trouble,” she said.
“I knew it,” Never whispered.
Omen’s mouth was dry. “What did we do?”
Miss Gnosis strode ahead, and it was all Omen and Never could do to keep up. “Don’t play that game with me, Mr Darkly. I’ve had quite an afternoon, hearing about what you’ve been getting up to. And during school hours and everything.”
“I … I don’t know what you …”
“You’re turning into as much of an adventurer as your brother, you know that?”
“Miss Gnosis,” Omen said, choosing his words carefully, “are you going to kill us?”
She glared. “By the dead, no. What do you think of me, you silly boy?”
“Just checking, miss.”
They stopped at their lockers. “Go on,” she said. “Put your bags away. We don’t have long.”
They did as they were told, and moved on quickly to the science lab. Miss Gnosis nodded to the open door. “In you go,” she said.
Never frowned. “You’re not coming in with us?”
“I’m keeping watch,” Miss Gnosis said. “And, before you go in there, remember: you don’t have to agree to anything. No one will think any less of you. Go on now.”
Puzzled, Omen and Never walked in, and Miss Gnosis shut the door after them. Valkyrie Cain stood up from the teacher’s desk at the head of the room.
“Omen,” she said. “And you must be Never. It’s very good to meet you.”
Never froze. Whether Valkyrie noticed or not, Omen didn’t know, but she continued talking anyway.
“I’m not going to waste your time,” she said. “I need your help. Both of you. It won’t be dangerous – at least, I don’t think it will. I need to go to San Francisco. I need to talk to some people, maybe search a house. Then come right back. Never, Militsa tells me you’re turning out to be a pretty good Teleporter.”
Omen frowned. “Who?”
“Miss Gnosis,” Valkyrie said. “Miss Gnosis told me, sorry. Never, are you OK?”
Omen put his hand on Never’s back. A gesture of solidarity, he hoped. “There’s something you should know,” he said.
Valkyrie stood there, waiting, but Omen didn’t quite know how to put it.
“Darquesse killed my brother,” Never said, and Valkyrie’s face went slack. “He wasn’t fighting her, or anything. He was the age I am now. He didn’t have a clue what was happening. A building fell on him.”
“I’m … I’m sorry,” Valkyrie said softly.
“Killed him instantly,” Never said. “We’d just moved here. We’d been here a week. My brother was so excited about living in Roarhaven. We all were. We’d always wanted to live where we wouldn’t have to hide who we were.”
Valkyrie swayed slightly, like she was light-headed. “I’m … Do you mind if I sit?”
“I’d prefer that you stand, actually,” Never said. “It’s the least you can do, isn’t it, when we’re talking about my brother?”
“Never …” Omen said quietly.
“No, she’s right,” said Valkyrie. “Carry on, Never.”
“Thank you, Valkyrie. I know Darquesse isn’t you. We all know how it happened. Kind of. They teach us it here, did you know that? But they leave some bits out, such as exactly how your reflection malfunctioned so badly. I think they don’t tell us that bit because they’re afraid we might try something similar with our own reflections. Which is a bit of a laugh, to be honest. I mean, why would we want to copy something that murdered so many innocent people?”
“I never meant for any of it to happen,” Valkyrie said.
Never nodded. “That bit they do tell us. They say that Darquesse became Darquesse because of a series of totally random circumstances that Valkyrie Cain had no control over. But I think you did have control – you just decided not to use it.”
“That’s not true.”
“Wasn’t there a prophecy, or something? Didn’t the Sensitives have dreams about Darquesse, years before it all kicked off?”
Valkyrie stood up a little straighter, though it looked like something was twisting in her gut. “Yes,” she said.
“But when you found out that Darquesse was your true name, that you were Darquesse, you didn’t stop, did you? You didn’t walk away and never use magic again – even though you’d had warnings that Darquesse would, at some stage, kill the world.”
“I thought I could stop it from happening.”
“But you didn’t.”
“No.”
“You failed.”
“Yes.”
“You should have walked away, but you loved it too much. You loved being the hero. You loved hanging out with Skulduggery Pleasant and Tanith Low and the Dead Men … you loved hanging out with people like Billy-Ray Sanguine, a known murderer. You loved the adventure.”
“I did.”
Never nodded. “My mum met you once. You wouldn’t remember – it was only for a few minutes. It was at the Requiem Ball. She says you were one of the most arrogant people she’d ever talked to. She said you were so young and full of confidence, and you looked at all the other sorcerers like you were so much better than them. She said she knew right then that you were trouble. Just trouble, waiting to happen.”
“I’m not going to argue with you, Never.”
“Could you argue, even if you wanted to?”
“Yes. Some of your points I would very much argue. But not the main point. The main point is that I’m responsible for what Darquesse did. That I failed to stop her in time. That haunts me. She haunts me. I’ll never be able to forget that.”
“You should just kill yourself.”
“Never!” Omen said, shocked.
“I thought about it,” Valkyrie said quietly. “When it would get too much for me, I’d think about it.”
“I wish you’d done it,” Never said.
“I hated myself too much. I needed to suffer. Ending my life would have ended my pain, and I couldn’t allow that to happen.”
“I hate you, too.”
“I can see that. But I need your help.”
Never
