LITMIR.BIZ

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got louder. Closer.

      Still dizzy, Valkyrie broke left, ran between two cars, heard the wolf bounding after her. She ran, away from the nightclub and the people, barely managing to keep herself from ricocheting off lamp posts. And then the wolf slammed into her. They rolled, the wolf and her, its jaws clamping round her right arm. The teeth didn’t penetrate the armour-weave of her jacket but still she screamed. The wolf shook its head and she kicked out, but it was crouched over her, too heavy to move.

      Let me out, said the voice in her head.

      Her arm was about to break. The wolf was going to rip it from her shoulder. The Necromancer ring was useless without the freedom to orchestrate the shadows. She tried pushing at the air but the pain clouded her mind. She couldn’t even breathe with the weight of the wolf pressing down on her.

      Let me out.

      The wolf released her arm, went for her throat, and she jerked to the side, grabbed the shadows, turned them sharp like knives and raked them across the wolf’s chest. It reared back, yelping, and she pushed at the air and it tumbled. It immediately righted itself and came at her. She threw herself backwards across the bonnet of a parked car. The whole car shook when the wolf crashed into it. Valkyrie scrambled up on to the car roof and brought the wind in to sweep her over the wolf’s head. She dropped behind a wall, started running again, saw Skulduggery in the moonlight, flying towards her.

      She ducked and he flew past, collided with the wolf behind her. The wolf threw him back and Skulduggery rolled to his feet, the tranq gun in his hand, but he slipped on something in the darkness. He fell and the wolf leaped and something went skittering across the ground.

      The tranq gun – mangled.

      Fire flared and the wolf howled in pain, and Skulduggery came staggering out of the gloom. His hat was gone and his face was gone. His suit was shredded, and even in this light Valkyrie could see the deep grooves cut along his ribcage. He held his revolver in his hand.

      The wolf growled. Skulduggery turned.

      It ran straight at him, and Skulduggery brought his other hand up to steady his aim.

      “Shoot,” Valkyrie cried out. “Shoot!”

      But at the last moment Skulduggery dropped the gun and brought both arms down, his knees bending, and a wall of air slammed into the wolf from above, sending it to the ground. It tumbled and yelped and immediately Skulduggery straightened, swinging his arms towards the sky, sending the wolf spinning off its feet. As it was twisting and falling again, he stepped forward and punched, and a column of displaced air struck the wolf in the side and sent it hurtling back.

      “Dart!” he yelled as he crouched. He touched one hand to the ground around his feet and it started to crack and buckle. He was almost thrown off as the section he was standing on shot forward like a surfboard, the ground warping and rippling beneath it like waves, and he hurtled towards the wolf as it recovered. Valkyrie grabbed the broken gun, wrenched the dart from the chamber and used the air to send it straight into Skulduggery’s outstretched hand. An eyeblink later, he collided with the wolf, stabbing the dart into the creature’s shoulder.

      The wolf roared and lashed out and Skulduggery went flying, but the sedative was already taking effect. The wolf staggered, shook its head, stumbled against the wall. It looked at Valkyrie and moved towards her, could only manage three steps before its legs gave out and it crumpled. It lay there, tongue out, panting, limbs too heavy to move. Its eyes closed, its breathing deepened, and it went to sleep.

      Skulduggery got to his feet. “Victory,” he said weakly.

      

      * * *

      

      When Ed Stynes woke up, he was strapped to a bed in a strange room with strange people looking down at him. Valkyrie almost felt sorry for him.

      “Hi,” said the blue-haired girl beside her. “I’m Clarabelle. Will you be my friend?”

      Confusion etched itself on to Ed’s face.

      “Hi, Ed,” said Valkyrie before things got too weird. “My name’s Valkyrie. This is Clarabelle. Clarabelle’s a nurse, of sorts, and she’s going to be taking care of you.”

      Clarabelle nodded. “I’m very good at medicine stuff. We had a patient, last week, who came in and I examined him and he had all the signs of bubonic plague, and I healed him.”

      Valkyrie looked at her. “He really had bubonic plague?”

      “Oh, yes. Well, Doctor Nye looked at him and said he just had a splinter, but I was the one who removed it, so... That still counts. Wait until you meet Doctor Nye, Ed. You’ll love him, if you love big tall scary things.”

      Ed whimpered, and turned his head to Valkyrie. “What... what’s happening to me?”

      “What do you remember?”

      “I remember you. I remember... Oh, God, I remember wanting to eat you...”

      “Yes,” Valkyrie said. “Well, the less said about that, the better.”

      “I’m going mad, aren’t I?”

      Clarabelle laughed. She had such a pretty laugh. “Oh, we’re all mad around here, Ed!” And then she skipped away.

      Skulduggery walked in, wearing a grey trench coat over his shredded suit and a new face over his skull. He didn’t want Ed to freak out any more than absolutely necessary. “Hello, Ed,” he said. “Feeling better? You’re certainly looking better.”

      “Who are you people?”

      “We’re experts in this field,” said Skulduggery. “We want to help you.”

      “Help me? I’m a werewolf.”

      “I noticed. Hopefully, however, it’s just a phase you’re going through. Think of it as a sickness, if you like. A disease. Your dormant werewolf gene suddenly awakening is merely a symptom of the real problem, and while your situation is somewhat unusual, you’re not the only person to be afflicted. There are others, normal people like you, suddenly exhibiting unusual levels of power. But you’re one of the few cogent ones. Most of the others have been driven beyond sense. You can help us, I think. You just need to answer a few questions. Can you do that?”

      “Y-yes.”

      “Good man,” said Skulduggery. “Have you had anything unusual happen to you recently?”

      “Yes.”

      “And that was?”

      “I turned into a werewolf.”

      “Anything apart from that? Have you met anyone new? Have you been abroad, or visited somewhere for the first time...?”

      Ed shook his head. “Everything’s been normal. It’s just been my life, the same as it’s always been. Well, apart from breaking up with my girlfriend a few months ago. Do you... do you think she put a curse on me?”

      “She’s the one who ended it, wasn’t she?”

      “No,” said Ed immediately. “It was a mutual thing. We both... it was decided that... we mutually agreed that she could do better, so...”

      “In that case,” said Skulduggery, “I doubt she put a curse on you. Has anything else happened out of the ordinary? No matter how trivial it may seem?”

      “No. Everything’s been normal. Apart from the dreams.”

      Skulduggery’s head tilted. “Go on.”

      “I was just... I started dreaming about a man, dressed in white. Argeddion, his name was. It’s unusual because I never remember my dreams, but Argeddion is as clear as day in my mind.”

      “What did he want?”

      “He had a gift for me. That’s what he said. He was so gentle, and warm, and he said he had a wonderful gift to give me. He appeared

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