't deserve that hell and Valkyrie didn't deserve his death as a reason for being forced back into normalcy.
Things were about as far from normal as it was possible to get right now, and that was precisely why Valkyrie should be taking over more of her old life again.
"You're not the only one," Ghastly told Dexter, lowering his voice to keep this particular conversation between the two of them. "I ran into Him at a bar a few days ago, too. I needed the help just then." Once he'd gotten over the initial shock, of course. That couldn't have been healthy. That had to be the psychological equivalent of a heart attack. "Skulduggery and Gabriel spent the last year powerless and running from a psychotic man in an alternate dimension before Gabe rescued Skul from the Faceless Ones. They've had a lot of time to sort things out. It's just a little difficult for the rest of us to wrap our minds around right now."
God-sanctioned love between Lord Vile and an Archangel. Yeah, Ghastly was still having a hard time picking it apart.
"And I'm sorry about your voice," he added, a little dumbly. "I didn't know he could do that. Or would do that." A somewhat mischievous grin began to spread. "Try praying nicely for it back, though. I'm sure he'll listen."