Ghastly was hurling fists into the punchbag in the corner of his office. With the ferocity he was putting into the shots, Vex was pretty sure he knew who he was thinking about.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Ghastly asked without even looking at him. His scarred face was covered in a light sheen of sweat.

“Because you’d have wanted to come along with us,” said Vex, “and you can’t do that any more. You’re an Elder. You have to stay behind.”

Ghastly moved round the bag, tapping out a succession of jabs. “This is Tanith we’re talking about.”

“Exactly.” Vex perched on the edge of the desk to take the weight off his injured leg. “It’s personal. You can’t afford to let things get personal. Sorry, Ghastly, there was no way I was telling you.”

“That was a mistake. That was a huge...” Ghastly hit the bag with a right hook and the whole frame shuddered. Now he looked at Vex as he took off his gloves. “We’d have been able to organise back-up. You’d have had all the resources you’d need. We could have got this done quick and clean and we’d have the God-Killers and we’d have Tanith.”

“No. It wouldn’t have worked. Tanith’s involvement meant that it never had a chance of working. Because of her, we were discovered by both the German and the English Sanctuaries. The only reason we’re not at war right now is because you had no idea what I was planning.”

Ghastly grabbed a towel, wiped himself down. “Where is she now? Is she still in London? We can get her transferred over—”

“I tried. Ode isn’t having it.”

“Well, he can at least have his doctors try and get the Remnant out of her.”

“He’s not interested in saving her – just punishing her. And, by extension, you. Listen, Ghastly, when all this is over, when both sides have calmed down and things are back to normal, he’ll transfer her. You know he will. Until then, she’s in a prison cell.”

Ghastly let out a long, slow breath. “Yeah. At least she’s safe, I suppose. She can’t hurt anyone. No one can hurt her. What about the God-Killers?”

“From what we can gather, they’re in the possession of Billy-Ray Sanguine, who apparently has strict orders to destroy them. For Tanith, this was all about preventing their use against Darquesse – she never had any plans to use them herself.”

“But now that she’s been captured, Sanguine might hold on to them,” said Ghastly. “We should concentrate on tracking him down.”

“With the primary goal being the recovery of the God-Killers,” said Vex, “or the beating up of Billy-Ray?”

Ghastly shrugged. “We can’t do both?”