Militsa sighed. “I’m sorry, no. I’ll do more research into it, but from what you’ve told me about how it infects the aura … I don’t know if there’d be anything you could do to cleanse it. We’re not talking New Age hippies waving around cheap crystals here.”

“But Skulduggery’s different. His aura is unlike any I’ve seen.”

“Valkyrie, that might not be a good thing. Yes, it might mean that he overcomes the infection quicker than the forty-eight hours – or it might mean the opposite, or it might make no difference at all. There’s no way to tell. The fact is, we know very little about magic as it is. We’ve only just identified the gene that separates sorcerers from mortals, but we still don’t understand how it leads to us being able to access magic. Not really.”

“Is there anyone else we could talk to?”

Valkyrie could tell Militsa wanted to be able to give her hopeful news. It was in every helpless shrug and pained expression.

“Possibly,” she said at last. “There’s a team of some awesomely brilliant people running tests on the Source itself. They’ve located what they think is one of the fissures that allows magic to flow through into our reality. It’s going to take them years of study, but they might have a theory about this. If I can get in touch with them. It’s all very top secret.”

“Could you try? I could ask China to help.”

“That might not be the best thing to do,” Militsa said. “The Supreme Mage doesn’t particularly trust Necromancers any more. It was hard enough getting her to accept me as a teacher. I’d probably be better off trying to get in touch with them myself.”

“We don’t have an awful lot of time, Militsa.”

“I’ll do my best. I promise.”

Valkyrie’s phone buzzed, and she glanced at the words on her screen. It was the address in San Francisco.

“Good news?” Militsa asked.

Valkyrie shrugged. “Depends on how many people I have to punch.”

45

They emerged into the cold again and Militsa waved down a tram. “I’m heading back to the school,” she said. “You?”

“High Sanctuary.”

“That’s where this line ends.”

“Lead the way,” Valkyrie said, and jumped on after Militsa.

The tram was, thankfully, well heated, and pretty empty. They chose the long seat down the back. A woman hugging her shopping bag to her chest glared at Valkyrie, who did her best to avoid her eyes.

“Excuse me,” Militsa said loudly. “Can we help you?”

The woman muttered something under her breath, and looked away.

“I’ll probably have to get used to that,” Valkyrie said.

“You shouldn’t have to,” Militsa responded.

Valkyrie gave a half-shrug. “It’s the least I deserve.”