Militsa went quiet for a few minutes. The ride was smooth, the tram gliding through the streets, only stopping to let passengers alight.

“Was that a lead?” Militsa said at last.

“Sorry?”

“The message on your phone. Was it a lead?”

“Yes. An address I’ve been waiting for.”

Militsa smiled. “See? Look at you, doing the detective stuff. You can’t tell me you don’t enjoy it.”

“I enjoy it a lot more when I have Skulduggery with me. There’s a very small group of people I like to spend time with, so I’m not looking forward to this next part at all. I don’t even know if I’ll be able to trust the Teleporter China sends me.”

“Then use another.”

“There aren’t really any others, apart from Fletcher. I know one of his students can teleport, but we’ve already put one Corrival pupil in danger, and I don’t want to do it again.”

Militsa’s friendly demeanour suddenly cooled. “I’m sorry?”

“Uh …”

Militsa turned in the seat to face her. “You put a Corrival Academy student in danger? Which one?”

“I, uh … I really shouldn’t say …”

“Auger Darkly?”

“No,” Valkyrie said, drawing the word out.

Militsa’s eyes widened. “Omen?”

Valkyrie winced. “How did you know?”

“Omen’s an easily distracted boy, but for the last few days he’s not even been on the same planet as the rest of us. How much danger was he in?”

“Uh …”

“Oh, Valkyrie,” Militsa said, wilting back into her seat. “You may have been able to handle a life of adventure at that age, but—”

“I know.”

“Omen’s a good boy. He’s a gentle boy. And why go for him, why not his brother? I shouldn’t be recommending any student for this kind of thing, but Auger is the Chosen One, after all. He’s used to it.”

“Auger was too well known. We needed someone to blend into the background. In our defence, and I accept that we don’t have much of a defence, we honestly didn’t think it would get dangerous.”

“How dangerous did it get?”

Valkyrie hesitated. “Pretty.”

“And what’s that, on a scale of one to ten?”

“Like … two.”

“Oh. OK. Well, that’s not that bad.”

“If ten is no danger at all and one is all the danger.”

Militsa’s hands went to her face. “Oh, Valkyrie … Omen’s a kid.”

“I know. If I could go back, I wouldn’t do it. We had no right to involve him. It was a hideous, horrible thing to do, but we did it anyway because we needed it done. That’s not an excuse, that’s just a fact. But as awful as I feel about it, as much of a mistake as I think it was … Omen saved a life.”

Militsa looked up. “He did?”