"I'm astonished that worked."

"Yeah," she grinned. "I know. Do you need help with your legs?"

He suddenly shoved her to one side and rolled to the other as a great blade of darkness sliced through the s.p.a.ce between them. She saw Craven, his face a frozen mask of desperation, about to send another blade towards them. Skulduggery propped himself up into a sitting position, his gun in his hand. His forefinger was bent backwards so he pulled the trigger with his middle finger.

The shot rang out and Craven flipped backwards, a bullet between the eyes.

Skulduggery swivelled, emptied his gun at Melancholia, but the shadows looked like they were obeying her again. They caught the bullets and she stood there, twenty paces away, seething with anger. "You tricked me."

"That's what the smart do to the stupid," Valkyrie said, getting up while Skulduggery dropped the gun and worked at reattaching his legs.

"So now what are you going to do? Team up? I'm going to kill you from here the moment you do something to annoy me."

"Well, then," Valkyrie smirked, "I guess we won't do anything to annoy you, you moron."

Melancholia immediately raised her arms.

"Wait!" Skulduggery said from the ground. "Now, just wait a moment. Melancholia, Valkyrie is very sorry that she annoyed you."

"No I'm not."

Skulduggery got up, swaying a little. "Valkyrie, please, let me handle this. Melancholia, I know you're very confused right now."

"I'm not confused at all," Melancholia answered.

He clicked his bent fingers back into place, hissing slightly with each one. "Are you sure? Not even the slightest bit? You still want to kill everyone?"

"More than ever. And I want to thank you, by the way, for the opportunity to kill you in front of Valkyrie for a second time. That's just... delicious."

"I'm afraid that's not going to happen," Skulduggery said, and waved a hand. His tuxedo jacket floated over to him. He put it on, and straightened his bow tie. "If I get lost," he said to Valkyrie, "you need to find a way to stop me."

She frowned at him, but he was already looking back at Melancholia.

"You think you can beat me?" Melancholia said with a laugh. "I killed you with a thought, you ridiculous thing. I killed you, I defeated Lord Vile... what else do you have to throw at me?"

"That wasn't Lord Vile."

"It certainly looks like him," Melancholia said, glancing behind her to the spot where Vile had been impaled. Her smile faded. He wasn't there any more.

Skulduggery fixed his cuffs. "As I said, that wasn't Lord Vile." He raised his head. "This is Lord Vile."

Darkness leaked from Skulduggery's shirt. It wrapped around his body like a bandage, growing thicker, forming armour, covering him from head to foot. Valkyrie stepped back, found herself retreating as fast as she could.

And then Skulduggery was gone, and in his place stood Lord Vile.

Melancholia didn't move for a few seconds, then she shook her head, as if to wake herself up. "You don't scare me," she said before whipping up the shadows and lashing them at Vile. A wall arose in front of him, absorbed the shadows and then melted away.

Melancholia snarled. The shadows behind her grew and writhed, then swooped in through her back and burst from her chest. The stream of darkness slammed into Vile, drove him backwards a single step. Melancholia started to curse him as more shadows poured through her. At Vile's nod, a sliver of darkness severed the stream and Vile absorbed the rest of it into his armour.

He swept his arm wide, firing a salvo of black arrows, three of which got through Melancholia's shield as she stumbled away.

"Stop!" she shouted, like a child who didn't like how the game was being played.

Vile shadow-walked the s.p.a.ce between them, appearing behind her. Instinctively, the darkness around her swelled, keeping him at bay, and Melancholia tried to use this as her chance to escape. But Vile sent his shadows after her. One shard nicked the back of her leg and she cried out, and the next slashed across her forearm. Blood sprayed and she shrieked, clutched her arm to her and fell to the ground. She curled up, moaning and sobbing and howling in pain while the shadows around her went nuts. Vile strolled up, stood over her. So absorbed was she in her own distress that she didn't even notice him.

Valkyrie ran forward. "Skulduggery! Don't do it!"

Vile ignored her, reached down to take hold of Melancholia's head. A shadow rippled across her skin, exploding in a dark burst above her that sent Vile flying. Melancholia started crawling away, and Valkyrie grabbed her, hauled her to her feet.

"I'll kill you," Melancholia snarled.

"I'm helping you, you moron. Run!"

Chapter 55.

Tunnel Vision

hey got to the tunnel and Valkyrie dragged Melancholia after her. "Hurry!"

"Shut up!" Melancholia snapped, shoving Valkyrie away. "I don't need your help! I killed him once, I can do it again."

She turned back the way they had come, and took a deep breath. "He's up," she said. "On his feet. I can feel him. I can feel his energy. It's not like the others. But it's strong. I... there's something... there's something blocking me..."

"What are you trying to do?"

