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 in my dreams for weeks, telling me to prepare for the Summer of Light, and then the last time I dreamed about him he held up his hand, and he was holding this bright, glowing energy, and he put it into my chest. Then he smiled, and said he’d be back for it later. I haven’t dreamed about him since then. Do you think that has anything to do with what’s happened?”
“Strange men giving you gifts of energy, and soon thereafter you transform into an extinct supernatural creature? I’d say it’s a distinct possibility, Ed.”
They left him in Clarabelle’s dubiously capable hands and made their way out of the Medical Bay. As soon as they were in the corridor, Skulduggery retracted his façade. His skull was still a little dirty from being thrown through the rubbish of Dublin City.
“How are the mortals in the observation ward?” Valkyrie asked.
“No change,” he answered. “Every conceivable test has been run on them and is being run again. So far, nothing. Not one clue as to what’s going on.”
“Will Ed be joining them?”
“He’ll be sedated, like the others. They already have a bed waiting for him.”
“But at least now we have a lead – even if it is just someone’s dream. Wow. When you say it out loud like that, it sounds very flimsy, doesn’t it?”
“That our only lead is a dream a werewolf had?” said Skulduggery. “Yes, I suppose as far as clues go, it’s not the most solid one we’ve ever had. But we work with what we’re given, and we really can’t afford to be choosy, not at this stage. With everything that’s been going on, we’ve barely been able to keep this out of the news. Sooner rather than later, the mortals are going to see something that cannot be explained away unless we
