“None,” he said. “He killed Tesseract, I hit him, he exploded in shadow and no one’s seen him since.”

“He might be dead,” she said hopefully.

“I don’t hit that hard.”

She shrugged. “It might be his ghost.”

“Actually,” Skulduggery said, “I’ve been thinking the same thing.”

“What? Seriously?”

“Yes, indeed. Look at what we’ve got. Armour that is brimming with power. All it needs, let’s face it, is the will to get up and move around. All it needs is intent.”

“So you think Vile’s ghost found his old armour and now it’s living inside it?”

“That’s one possible explanation. His ghost or… I don’t know.”

“So inside the armour would be, like, nothing?”

Skulduggery hesitated. “It’s a theory. One of many. But right now, it’s the only one that fits.”

“Then what was Vile doing at the Sanctuary?”

“Our beloved former Grand Mage Guild had the armour stored in boxes that were then shipped to Roarhaven. My fight with Tesseract must have disturbed it, or…”

He went quiet, and she frowned at him. “Is there something about Vile, or about what he said to you, or… Is there something you’re not telling me?”

Skulduggery laughed. “Oh Valkyrie, my loyal and trustworthy combat accessory. Of course there’s something I’m not telling you. That’s what makes me fun.”

Valkyrie stood in Skulduggery’s hat room and looked at her hand. It wasn’t shaking. She turned it, frowning, trying to spot a hidden tremble. Nothing. She knew this wasn’t right. She’d been attacked and almost killed, endured pain and agony on a scale most people would never experience, and yet she didn’t seem to be suffering from any psychological side-effects whatsoever.

She remembered the attack vividly. It was seared into her memory. She wasn’t repressing anything, as far as she could tell. She wasn’t numb. She wasn’t traumatised. Then what was wrong with her? Why wasn’t she in shock? Or maybe this was shock. No, she’d been in shock before. She knew the signs. This thing she was experiencing now was… normality.

Her body had been half ripped to shreds the previous night, and now she was fine with it. It was like there was something cool in her centre, keeping the panic down, gently guiding her past the horror. She could almost hear the voice in her mind.

Calm, it said. Keep calm. You’re still alive, aren’t you?