Dead or Alive by Derek Landy

Author:Derek Landy [Landy, Derek]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2021-03-08T17:00:00+00:00

Valkyrie was trapped in a little box in a corner of her mind.

She tried to move. Tried to make her body obey. It didn’t listen to her. Cadaver Cain was controlling things, totally and utterly. She couldn’t even blink. She couldn’t even do that.

Her thoughts couldn’t stretch beyond the box she was in. At the least – at the very least – she wanted to be able to sink into his memories like she’d done so many times before with other people, to open the doors in their heads and take a peek. But the walls of this box, the walls and the floor and the ceiling, they were impenetrable. And yet …

She felt his presence all around her, felt the shifting moods of delight at being in a flesh-and-blood body once again. The joy at taking a bite from that apple. The indescribable happiness that came from being in a fight, of feeling the many different kinds of pain.

He was used to one kind, she knew that much – a pain that came whenever the integrity of his aura, his life force, was disrupted. But that was a clumsy pain, dull and functional. It had none of the flavours of his fight with Tanith. The rattling pain of a kick to the head. The sharp pain of a knee to the ribs. The juddering pain of a head smacking into the floor. These were the flavours he missed.

She saw through eyes he controlled as they flew over Dublin City. She heard the laughter as the cold wind tore at their hair. She felt them pile on the speed.

By the time they reached Cemetery Road, she could feel their body’s hunger. They landed outside Skulduggery’s house, beside the Phantom, and Skulduggery opened the door. Valkyrie felt something new at that moment – a wariness. It absolutely stood to reason that the only person Cadaver Cain would be wary of was Skulduggery Pleasant.

“You visited the future again, didn’t you?” Skulduggery asked as they stepped inside.

Their eyebrow arched. “How can you tell?”

“The very fact that you came here to tell me in person. What was it like?”

“Unchanged.”

“Killing Creed didn’t work?”

“Killing Creed didn’t even kill Creed. I’m thirsty.”

“You know where the fridge is.”

They led the way into the ridiculously sparse kitchen and took a water bottle from the fridge. They leaned against the counter as they drank.

“So Creed’s alive in the future?” Skulduggery asked.

They nodded, licked their lips, put the water bottle away. “The Activation Wave still happens. Alice still becomes the Child of the Faceless Ones. And you …”

“What about me?”

“You become Cadaver Cain. I met him. We have a potential ally, and he has no interest in the future he’s living in.”

“I’m not surprised.”

“He doesn’t particularly like sorcerers any more. He never did, of course, but then he never liked any large groups of people. But sorcerers, as you can imagine, have fallen in his estimation.”

Skulduggery nodded. “Understandable.”

“I thought so, too. So, whatever he can do to disrupt that future from ever happening, he’s willing to do it.

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