“The house. You may have taken ownership, but it looks like Gordon still lives here. All those dramatic paintings. All that Gothic sensibility.”

“I like it,” she said. “It reminds me of him. I still miss him like crazy. At least I got to say goodbye the second time he died. And I know what you’re going to say. I know the Gordon in the Echo Stone was just a recording of his personality, but I don’t care.”

“I wasn’t going to say anything of the sort.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

“But he left you his house, Valkyrie. I think it’s safe to assume that he expected you to update it a little. It might be nice for you to make your own mark.”

“Honestly, Skulduggery, I don’t even know if I’m staying.”

He stopped walking.

She turned to him. “The nightmares came back last night,” she said. “I woke up and I couldn’t breathe. A panic attack. I haven’t had a panic attack in … a while. I thought I was over them. I don’t think I can go on with this.”

“You said I had twenty-four hours.”

“You’ve had twenty-four hours.”

“I didn’t think you literally meant twenty-four hours. I thought it was more of a metaphor than an actual measurement of time.”

“Well, I meant twenty-four hours.”

“But we’re only getting started, Valkyrie. We’ve just had our first life-or-death encounter. This is how things go. It’s how we do what we do. We have a life-or-death encounter, we stay on it, and then at the end we win and walk away triumphant.”

“Yeah,” she said. “I don’t know if that’s going to work this time.”

“Stay with me. See it through. I need you, Valkyrie. And you need me.”

“Do I?”

He stepped closer. “You’d be lost without me.”

“I managed fine for five years.”

“You were just recharging your batteries. Now you’re ready for phase two.”

“I don’t think that’s right.”

“You gave me twenty-four hours. Give me another twelve.”

“You’ve actually had another twelve.”

“I mean give me another twelve starting from tomorrow morning. You can’t leave now. We’ve just had our first breakthrough.”

“I’m not up to it any more, Skulduggery. Come on, you must be able to see that. We were outmatched. Lethe pulled your jawbone off, for God’s sake.”

“Which was painful, but useful.”

“How the hell was that useful?”

“When I could no longer speak, he filled the silence. He told us what they were after.”

“He did?”

“To breathe life into the lifeless. That’s why Melior is so important to them – he’s the vital piece of this puzzle. That’s how he differs from other Vitakinetics – if I am interpreting Lethe correctly, the good doctor can actually bring someone back from death.”

Valkyrie frowned. “You’re serious?”

“Deadly.”