Stephanie’s eyebrows shot up and Skulduggery slammed Tanner against the wall. The other two sorcerers tried to pull him back, and Valkyrie just stood there, stunned.

“Let go of me!” Tanner commanded, his face flushed bright red. “Release me this instant!”

Ignoring the attempts to separate them, Skulduggery leaned in close, and whispered something into Tanner’s ear. Whatever he said, it was enough to turn that flushed face deathly pale.

Skulduggery stepped away. The sorcerers grabbed Tanner, hurried him onwards. They passed Stephanie and Tanner looked terrified.

“Where were we?” Skulduggery asked when Tanner was gone.

“Is that how people see me?” Valkyrie asked in a quiet voice.

Skulduggery didn’t have an immediate response to that.

“Some of them,” said Stephanie. “Especially here. They look at you – they look at me – and all they see is the face of the person who killed all their loved ones. They hate Darquesse. They hate us. You’re just going to have to get used to it.”

Valkyrie looked at her. “You’ve had to endure this since that day?”

“You’ll learn to ignore it. Or almost ignore it.”

Valkyrie chewed her lip for a few seconds, then said, “So much for the moral high ground.”

Stephanie laughed. “Yeah, you can’t stay up there any longer.”

“I loved that place,” Valkyrie muttered.

“The moral high ground is overrated,” Skulduggery said, “and the view’s much better from down here. Come along, troublemakers.”

“Actually,” Stephanie said, “I just want to say goodbye to the Engineer, if that’s OK?”

“By all means,” said Skulduggery.

“I’ll come get you when we’re ready to go,” Valkyrie said. Stephanie nodded, and headed off by herself.

Within minutes, she’d left the new Sanctuary behind, and was back in the cold and dark remains of the old. She got to the Accelerator Room, and the Engineer looked up.

“Hello, Stephanie,” it said.

She grinned. “And how do you know I’m not the recently-returned Valkyrie Cain? Is it because I’m not wearing black?”

“Not at all,” said the Engineer. “You walk differently. You are lighter on the balls of your feet, whereas she walks like she has a weight upon her shoulders.”

Stephanie’s grin faded. “That’s … kind of sad, actually. I would’ve thought she’d be the cheerier one.”

“I suppose it cannot be easy, being the architect of the world’s demise.”

“You’re depressing me.”

“Oh!” said the Engineer. “Well, I certainly did not intend to do that. I should point out that visions of the apocalypse and prophecies of doom rarely turn out to be accurate. So far anyway.”

“I’m going to miss these chats of ours.”

“You are leaving?”

“Retiring,” Stephanie said. “I’m going to leave the fighting to Valkyrie. She can save the world. I just want to live in it.”