Chapter 1
“I’ll be right back,” Fletcher said and disappeared before Valkyrie could react. She felt a spark of annoyance as she usually did when he spontaneously disappeared, but it was stronger than it usually was. This time, she felt ready to punch Fletcher as soon as he showed his silly face, boyfriend or not. Was it a bad sign if you wanted to punch your boyfriend really, really hard? She wasn't sure. Most people’s boyfriends didn’t disappear in thin air and she found herself wishing for a world without magic. The she laughed. In a world without magic, she would be no one, nothing and she wouldn’t have met Fletcher. She started to ask herself if that would really have been a disaster, when Fletcher appeared out of thin air holding a girl’s hand. The girl proceeded to punch Fletcher so hard, Valkyrie figured that she wouldn’t have to anymore.
“Ow, what was that for?” he said as he rubbed his cheek. The girl's punch had thrown him backwards onto the floor.
“That was for taking me away from home with no warning whatsoever. That was for dumping me in the middle of that bar fight you started that last time we saw each other. And that was for telling Mom where I was that night.” The girl spoke in an American accent. Not like Sanguine's. It was a northern accent, from New York or something.
Fletcher’s confused expression cleared a little but not all the way. It took Valkyrie a second to realize that this was the expression he usually wore.
“Right,” he replied, “That was for revenge.”
“Oh, I’ll give you revenge,” the girl said and pulled her cell phone out of her pocket.
“Who are you calling? If you’re calling who I think you’re calling –"
“Hello, Mom? Yeah, I know where Fletcher is….. No, I won’t let him get away…… Yeah, I’ll try to keep him here…..See you soon. Bye.” The girl’s hand shot out and grabbed Fletcher's wrist before he could teleport.
“Nonononononono, why did you do that? Do you know how bad she is going to hurt me? She’ll kill me.”
The girl narrowed her eyes and started to smirk.
“Okay, okay, I give. You are the best person in the world and I am so, so, sorry. I promise on my life that I will never do anything to you again. You have my completely untrustworthy word.”
The girl nodded as if that was acceptable and pulled her phone out again. “Hey, Mom. Yeah, I’m sorry. I lost Fletcher. He’s learned some new tricks since we last saw him….. I’ll keep on looking. Bye.” She let go of him and he relaxed.
Valkyrie shifted her body weight in a subtle attempt to draw attention to the fact that there happened to be someone else standing in the room. The girl turned to her looking vaguely surprised at the sight of her. She was really pretty. She looked about seventeen, Valkyrie’s age. She had red hair, but it wasn't a horrible carrot red or strawberry blond. Her hair was true red, like a fox's. Her eyes were a bright green that seemed to glow. Her mischievous smile reminded Valkyrie a fox planning on stealing some chickens.
“Hi, I’m Valkyrie Cain. Fletcher’s girlfriend.”
The girl’s eyes grew in surprise and she looked first at Fletcher and then at Valkyrie with grudging respect.
“Wow, I didn’t know that Fletcher could do so well no matter how hot he thinks he is and I am amazed that you are able to put up with his incredibly amazing annoyingness. I can’t stand being in the same room as him for extended periods of time. My name is Jay Paragon. I’m Fletcher’s sister.”
Valkyrie felt a pang of… she didn’t know what it was. She had been dating Fletcher for three years and she had never known that she had a sister.
“Actually,” Fletcher said, still on the floor, “She’d my adopted sister. After my parents died, a family of magicians noticed my amazing potential and adopted me. They treated me like a horse, driving me to the ground to meet their standards and I was, like, forget it. So I left. That was a month before you found me.”
Jay glared at him and said, “You never gave them a chance. Anyhow, get along to asking me whatever you want to ask me so that I can say no and leave.”
Valkyrie stared at the girl. She had moxie. She smiled, remembering when Skulduggery had described her as having moxie. She hadn’t known what it meant at the time.
“I want you to fight with us to destroy Lord Vile, who has come back from the dead.”
Jay blinked twice and paled. “He’s back?” Her voice was barely more than tiny whisper. All of her fighting spirit seemed to have vanished. She looked once at Valkyrie as if it were her fault that the greatest villain of all time had come back. Her eyes rested for a moment on Valkyrie’s ring and she paled even more.
“I can’t fight him. Anyone else, maybe, but not him.” Her voice wavered and her face still hadn’t regained its color. Just the opposite, Valkyrie was sure that she was getting even paler.
“Wait!! Why not? You’re incredibly powerful. You can do pure magic. I’ve seen you at it.”
Two days ago, Skulduggery had told them about pure magic. It was a very rare kind of magic that you had to be born with. It dealt with magic in its purest form. That was probably what had prompted Fletcher to get his sister from the United States.
“I can’t. The magic that I do is the energy that fuels magic and the ability to do magic. Necromancy is the opposite. Everything has a small amount of magic in it. People that can do magic are the ones that are more in contact with it or have more of it. Some people believe in souls. That is pretty much what magic is. When your soul leaves you, you die or vice versa. That is what Necromancy is. Necromancy is magic that fuels itself on the energy that drains magic. Necromancers just absorb my magic. I can go up against a really weak one but not Lord Vile. Are you insane??”
Fletcher seemed at a loss for words. In the few minutes that Valkyrie had known her, she had recognized something in Jay that wouldn't allow her to admit fear. Valkyrie felt the same way. Jay must have been terrified out of her wits to admit that she was scared and that she couldn't fight him.
“I’ll fight anyone else, but not Vile,” she whispered.
Fletcher seemed even more surprised by that. “You’ll help us?”
Jay glared down at him for a second, seeming to have regained all of her former composure and strength.
“Yeah, you did get me away from that house of horrors. My parents were really becoming unbearable. Plus, I never got a chance to hang out with my big brother.” She giggled a very girly giggle, flashed Valkyrie a mischievous smile, and skipped to the window to look out at the road.
Valkyrie stared after her for a few seconds and then shook her head.
"Well that was interesting," Valkyrie said.
Fletcher finally got up off the floor and gave Valkyrie a sheepish smile before stepping close to her and giving her a soft, sweet kiss. So that’s why I’m still dating him, she thought.
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