Death Bringer by Derek Landy Read Free Book Online Page B

see, the Jitter Girl literally had her hand inside your head. That would shake anything loose. And I know you don’t want to hear it, but Darquesse did save us.”
    Valkyrie folded her arms, shivering. “You’re right. I don’t want to hear it.”
    â€œ You saved us, then. Does that sound better?”
    Valkyrie glared at him through the rain. “I had nothing to do with it.”
    â€œYes, you did. You are Darquesse, Valkyrie. Darquesse isn’t a different person, no matter how many times we talk about her like she is. At its simplest level, Darquesse is a state of mind.”
    â€œI’m sorry?”
    â€œShe’s you, without your conscience, or your feelings. She’s you without your humanity.”
    â€œYou’re saying she’s a mood swing?”
    He shrugged. “Or maybe you are her mood swing.”
    â€œDon’t even joke about that.”
    Skulduggery picked up the wooden box and they started back towards the cottage. “I’m not joking. The fact is we have no way of knowing if the person who we think we are is at the core of our being. Are you a decent girl with the potential to someday become an evil monster, or are you an evil monster that thinks it’s a decent girl?”
    â€œWouldn’t I know which one I was?”
    â€œGood God, no. The lies we tell other people are nothing to the lies we tell ourselves.”
    â€œYou have an amazing ability to depress me sometimes, you know that?”
    â€œI try my best.” Skulduggery gestured, and his mud-soaked hat rose into his hand. He gazed at it forlornly. “How are you feeling?”
    â€œHeadachy. But fine. Bad man got away.”
    â€œYes, he did.”
    â€œHe killed Paul Lynch and now the little old lady Lynch confided in. Somebody doesn’t want us to know anything about the Passage. You think he was a Necromancer?”
    â€œEven though dressing in black is in no way an indication – yes, I quite do.”
    She nodded. “Me too. Plus, he had a ridiculous beard. I should probably ask Solomon about him.”
    â€œI should probably help.”
    â€œNo hitting.”
    â€œA small amount of hitting.”
    Fletcher lunged out of thin air before them, his eyes wide, fists clenched, ready to fight. He looked at them, spun round, spun back again.
    â€œWhere are they?” he asked.
    â€œBack in the box,” Valkyrie told him. “Did you find out anything?”
    â€œChina wasn’t at the library,” he said, the rain flattening down his hair. “Nobody there could help me. How did you beat them?”
    â€œWith unimaginable skill,” Skulduggery said. “Valkyrie, I’ve got a two-hour drive back to Dublin where dry clothes await me.”
    She nodded. “I’ll be ready.”
    He walked to the Bentley. Fletcher turned to Valkyrie, hands loosely holding her arms. “I didn’t want to leave,” he said quietly.
    She smiled. “I know.”
    â€œYou should have come with me.”
    â€œLet’s not ruin a nice moment by arguing, OK?” She kissed him.
    He sighed, and instead of rain on her face there was sunshine, and instead of being outside a small cottage with a broken window they were behind a tree in her back garden. “Much better,” she murmured. Dripping wet and covered in mud, she took Fletcher’s hand and they stepped out from behind the tree.
    Her parents, cousins, aunts and uncles, friends and neighbours, people she’d known all her life and people she’d never met stood around the barbecue pit and stared, their chatter dying away.
    â€œUh,” said Valkyrie.

Chapter 6
China’s Secret
    n Monday morning, China Sorrows walked the weed-strewn gap that led to the Church of the Faceless. She entered without knocking, found the head of this little chapel on his knees with his eyes closed, praying. A small man who greatly resembled a weasel – Prave, his name