Seven seconds until brain death.
She could feel it. Everything was slowing. The only sound she heard, bizarrely, was the sea. Like there was a conch shell held to her ear. She blinked. She was seeing things in black and white. She wondered if Scapegrace had seen things in black and white when he was a head in a jar. She wondered if she’d ever get a chance to ask him. First things first. That body over there. So slim and strong. And the shoulders – impressive. The T-shirt was ripped and torn. The trousers were tight, just how she liked them. The boots were fantastic. She wanted those boots again. She wanted feet to fit in those boots. She wanted feet.
Five seconds to brain death.
Mevolent was still walking away. He’d been tougher than she’d expected. He’d practically killed her, after all. Practically. Almost. Almost, but not quite. Pull the head off, the brain still has time. That was a mistake.
She reached out with her magic and pulled her body towards her. It slithered over the ground. Brown-clothed mortals opened their mouths to cry in shock but all she heard was the sea, like the sea back in Haggard, where she’d been young and safe and happy. Where she’d been Valkyrie Cain, and before that, Stephanie Edgley. Where she’d had her parents and her sister. Where she’d been loved.
But that was Valkyrie, facing her own mortality, grasping the things that meant the most to her. And Valkyrie had no place here. Not now. Darquesse needed to stay in control. Only Darquesse could do what needed to be done.
Three seconds to brain death.
The body nudged against her and she tipped herself back, lining up her ruined neck. Tendrils of meat latched on to each other, finding their mate, pulling the head and body together. Vertebrae clicked and cartilage clacked and muscles reached and re-formed and strengthened. Veins and arteries, nerves and skin, becoming whole.
Blood surged. Oxygen rushed. Brain death averted.
Darquesse propped herself up on to her elbows and looked at Mevolent, who was striding back towards her. “Wow,” she said. “That was something.”