Authors: Derek Landy
Death Bringer (43 page)
Valkyrie moved her hand till she found his. “I was an idiot for the way I treated you,” she said.
“At last,” he said, “something we can both agree on.”
And they vanished.
enny lowered his camera as Valkyrie Cain disappeared into thin air. His hands were shaking. He didn't know who the kid with the stupid hair was, but he'd find out. And that
monster
â¦
This was bigger than he'd ever dared imagine. He stood up on shaking legs, and decided, then and there, that Valkyrie was the name he was going to use for her in the article. It was a good name. Certainly a name that deserved to be spoken aloud alongside Skulduggery Pleasant. But as far as the book was concernedâ¦
He could see it now. A story like this was too big for a mere newspaper article. Much too big. He'd use the article to alert the world, but the full story needed something grander to contain it. It needed a book and an accompanying TV special. He already had a provisional title picked out: “They Walk Among Us: The Sorcerers In Our Midst”. A world-changing exposé on the secret magical subculture that exists in every country around the planet.
He decided now that it would be in the book where he would focus on Valkyrie Cain. She was the perfect figure for the audience to identify with, to root for. A normal girl, thrust into a life of danger and excitement, taken under the wing of an honest-to-goodness living skeleton. It was like Peter Parker being bitten by that radioactive spider â a normal kid given extraordinary powers. It was beautiful. It was perfect. It would make him a household name and a billionaire, all in one go.
But it would be in the TV special, not the book and not the article, where Kenny would reveal to the world that badass sorcerer Valkyrie Cain had really been mild-mannered teenager Stephanie Edgley all along.
Because if there was one thing the public was going to love more than a superhero, it was a superhero unmasked â live on air.
First published in hardback in Great Britain by HarperCollins
Children's Books
2011
1
Copyright © Derek Landy 2011
Derek Landy asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
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Illuminated letters © Tom Percival 2011
Skulduggery Pleasant⢠Derek Landy
SP Logo⢠HarperCollins
Publishers
ISBN 978-0-00-732602-0
EPub Edition © AUGUST 2011 ISBN: 9780007455430
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