"I'm trying to take his soul."

Valkyrie punched her, right across the jaw. "I'm not going to let you kill him, you nutcase. You think I'd ever choose you over him?"

"Doesn't matter," Melancholia said, her voice quiet. "I can't do it. He's coc.o.o.ned himself away, I can't... I can't kill him."

"Good."

Melancholia glared up at her. "If I can't kill him, how are we going to stop him?"

"We're not," Valkyrie said. "We're going to run and hide, that's what we're going to do. What the h.e.l.l is wrong with you, anyway?"

"I'm covered in blood and you're still going to ask me that?"

"No, I mean what did he do to you? That isn't just a cut he gave you."

"These symbols," Melancholia said reluctantly. "They're designed to take the power of my Surge and loop it around my body continuously."

"I know," Valkyrie said. "Craven turned you into a self-charging battery. So what?"

Grimacing, Melancholia held her wounded arm up. The gash cut diagonally across her flesh, splitting symbols. "Vile's damaged me. The power isn't looping like it should. I'm not recharging like I should. It's going wrong."

Valkyrie knelt by her. "Release the energy you stole."

"Get us out of here."

"Release the energy, then I'll help you."

"He's after us!" Melancholia snapped. "If he catches us, I'll need all the strength I can find! And you want me to just release half of it?"

"Yes."

"That doesn't make sense."

"Release it now, at once, immediately, or I walk away and leave you here."

"You wouldn't do that."

"It's you or my friends, and I'm always going to pick my friends."

"Help me up before he comes. We can argue about this later."

Valkyrie stood back. Leave her here, said the voice in her head. Vile will kill her, the energy will return on its own. Leave her. She's not worth it.

Valkyrie gave Melancholia another few moments, then she turned and started to walk away.

"You can't be serious," Melancholia said. "You're really going to abandon me?"

Keep walking.

"You're really going to let him murder me?"

Don't look back.

"Fine!" Melancholia shouted. "Fine! I'll release it!"

Valkyrie turned, and waited.

Melancholia glared at her then shut her eyes. Her breathing became strained and she winced. Something like steam rose from her, drifting up and disappearing into the tunnel wall. She opened her eyes. They were no longer red. She was sweating. "There," she said, panting. "Happy?"

"That was it?" Valkyrie asked dubiously. "That was the energy of three hundred people? A little bit of steam?"

"What were you expecting? Sparkling lights? A ray of sunshine? It is what it is. Now help me up."

Valkyrie took out her phone, dialled Ghastly's number. Even though her phone was magically enhanced, she barely had a single bar down here in the caves. Even so, it was enough for the call to go through, and enough for her to hear Ghastly's tired voice, like he had just woken from a deep sleep.

"Ghastly?" she said. "Can you hear me? Can you-?"

She lost the signal, and put the phone away.

"Satisfied?" Melancholia asked.

"Very."

"I hope you're this smug when Vile catches up with us and I can't do a thing to stop him."

"Me too."

They moved on, struggling to maintain a decent pace. More and more of Melancholia's weight pressed down on to Valkyrie, and with every step her injured leg took, the Necromancer's face would screw up in pain. She wasn't going to last long in here, that much was obvious.

The ground dipped ahead of them and Valkyrie stopped, looked back, looked around.

"What are you waiting for?" Melancholia said. "Come on. Keep going."

Valkyrie ignored her, looked up, saw a ledge. "There," she said. "Climb."

"What? Why? We'll be faster going downhill."

"We can't go deeper. We have to stay as close to the surface as we can." She tried pulling Melancholia to the ledge, but Melancholia yanked her arm from Valkyrie's grip.

"I'm injured, you silly little girl. I can't go around climbing everything for no reason at all. I say we vote on it."

"We're not voting. You're going to do what I tell you."

"And why would I do that?"

"Because I've been down here before. If we go deeper, we're going to get lost. If we do manage to avoid Vile, we'll either die of thirst or get killed by one of the things that live here. Either way, we end up dead."

"I'd rather take my chances with rats and creepy-crawlies than with Lord Vile."

"There are monsters down here, Melancholia, and they're immune to magic."

"Rubbish," Melancholia said. "Nothing is immune to magic."

"Well they are, and they're a lot bigger than rats, believe me."

Melancholia looked up at the ledge, and scowled. "Give me a leg-up."

Valkyrie interlaced her fingers and crouched. Melancholia steadied herself on her wounded leg, placed one foot in Valkyrie's hands, and straightened as Valkyrie heaved. Melancholia grunted and cursed, but eventually hauled herself over. Valkyrie used the air to give herself a little boost, and she joined Melancholia.

"There," she said, nodding to a gap in the rocks ahead of them. She led the way, and Melancholia followed.