Skulduggery Pleasant, the skeleton detective, his blue suit ripped and streaked with dirt, rolled on to his back and groaned. If his skull had features, they would surely be twisted in pain. “Don’t move,” he managed to say. “You’re all under arrest.”

The goblins laughed.

“You think you’re the only one with back-up?” Liam grinned at Valkyrie. “You think you’re the only one with a surprise?”

Valkyrie glared at him. “So who’ve you got out there? More of your little buddies? Some assassins? Couple of monsters, maybe? Because I have to tell you, we’ve faced them all, and we keep winning.”

“No assassins,” Liam said. “No monsters. Just Peg.”

“Who’s Peg?”

Liam sneered. “Oh, of course, you haven’t met our sister, have you? Peg’ll be the one who threw your friend there through the roof. Peg!”

A massive shape filled the doorway, and Peg the Ugly Goblin stepped in. She was twice Valkyrie’s height, and had legs as wide as tree trunks, and arms as wide as her legs. Her body was a solid slab of meat, clothed in what appeared to be a half dozen grimy wedding dresses sewn together, and her hair hung long and lank over her face.

Skulduggery got unsteadily to his feet. “Don’t worry,” he told Valkyrie. “I have her on the ropes now.”

“She threw you over a church,” Valkyrie pointed out.

For a moment he was silent. And then he said, “Not all the way over.”

“Skuluggy,” Peg moaned. “Oo uv me.”

Valkyrie frowned. “Did she just say what I think she said?”

Skulduggery shook his head quickly. “No.”

Peg took another few steps inside. Her brothers cackled and let her pass.

“Skuluggy,” Peg moaned again. “I uv oo.”

Skulduggery glanced at Valkyrie. “OK. She may have a thing for me.”

“She loves you?”

“Well, yes, but I assure you, it’s very unrequited.”

Liam grinned. “Weren’t expecting this, were you, Mr Detective? Probably thought, once a mountain fell on her, you’d seen the last of our sister, eh?”

“To be honest,” Skulduggery said, “yes.”

“She’s tougher than she looks,” Fintan said.

“Now that’s an achievement,” Skulduggery murmured.

Peg stood there, a wall in a wedding dress, and held her arms out. A swollen tongue dragged itself over her cracked lips, and she struggled to form her next word.

“Kiss,” she said.

Valkyrie arched an eyebrow. Skulduggery nodded, more to himself than anybody else.

“I’m going to have to let her down gently,” he said, and ran forward and leaped, slamming both feet into Peg’s belly. She roared in anger and swiped at him and he dodged, kicking at the back of her knee. She barely noticed.

The three brothers were coming for Valkyrie. She clicked the fingers of her right hand and made a spark, then caught the spark and cultivated it into a flame that burned in her hand.