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“We could really die this time, you know.” Valkyrie murmured. Her eyes stung and watered with smoke. Her hair was grey with ashes.
Skulduggery tilted his head and looked at her. A dark brown bloodstain spread across one cheekbone—he'd gotten most of the blood off, but it still spattered his ruined suit and had dried on some of his bones. “We could die anytime.”
She rested her head on his shoulder. “Not like this.”
He was silent for a long moment. “No. I suppose not.”
She wrapped a hand around one of his and held it tightly. The tip of one of his phalanges was missing. He hadn't found a replacement yet. “I don't want to die.”
“Nobody does. But we already know what it's like.”
“Not really. We don't know what it's really like, to die forever. Not even you.”
“True enough.”
The pair of them went quiet, listening for the sounds of the approaching storm. For now they could hear nothing, but it was only a matter of time.
“I don't want to leave you.” Skulduggery said softly.
She looked at him. “You won't.”
He managed the faintest of laughs. “Dying has a way of separating people, you know.”
She gave him a bare smile. “If you leave before I do, you won't get too far away. I won't let you.”
“Don't come after me, just for my sake.” he said, trying to sound firm, but his heart wasn't in it.
“If you end up going first, how good do you think my chances really are?” she asked. “And I know you'd do it for me.”
He agreed, but did not reply.
Gently, she reached up and kissed him. Her lips were dry, and chapped, and his teeth tasted like ashes, like everything else seemed to now. He ran a hand down her back, wincing internally when he brushed the wound that had been stitched up the day before.
“I love you so much,” he said. “You know that, don't you?”
She smiled, genuinely, for the first time in what seemed like ages. “I know. I love you too. Don't forget it.”
The sky overhead rumbled ominously, and they both looked up. The exchanged an utterly exhausted look, and pushed themselves to their feet.
Valkyrie strapped on her gauntlet, and Skulduggery checked his gun. Both weapons had taken a beating, and likely wouldn't stand up to too many more fights. That was alright. Chances were that they wouldn't either, not unless something miraculous happened.
Hand-in-hand, they walked towards the battleground.