He stepped within arm’s reach of Azzedine Smoke, lying there half covered by unconscious convicts, and Smoke lunged, grabbed Skulduggery’s leg with both hands and some internal switch flicked inside Valkyrie’s mind and she saw the darkness swirl around Skulduggery’s aura, faster than before, thicker and darker. Smoke was putting everything into this, everything into overpowering Skulduggery’s essence, and then it was done.
Smoke looked back at Valkyrie. “Kill her,” he snapped.
Skulduggery turned.
Valkyrie raised a hand, but he knocked it aside and hit her, a fist to the jaw that spun her, sent her to her knees. His gun flew into his hand, and he pressed it to Valkyrie’s forehead.
The room stopped.
“Skulduggery,” Valkyrie whispered.
[...]
The shot filled the room.
“I love you, too,” Skulduggery said, and Valkyrie opened her eyes, watching the fierce red of his aura bursting through the black like the sun through storm clouds. Her ears rang, the gun having gone off so close to her head. The red swirled, overcoming Smoke’s darkness, burning so fiercely that she had to switch off her aura-vision before it blinded her.