Both hands gripping the rope, Valkyrie pulled, raising the guillotine blade. She turned slightly, squirmed through, tucking her knees to her chest as she released her hold. The blade thunked into the ground behind her and she rolled to her feet and ran on, barging through the door.
“Alice!” she shouted. “Skulduggery!”
Lights were flickering on all over the house, throwing back the darkness as Valkyrie panicked. She shouted for her sister, shouted again – and finally heard Alice respond.
“Alice!” Valkyrie yelled, bursting into the living room.
Cadaverous was sitting in the armchair. There were suddenly roaring flames in the fireplace, but no sign of Alice or Skulduggery.
Valkyrie stalked over. “Where are they?”
Cadaverous smiled. “Close by.”
“If you’ve hurt them—”
“Why would I have hurt them already?” Cadaverous interrupted. “You think I’d go to all this trouble and not even have you present for something like that? No, no, no. You have to watch. You have to see them in pain; you have to see them die. Then, and only then, will I allow your pain to end.”
“And that’s it, is it? Then it’s all done?”
“Then it’s all done.” He stood. “Are you ready?”
“No.”
“Well, fortunately, it’s not up to you.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Valkyrie said. “When I spoke to the boy, the younger version of you—”
“He’s not real,” Cadaverous said irritably. “He never existed.”
“He’s real somewhere. Somewhere in your head, that boy is real, and he is you, a version of you that didn’t sink into all this evil. When I spoke to him, he told me something. He told me not to play your game.”
Now Cadaverous laughed. “My dear girl, in here, my game is all there is.”
“I know,” said Valkyrie. “Which is why we shouldn’t be playing.”
She backed off, turned to a door, lunging through, Cadaverous’s laugh following her into the hall. She ran to the kitchen, careful not to touch anything, wary of booby traps. She ignored the back door. In the old house, the real house, in St Louis, the back door had been rigged to deliver an electric shock. Instead, she clambered up beside the sink, kicked at the window, cracked it, kicked again, smashed it, the glass trying to get through the jodhpurs. She cleared the edge with her boot and crouched, then slid through, dropping into weeds and scrub that snatched at her ankles.
Round the corner of the house she ran, sprinting for her car.
The front door opened and yellow light spilled out and from that light Cadaverous came, jumping down the steps, snatching at her, but she ducked him and his foot hit her own and they both went down, sprawling away from each other. Valkyrie rolled, came up with her keys in her hand, leaped on to the bonnet and slid across.
Pulled the door open. Key in the ignition. Engine roaring. Knocked the car into reverse and the wheels spun, throwing dust, Cadaverous punching a hand through the passenger-side window, reaching for her.
She yanked the wheel, spinning the car, leaving Cadaverous to stagger, leaving him for the gloom to swallow, and she gunned the engine and was off. She flicked on the headlights, lit up the bridge a moment before she reached it, and then the wooden slats were thundering beneath, and on either side were the dark waters of Cadaverous Gant’s mind.
The other side of the bridge approached quickly and then shot by. No more thunder. Just the engine now, and the familiar crunch of tyres on tarmac as Valkyrie followed the road up into the town that wasn’t Haggard. Before she swerved on to Main Street, she raised her eyes to the rear-view mirror. Glimpsed headlights.
“Come on!” she shouted. “Come and get me!”
Main Street was empty now. She drove down the middle of the road, got to the bend opposite the service station, nearly jumped the kerb and hit the wall, but she forced the car back under control and kept going, biting down on her lower lip the whole time. From here on, it was a straight blast to the graveyard, and her foot got heavier on the pedal.
The darkness blurred by. The engine’s roar filled her ears. Valkyrie gripped the wheel and kept her elbows locked. At this speed, one mistake, one tiny mistake, would flip the car, would bring this manufactured world crashing in on top of her. Her seatbelt. She wasn’t wearing her seatbelt.
The graveyard approached. She didn’t let her eyes flicker.
Once beyond the graveyard, Valkyrie eased off the accelerator. The roar decreased. She turned the wheel slightly and the car slid, and she tried turning into the skid, but then the car was spinning, and she cracked her head against the window and came to a sudden, rocking stop in the middle of the road.
A moment to sit there, just a moment, to make sure she hadn’t crashed, she hadn’t killed herself, then a glance around to establish where she was. The town that wasn’t Haggard in front of her. The way out behind. And, speeding towards her, Cadaverous Gant’s Cadillac.
Reverse. Foot down. One hand on the wheel, the other across the headrest of the passenger seat, looking behind as much as in front. The Cadillac’s headlights filled the car like water. Bumper to bumper, she fled and he chased. Reflected light gave her a glimpse of that grinning, manic face.
Her free hand, pulling the seatbelt across her body. Switched hands. Clicked it in. Braced herself. A foot on the brake and a sharp turn of the wheel. The Cadillac hit her and she spun and the Cadillac swept by and now she was following it, cursing at it, ramming into the back of it. They followed the curve of the road, up to the woods. Up to the narrow, narrow road into the woods.
She pulled alongside the Cadillac, going faster with every heartbeat. He bashed into her, shaking the car. She bashed into him, harder. Did it again, nudging him over, making him give up the middle of the road. She aimed the car at the gap between the trees and went faster, faster, way too fast – Jesus she was going to kill herself, going to hit one of those trees on either side and go up in a fireball, everything blurring. One tip from that Cadillac and it was all over –
– and then she was plunging between the trees, her rear-view flashing with the Cadillac’s swooping headlights as Cadaverous swerved away to avoid an impact.
Valkyrie’s foot eased off the accelerator and tapped the brake. Still going fast, but managing it. Controlling it. Slowing down more as she came to the bend in the road. She had time. She took one hand off the steering wheel and flexed the pain from her fingers. Did the same with the other one. She tasted blood in her mouth. Her bottom lip was bleeding.
She slowed further. The end of the woodland was just ahead and Valkyrie rolled towards it, and stopped.
She turned off the engine, and got out. She stood beside the car, eyes on the bend in the road behind. Listening. This wouldn’t work if he’d given up. This wouldn’t work if he’d already gone back to kill Alice and Skulduggery.
Please let him not have gone back.
Through a gap in the branches, high overhead, she could see the clock moon. It was twenty minutes to midnight.
“I’m here!” she shouted at the dark trees. “I’m right here! Come and get me, you coward! Come on!”
In the woods, there was no warm breeze. In the woods, there was only stillness.
And then headlights snapped on at the bend in the road, like a great beast opening its eyes, and the Cadillac came roaring for her.