“We’ve sent Cleavers to the safe house Valkyrie told us about,” said Skulduggery, “but there was no sign.”

China looked at Valkyrie. “Do you have any idea where she might be headed?”

“I don’t know,” Valkyrie said. “Now that Darquesse is gone, she’ll be desperate. Maybe …” She faltered.

“Yes?”

“She might go after Argeddion,” Valkyrie said, sitting up straighter. “Darquesse wanted to use the grimoire to track him down – she reckoned peeking inside his brain would be a shortcut to fulfilling her potential. If Tanith finds him, she could use him as a hostage, remind him who he really is unless we hand over Darquesse.”

“Darquesse will not be exchanged for anything,” said China. “Even so, Argeddion is in too fragile a state to withstand someone as annoying as Tanith Low. One word from her could snap him out of the illusion he’s under, the consequences of which would be … disastrous.”

“Then we make sure Tanith never gets to him,” said Skulduggery. “Who knows where he is?”

“As far as I am aware,” said China, “only Erskine Ravel and Deacon Maybury know anything of Argeddion’s new life. We’ll protect Maybury, and Ravel is too busy with his agony to say anything about it, so I think we’re reasonably safe for now. In the mean time, I need you to take care of this renegade problem.”

“I’ll call Dexter now for an update,” said Skulduggery. He looked at Stephanie. “What are your plans?”

Stephanie blinked. “What do you mean?”

“You’ve held up your end of the deal. You helped us stop Darquesse. We could get someone to drive you home.”

Yes. She wanted to say yes. She wanted to say yes and walk out of here and never look back. Only …

Only Valkyrie was sitting right there, and Stephanie felt something twist in her gut when she thought about walking away from a situation that Valkyrie was happy to walk into. Ego. That’s what it was. Pride and ego.

“I’ll stay until we take care of the renegades,” she said. “I’ve got the most powerful weapon, after all. I’ll help you one last time, then I’m gone.”

“Your help is appreciated,” Skulduggery said, turning to leave. Stephanie started to follow and Valkyrie went to get out of bed, but he glanced back at them. “Stay here, both of you.”

“What?” Stephanie said. “I said I’d help.”

“You are not leaving me out of this,” said Valkyrie

“I don’t intend to,” Skulduggery said, “but I don’t want you two arguing the whole time.”

Stephanie frowned. “We’ve only said one word to each other!”

“Exactly. I want you to talk. You have a lot to sort out, and the faster you do it, the more use to me you’ll be. We’ll be teleporting to America in an hour. I expect you to be friends by then.”