She had brought him magic in those moments of death. He was an old man, but his magic made him new again. He was strong, and quick, with a new appetite for killing and a new mission. The war they were to bring about. The things they were to do.

There had been missteps. There had been failures. He had suffered defeat and suffered loss. The boy he had mentored, the boy to whom he had bequeathed his knowledge and his insight and his philosophy, who had grown to be a man of sterling character and dark potential, had been delivered a meaningless death at the hands of a mewling, pathetic young woman, a woman just like all the others except for that crackling, cackling power that she held in her fingertips.

Cadaverous had wanted immediate vengeance, but the voice in his head commanded him to wait. Soon, she said. Soon you will have her life in your hands. Free me, and you will have both your reward and your revenge.

And it was almost here.

He stood on the clifftop, looking out to sea, the cold wind snagging at his coat. The others stood beside him but not with him. He was apart from them. He was special.

“I can’t see it,” said Nero. His voice had adopted the annoying whine that irritated Cadaverous so much.

“Of course you can’t,” Smoke said. “It’s got a cloaking shield around it.”

“But if I can’t see it then I can’t teleport on to it, can I?”

“You can and you will,” said Lethe. “We know exactly where it’ll be in three minutes, so, in three minutes’ time, you’re going to teleport out there.” He pointed directly in front of them. “It’s perfectly safe.”

“What if you’re wrong?” Nero asked.

“We’re not. We have its schedule.”

Nero hugged himself against the cold. “What if the schedule’s wrong? We’re going to be teleporting into empty space.”

“It won’t be empty.”

“But what if it is?”

“Then you’ll start falling, and you’ll teleport yourself to safety.”

Nero’s eyes narrowed. “Wait, what? No one’s coming with me?”

“It’s too risky.”

“You just said it was safe.”

“It is safe. But it’s too risky for all of us to go at once. You go, confirm it’s there, then come back for us.”

“Sounds pretty easy to me,” Razzia said, nodding with confidence.

“OK,” said Nero, “so what if it is there, but I ’port right into the middle of a group of Cleavers?”

“Then extricate yourself from the situation,” Smoke said, like he was talking to a four-year-old.