Kingdom of the Wicked: Skulduggery Pleasant, Book 7 recap

Ordinary teenagers begin developing dangerous magic, leading Skulduggery and Valkyrie to Argeddion, an immensely powerful pacifist who believes granting magic to everyone will transform the world. Kitana Kellaway and her friends instead use their new abilities with growing cruelty. The investigation throws Valkyrie into a parallel reality where Mevolent won the war and rules alongside Lord Vile, showing what sorcerer supremacy looks like in practice. She escapes back to her own world, but Argeddion awakens and empowers the teenagers further. When they turn on him and become almost impossible to stop, Valkyrie lets Darquesse take control and defeat them. Argeddion removes their abilities before Skulduggery shoots him and leaves him comatose, and Darquesse returns control to Valkyrie. The crisis is contained, but Darquesse has surfaced again. Meanwhile Valkyrie's increasingly independent reflection kills her cousin Carol to preserve its place in the Edgley family and hides the murder from Valkyrie.

Previously: Valkyrie Cain learned that Darquesse, the sorcerer repeatedly seen destroying the world, is her own true name. That name was sealed, but Darquesse has already taken control once. Valkyrie also discovered that Skulduggery spent part of the war as Lord Vile, Mevolent's Necromancer general, and helped him return from the armour after he used it again. Tanith Low remains possessed by a Remnant and at large with Billy-Ray Sanguine. Erskine Ravel leads the Irish Sanctuary, with Ghastly Bespoke and Madame Mist as his Elders. Valkyrie and Fletcher have ended their relationship, her baby sister Alice has been born, and a magical reflection continues covering Valkyrie's ordinary life with her family.

A violent incident involving teenagers with unexplained magical abilities brings Skulduggery and Valkyrie into a case unlike the usual Sanctuary investigations. Kitana Kellaway, Doran and Sean Mackin have acquired power without training or a Surge, and their confidence grows as they discover how little ordinary authority can do against them. Elsie O'Brien, less willing to hurt anyone, becomes a possible route into the group. The Sanctuary tries to determine whether the new magic is an isolated event or the beginning of something wider, while Valkyrie continues dividing her time between cases and the ordinary life maintained by her reflection.

The empowered teenagers have moved from experiments to serious violence, and their abilities continue to increase. The investigation points toward Walden D'Essai, better known as Argeddion, a sorcerer whose power and philosophy are both unusual. Argeddion believes humanity can be improved by awakening magic in everyone, treating the destructive behaviour of a few recipients as a temporary problem rather than evidence against his plan. His physical condition does not prevent his influence from reaching outward. Skulduggery and Valkyrie now have to stop the teenagers while learning how to contain a man whose magic operates on a far larger scale.

Argeddion's connection to the new magic is confirmed, and the danger is no longer limited to Kitana's group. His intention is to trigger a worldwide transformation, convinced that universal power will make conflict obsolete. The Sanctuary sees instead the prospect of billions of untrained sorcerers and immediate catastrophe. Attempts to contain the situation are complicated by the scale of Argeddion's abilities and by the teenagers' growing sense that no one can punish them. Valkyrie is pulled into a dimensional breach before the crisis can be resolved, separating her from Skulduggery and placing her in a world shaped by a very different outcome to the war.

Valkyrie finds herself in a parallel reality where Mevolent won. Sorcerers rule openly, mortals live under oppression, and familiar people occupy altered positions in a continuing resistance. Nefarian Serpine is alive in this world and can be useful without becoming trustworthy. Its Skulduggery did not return to detective work: Lord Vile remains Mevolent's most feared enforcer. Valkyrie must survive long enough to find a route home while keeping her knowledge, including the existence of her world's Skulduggery, away from the regime. The experience gives Argeddion's promise of an enlightened magical future a grim counterexample.

Skulduggery crosses into the parallel world as the effort to recover Valkyrie becomes entangled with the resistance against Mevolent. Their escape requires cooperation with dangerous counterparts and brings Skulduggery close to the version of himself who never abandoned Lord Vile. Valkyrie and Skulduggery survive the regime and make their way back to their own reality, but the original crisis has continued in their absence. Argeddion is closer to waking fully, and Kitana, Doran and Sean have been given enough power to challenge almost anyone sent against them.

Argeddion is awake and still committed to spreading magic, despite what the empowered teenagers have done and despite the example of Mevolent's world. Kitana and her companions no longer accept limits from the person who empowered them. Their escalating violence turns them against Argeddion and threatens everyone nearby. Conventional Sanctuary force cannot reliably contain them, leaving Valkyrie with the option she has feared since learning her true name: allowing Darquesse to emerge and using her greater power against them.

Valkyrie gives Darquesse control, and Darquesse defeats Kitana, Doran and Sean. Argeddion removes the powers he gave them, ending their immediate threat, but remains convinced that his worldwide experiment should continue. Skulduggery shoots him and leaves him comatose, preventing him from renewing the plan. Darquesse relinquishes Valkyrie's body, proving both that she can surface despite the sealed name and that Valkyrie can still return, for now. The magical outbreak is stopped and the breach with Mevolent's dimension is closed. A hidden crisis remains at home: Valkyrie's reflection, now capable of independent feeling and choice, has killed Carol Edgley to keep its nature secret and continues occupying Valkyrie's place in the family without Valkyrie's knowledge.

Valkyrie returns from Mevolent's dimension with a clearer understanding of what unchecked magical rule becomes. Argeddion awakens and continues trying to spread magic across the world, while Kitana, Doran and Sean use the greater power he gives them to turn against him and threaten mass destruction. Valkyrie releases Darquesse long enough to defeat the teenagers. Argeddion takes their power away, and Skulduggery shoots him, leaving him comatose and unable to renew his project. Darquesse yields control back to Valkyrie, but her emergence confirms that the seal on Valkyrie's true name cannot be treated as permanent. The immediate outbreak of new magic ends and the parallel-world incursion is contained. Away from the investigation, Valkyrie's reflection has developed a will and identity of its own. After killing Carol Edgley to protect its secret, it continues living inside Valkyrie's family without confessing what it has done, creating a second danger that Valkyrie does not yet see.