“We have the connection,” she told him, and immediately his grumpiness vanished and he took her hand.

They appeared in Ghastly’s shop. It was dark, so they turned on the lights and waited for Skulduggery and the others to get there. Valkyrie crossed her arms and looked at Fletcher.

“What?” he asked innocently.

“You’re dying to say it.”

“Don’t know what you mean.”

“They’re still on their way back from the Sanctuary. We’ve been to China’s, found a very large piece of the puzzle and we’re here before them. Say it.”

“I’m sorry, Valkyrie, I really don’t know what you want me to say.”

She waited.

“Although,” he began.

“Here it comes.”

“Teleportation is clearly the best power to have and you should all be really grateful that I’m on your side. Why anyone would still be using cars, I have no idea. Is it pride? Is it because Skulduggery doesn’t want to admit how useful I am? I don’t think I’m appreciated as much as I should be, that’s all.”

“Right.”

“We were getting on fine without him, you know.”

“We really weren’t.”

“We were doing OK. It wasn’t a disaster. No one got killed.”

“A few people got killed.”

“But not any of us,” he said, exasperated.

“Anything else you want to complain about before he gets here?”

Fletcher laughed. “What, do you really think I’m scared of him? I’m not scared of him. But since you brought it up, yes, there is one thing. I’m older than you. I should be the one giving you orders.”

“Yeah, no. That’s not going to happen.”

“I have more world experience.”

“At doing your hair.”

“What is everyone’s problem with my hair? My hair’s cool.”

He kept talking about his hair until Valkyrie told him to shut up. A few minutes later Skulduggery and the others got back and Valkyrie told them what she’d learned.

“It’s too neat to be a coincidence,” Skulduggery agreed. “Well, all right then. That means we have our big boss. Scarab is released, he has an emotional father-son reunion with his psychopathic offspring and they recruit Dusk, maybe Remus Crux, and whoever else happens to be around and holding a grudge against society.”

“So what does Scarab want?” Tanith asked as she lovingly cleaned her sword.

“My guess is he wants revenge,” Skulduggery said.

“For what? He committed a crime and he was punished for it. If he was going to take these things personally, he shouldn’t have killed Vanguard in the first place.”

“Ah,” Skulduggery said, “that’s the thing. You see, I don’t think he did kill Vanguard. It’s something I’ve suspected for a while now.”

Ghastly stared. “But…you arrested him.”