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“He’s gone,” Melancholia said. “They’re all gone.”

“I think you’re lying. You can feel him, can’t you? Buzzing in your ear? He wants to be let out.”

Darkness rammed into Valkyrie and she went backwards, barely avoiding the slashes that followed, and then the shadows snapped back to Melancholia. The Death Bringer’s hands went to her head.

“Let him out,” Valkyrie said.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Sure I do. You have his energy inside you. It’s hurting you. So let it out.”

Despite her obvious pain, Melancholia laughed. “What do you expect will happen if I do that? You expect the skeleton to sit up?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact I do.”

Melancholia straightened, her jaw clenching. She swayed for a moment. “And what,” she said tightly, “is to stop that energy from just floating away?”

“I haven’t a clue,” Valkyrie told her. “This is Skulduggery’s idea, not mine. Once you release the energy, it all flows back to its source. He should know, right? He was Death Bringer before you, after all.”

She shook her head. “You’re not getting him back.”

“Sure I am.”

“You’re not!” Melancholia screeched, and the shadows went wild, thrashing so hard they cracked the rocks around them.

Valkyrie smiled. “He’s about to break free.”

“Don’t be stupid.”

“You lose control one more time and he’s gone.”

“Don’t be…”

“Skulduggery,” she called. “Be right with you.”

Melancholia charged forward and Valkyrie stepped back, allowing her eyes to widen, allowing fear to show. She stumbled over Skulduggery’s leg, falling to the ground and Melancholia swept her arms wide, gathering shadows, and then the shadows swooped down and Valkyrie used the air to shoot sideways. The shadows hit Skulduggery’s ribcage and Melancholia shrieked, ripped them away and fell back. The darkness contorted around her as she staggered.

And Skulduggery’s body sat up.

Valkyrie ran over, grabbed his skull and his jawbone, tried to fix them back together. “How do I do this? How does it work?” The skull didn’t answer. “Here, you do it.”

She held it out, then realised his arms weren’t attached. Cursing, she dropped to her knees, found his right humerus bone through his shirt and lifted it until it clicked into his shoulder. Working quickly, she attached the rest of his arm, then carefully added his gloved hand to the wrist. Two fingers and his thumb suddenly flexed. The other two fingers hung crooked. She picked up his skull and he guided her hands to the top of his spine. It cracked as it attached.

“Ow,” Skulduggery moaned. “How on earth did you do that?”

“I just got her thinking about you,” Valkyrie said, helping him attach his other arm. “Put the idea in her head that you were waiting to pop out. I figured she’s that unstable, all she has to do is think something will happen, and it’ll happen. Then I got her to touch you. Easy, really.”

“You are magnificent,” he said.

“Yeah,” she grinned. “I know.”

“I’m astonished that worked.”

“Yeah,” she grinned. “I know. Do you need help with your legs?”

He suddenly shoved her to one side and rolled to the other as a great blade of darkness sliced through the space between them. She saw Craven, his face a frozen mask of desperation, about to send another blade towards them. Skulduggery propped himself up into a sitting position, his gun in his hand. His forefinger was bent backwards so he pulled the trigger with his middle finger.

The shot rang out and Craven flipped backwards, a bullet between the eyes.

Skulduggery swivelled, emptied his gun at Melancholia, but the shadows looked like they were obeying her again. They caught the bullets and she stood there, twenty paces away, seething with anger. “You tricked me.”

“That’s what the smart do to the stupid,” Valkyrie said, getting up while Skulduggery dropped the gun and worked at reattaching his legs.

“So now what are you going to do? Team up? I’m going to kill you from here the moment you do something to annoy me.”

“Well, then,” Valkyrie smirked, “I guess we won’t do anything to