“No, we’re going to find a way to let our friends in, and we’ll let them fight while we stand by and look smug.”

“I like that plan.”

“It has its moments.”

They slowed as they neared the end of the corridor, touched down on to solid ground and Valkyrie reluctantly stepped away. She loved the sensation of flying, but it did make walking seem absurdly clumsy.

Skulduggery pulled the small iron lever set into the wall, and the bulbs went out as the door swung open. They crept out into darkness. It was colder here – it was always cold in the Temple.

“We should be on the main level,” Skulduggery whispered, “but I’d say we’re half a kilometre from the Antechamber.” Valkyrie’s eyes were adjusting to the gloom as Skulduggery searched through stacks of boxes and supplies. He made an amused sound, and threw something to her. “We’re going to need to fit in.”

It was a robe. She put it on. The sleeves were gigantic, and swallowed her arms. She pushed them back to her elbows and then pulled up the hood. It wasn’t as easy as it looked, getting the hood to sit just right. It kept falling down over her face. Finally, she got it to where it would stay up, and turned to Skulduggery. He stood there, the black robe flowing around him, his skull barely visible beneath the hood.

“Good God,” she breathed. “You look like the Grim Reaper.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“It wasn’t meant as one.”

“I’m taking it anyway. You’re a regular visitor here – any advice on how we should proceed?”

She shrugged. “If anyone stops us, as long as we mumble something pretentious about the glory of death, we should be fine.”

“Excellent.”

They left the storage room, moving quickly but quietly. Valkyrie’s heart sped up when two Necromancers hurried by, but they were too busy panicking about the Sanctuary forces outside to notice them. Occasionally she would recognise something and nudge Skulduggery to alter their course, but for the most part she hadn’t a clue where they were. On all of her trips through the Temple, she hadn’t really been paying attention. Wreath had been the one to lead the way and she’d been happy enough to follow along, continuing whatever conversation they were having without bothering to acquaint herself with her surroundings. She was regretting that now.

“Hey!” said a voice behind them. “You!”

They stopped. Valkyrie glanced at Skulduggery and they turned. A Necromancer stalked over to them, his hood down off his head. It was that man, Oblivious or something, the one who hadn’t wanted to let them in days ago.