“I thought you had him,” she said, coming to a stop. “Lethe. When it started, and he was bouncing around with all these fancy kicks, I said to myself, this’ll be over in a second.”

Skulduggery rubbed his arm. “And then he changed tactics. He’s better than me, I’ll give him that, but he took me by surprise. That won’t happen again.”

Xena came trotting back. She went right up to Skulduggery, tail wagging, and he crouched, scratching behind her ears.

“The Teleporter,” she said, folding her arms to keep herself warm. “Nero. He brought them all in, but they weren’t touching. I didn’t think that was possible. In order to teleport other people, you need to be touching them – that’s the rule, right?”

“As far as I know,” Skulduggery said. “But Neoterics don’t concern themselves with the rules.”

“And he followed Fletcher straight to Reverie. How did he do that? His powers … he can do a lot more than Fletcher – but Fletcher was almost a Neoteric, too, wasn’t he? I mean, he’s mostly self-taught.”

“But then Cameron Light found him,” said Skulduggery, straightening up. “And we gave him a book telling him how to harness his power. From that point on, his evolution was directed in the conventional way. If we’d left him alone, maybe he’d be able to do what Nero can do.”

“So are Neoterics more powerful than regular sorcerers?”

“Not necessarily. Our training makes us strong. Their unpredictability makes them strong.”

“They have a guy who can mess with time,” she said. “Any idea who he is?”

“I found no mention of him in the Neoteric Report, so I don’t know where Parthenios Lilt found him.”

“Lilt,” she said. “I’m assuming now is the time to go after him, yes?”

Skulduggery adjusted his hat slightly. “He has already been arrested,” he said. “Commander Hoc saw to it personally.”

“Have you interviewed him yet?”

“I doubt I’ll be able to.”

She frowned. “They wouldn’t stop you … would they?”

“Hoc is a smart man, and a good investigator, but when I was Commander we had our differences. Now that he’s in charge, I feel he would be disinclined to grant an interview request, even to an Arbiter.”

“But China would allow it.”

“No,” he said. “She wouldn’t.”

“Skulduggery, why did you quit?”

He took a moment before answering. “Politics.”

“China said you couldn’t handle being stuck behind a desk all day.”

“That was part of it.”

Valkyrie didn’t press it. She wasn’t even sure she wanted to know.

“Shall we go back?” he asked. “You look cold.”

“Sure,” she said. “Come on, girl.”

She motioned ahead of them, and Xena ran on.

“So,” he said, as they followed the dog, “are you going to redecorate?”

“Sorry?”