“Damn The Man,” Finbar said proudly.
“Now then,” Cassandra said, “to business. Skulduggery, if you wouldn’t mind…?”
Skulduggery looked at Valkyrie. “This may get a little warm.”
He clicked his fingers, summoning flame into both of his hands, and then he tossed the fireballs at the ground. They fell through the grille and he gestured, and the flames spread out and started to burn with the coals.
Cassandra closed her eyes and stayed like that for a minute or two. Valkyrie wanted to ask if she could open the door at the top of the stairs to let some air in because Skulduggery hadn’t been lying. It was getting uncomfortably warm down here.
Without opening her eyes, Cassandra reached down, picked up the umbrella and opened it. She rested it against her shoulder, open above her head, and she nodded.
“I’m ready.”
Finbar turned the little red wheel on the wall and Valkyrie heard the water gurgling through the pipes. She stepped back as a few drops started to fall from the sprinklers, and Skulduggery moved her back three more steps just as the full spray came on. Valkyrie stood with her back to the wall, the spray just hitting her boots. The water passed through the grille, hissing as it hit the burning coals, and steam began to billow.
Cassandra sat in the middle of the room, her yellow umbrella doing its best to keep her dry, and then she was lost from sight. The steam was thick like mist, like fog, getting denser with each passing moment. Valkyrie’s head was pounding by now.
She heard Finbar turn the wheel again, though she couldn’t see him, and the sprinklers turned off. The steam, however, stayed.
Someone moved in front of her and Valkyrie reached out then pulled her hand back sharply. There was another figure behind it and there was movement to her right. They weren’t alone in here.
Someone stepped up beside her and she whirled, lashing out, and Skulduggery caught her fist in his gloved hand.
“You’re not in any danger,” he said.
“There are people in here with us,” she whispered.
“Watch,” he responded and led her away from the wall, towards the middle of the room.
She turned her head as a figure ran through the steam towards her. She dodged back, but the water had made the metal grille slippery and her boot slid. She stumbled and Ghastly Bespoke ran at her, his body scattering in the steam right before he hit her.
Valkyrie spun, aware of Skulduggery standing beside her, completely calm.
“Think of it as a hologram,” he said, “projected on to the steam. None of this is real.”
There were buildings now, on either side of them, and a road at their feet. The road was cracked and the buildings were ruined. It was a dead city, dead or dying, and she heard muted shouts in the distance. A figure approached, striding through the street of steam, a gun in his hand. Skulduggery. His black suit was torn.
The real Skulduggery nodded. “At least I’m still looking well…”
The image of Skulduggery disappeared. And then a sound. Someone screaming in the distance and a gunshot. Somewhere near the back of the Chamber there was a flare, like a fireball being thrown. The sound was coming from everywhere, from beside and below and behind and above, and it was the sound of a battle being fought.
Dark figures were visible now, around the edge of the room, and they were struggling, running and leaping. Some of them carried weapons and Valkyrie recognised the silhouettes of Cleavers.
There was a shadow in the steam in front of them, throwing Cleavers back like they were little more than an annoyance.
Valkyrie backed up until she was beside Skulduggery. “What are we seeing?”
“The future,” he said slowly.
The images cleared and a new figure drifted into being. Valkyrie saw herself, a few years older than she was now.
The Valkyrie in the steam was taller, and her bare arms were lean and muscled, like Tanith’s. A tattoo swirled from her left shoulder to her elbow and she wore a black metal gauntlet on her right hand. Her legs were strong, the black trousers clinging to them. Her boots were scuffed, splattered with blood.
“I’ve seen this,” the Valkyrie in the steam said, her dark hair whipping across her face. “I was watching from…” She turned her head and looked straight at where Valkyrie was standing. “…there.”
Valkyrie couldn’t move.
“This is where it happens,” her older self continued, sadness in her voice.
“Stephanie!”
Two people, in the distance, sprinting this way. The older Valkyrie shook her head slowly. “Please don’t make me watch it again.”
As if her prayer was answered, the older Valkyrie disappeared, the two people came closer and Valkyrie’s heart plummeted. Desmond and Melissa Edgley ran through the steam.
Skulduggery held her back against the wall. “This hasn’t happened yet,” he reminded her quietly.
Her parents stopped running and looked around, and the dark figure Valkyrie had glimpsed earlier stepped out behind them.
“No!” Valkyrie screamed and Skulduggery held her tighter as they watched her parents turn.
“Darquesse,” Finbar whispered.
The shadow called Darquesse raised her arm and black flame engulfed the steam images of Valkyrie’s parents, turning them to ash before they could even scream their agony.
Valkyrie went cold as a fresh billow of steam took away the image. The sound faded and the steam became clouds. Valkyrie looked down and saw a city below her.
A wave of vertigo hit and she staggered, standing on nothing but air, miles above the ground, but beneath the city she glimpsed the metal grille of the Chamber. She took a breath and willed herself not to throw up. They were in the same room. They hadn’t moved. They were not standing in mid-air.
There was a blackness spreading across the city and engulfing the surrounding countryside, as if the grass and the trees were suddenly dying, as if all life was being snuffed out in a wave that spread out and just kept on spreading. Within seconds the land beneath them was dead.
Then the city went away and they were in the Chamber, and the steam was quickly dispersing. Valkyrie realised for the first time that her face was wet with sweat and her hair clung to her scalp.
Cassandra walked forward, shaking the water off the yellow umbrella. “This is the future as I have seen it,” she said. “But the future can be changed. Come. You look like you could do with a glass of water.”
They followed her up the stairs and Finbar, who hadn’t said anything for the past few minutes, wandered into the other room. While Cassandra went to the kitchen, Valkyrie looked at Skulduggery. Her headache pounded. It hurt to even move her eyes.
“My parents were there,” she said quietly.
“We can change it.”
Her voice shook. “My parents, Skulduggery.”
He laid a hand on her shoulder and his voice was soft. “You’ll save them.”
“You saw what I did. I let them die.”
“No. She let them die. Not you.”
“She is me.”
“Not yet.”
“There’s no use. She saw what we saw, she knew it was coming and she still just stood there and let Darquesse kill them. That’s what’s going to happen.”
“No,