It was raining. From up here, the streets looked slickly smooth, the rooftops polished to a slippery gleam. People hurried, wearing coats or carrying umbrellas or manipulating the rain to divert around them. She could hear the faint splashes of cars driving through puddles. It was wet and cold everywhere but on the balcony – on the balcony it was warm and dry.

“Abyssinia,” China said. “I never thought I’d have to speak that name again.”

“Skulduggery said you were friends.”

China’s eyebrow raised a fraction. “That’s a strong word. But maybe, yes. How much did he tell you about her?”

“Enough to scare me.”

“If you’re only scared, he must have left out some of the more unsavoury aspects of her story.”

“She was that bad?”

“She was worse.”

“Has Lilt said anything about her?”

A flicker of annoyance passed across China’s flawless face. “He is proving to be most obstinate,” she said. “Our Sensitives are having trouble getting past his defences. He’s already sent the City Guards into a booby-trapped apartment – it was a miracle no one was killed. I can arrange for you to see him, if you want. Maybe he’ll talk to you.”

“You’ve got trained investigators,” Valkyrie replied. “You should stick with them.”

“Lilt won’t even talk to them any more. He knows about Smoke turning Skulduggery. Maybe he’ll want to gloat about it. It might be an opening you can use.”

“China, I really don’t think that’s a good idea.”

China stood up, walked to the edge of the balcony and looked down, then turned. “What’s wrong with you?”

Valkyrie blinked. “I’m sorry?”

China waved a hand at her. “This. You. What’s wrong? What happened to turn you from the feisty warrior I knew and loved to the nervous, apologetic woman I see before me?”

“I quit,” said Valkyrie. “That’s what happened. I walked away.”

“Why?”

“How can you ask me that? You know why. You were there. You saw what Darquesse did to this city.”

“Yes,” China said. “I saw what Darquesse did. Not you. Darquesse.”

“Everything she did is on me.”

“You don’t believe that. You can’t. If you believed that, you wouldn’t be able to get out of bed in the morning. The guilt would have already hammered you into the ground. Do you bear some responsibility? Yes. But not all of it. Not even most of it.”

“Even some of it is enough.”

“You’re lying.”

Valkyrie stood up. “Excuse me?”

“You’re lying,” China repeated. “What else happened? What did you do that made you walk away?”

“Being responsible for the deaths of over a thousand people whose names and faces I will never know … that isn’t enough for you?”

“It isn’t.”