“Doctor Synecdoche was found unconscious an hour ago,” Skulduggery said. It sounded like he was walking. “She identified Vincent Foe as one of the people who assaulted her when she was checking the body into the morgue. That was at three o’clock this morning.”

Valkyrie checked the time on her bedside clock. “The body’s been gone for six hours?”

“Synecdoche is OK, no one else was injured, but there’s no sign of the body and no sign of Foe.”

Valkyrie threw the covers off and got out of bed, started gathering up her clothes. “Do we know why they did it? Obloquy was part of Foe’s gang – is this revenge against Darquesse? Somehow?”

“I don’t think so,” said Skulduggery. “Very possibly, it’s the opposite. I think they’re working together.”

She almost fell over putting her trousers on. “So Obloquy allowed himself to be possessed?”

“Maybe. Remember, Foe and his friends are their own peculiar brand of nihilists. They want the world to perish, themselves along with it. When they turned up last night, they were allowed in to view Obloquy’s body, then they were forgotten about. They hung around until Stephanie’s body was wheeled in, and they grabbed it and disappeared. We’re trying to track them, but I don’t like our chances, not with a six-hour head start on us.”

Socks. Socks. Where the hell were her socks? “So if they’re bringing Stephanie’s body to Darquesse, what is she going to do with it? Can she inhabit it?”

“Unlikely,” said Skulduggery. “Leaving aside the fact that she’d be trying to possess a corpse, Stephanie wasn’t magical. She didn’t share your genes – she wasn’t descended from the Ancients. Even if, somehow, Darquesse managed to possess a dead body, Synecdoche estimates she’d burn it out within seconds. I don’t know what her plan is, but we’ll figure it out. There is one piece of good news, though. Creyfon Signate has found Mevolent’s dimension. If we hide Ravel over there, we can lure Darquesse in any time we want.”

“Well, that’s just wonderful,” Valkyrie said, finding her socks. “Especially seeing as how we don’t have the Sceptre to use any more.”

“Positive attitude, Valkyrie.”

“Yeah, whatever. I’ll drive over now and help you with …”

She paused, one sock on.

“Valkyrie?”

“I’ll be in Roarhaven as soon as I can,” she said, continuing to dress. “I just remembered something, and I want to check on it first.”

“OK. Is the Sceptre stored away?”

She sat on the bed, jammed the phone between her jaw and shoulder, and pulled on her boots. “Yeah. Sorry about that. The most powerful weapon in the world and the only one who can use it is my twenty-month-old sister.”