our only lead is a castle,” Skulduggery said. “Well, at least it is a lead.”
Then they heard Clarabelle shouting for help. She ran in.
“They’ve taken the Professor!” she cried.
Valkyrie and Tanith gripped Fletcher’s arms and Skulduggery put a hand on his shoulder.
“Outside, Fletcher,” he said and then they were standing in the rain beside the Bentley as Billy-Ray Sanguine threw Kenspeckle into the back of his car.
Something moved overhead and Skulduggery grunted and went flying over the bonnet of the Bentley. A man landed in front of them and immediately flipped, catching Tanith with a kick that sent her crashing back into Fletcher.
Springheeled Jack whirled to Valkyrie, smiling. He doffed his hat and leaped backwards when she pushed at the air. He dropped on to the top of Sanguine’s car and slid in through the open window, and the car sped out of sight.
The Bentley beeped as the alarm deactivated and the locks sprang open. Fletcher and Tanith got in the back seat and Valkyrie clicked her seatbelt into place. Skulduggery turned the key and stomped on the accelerator. The Bentley roared out on to the road.
They followed Sanguine’s car round the corner, swerving to avoid an oncoming van. The roads were slick with rain and the back of the Bentley swung wildly, but Skulduggery kept it under control. They overtook a car on the inside and then overtook another by crossing to the opposite lane. Half a dozen drivers blasted their horns as Skulduggery nudged the Bentley back into their own lane, and now there was nothing between them and Sanguine except a whole lot of road.
“Fletcher,” Skulduggery said, “can you teleport over? Grab the Professor?”
Fletcher stared at the car in front, gripping the headrest of Valkyrie’s seat.
“It’s moving too fast,” he said. “A moving target’s too hard.”
The speed piled on. Valkyrie never had any idea that the Bentley could go this fast. They were gaining and they were gaining easily.
The car in front took a right and took it hard. The tyres squealed as the car drifted sideways, but Sanguine was good and with a sudden burst of speed it leaped onward.
Skulduggery turned the wheel and tapped the brake, his hand working the gear stick, and the Bentley growled in appreciation. He straightened the car out and brought it to a roar again and Valkyrie felt herself being pressed back into her seat. The streets whipped by. She saw Springheeled Jack open the passenger door of the car in front and move out slightly. He looked down at the road passing beneath him, like he was judging their speed.
Fletcher leaned forward. “What the hell’s he doing? He’s not going to jump, is he?”
But he didn’t jump. Defying all laws of inertia and velocity, Jack planted his foot on the ground and simply stepped out, and now he was standing on the road as they hurtled towards him.
“This is not good,” Skulduggery murmured.
Jack leaped before the Bentley hit him, landing on the bonnet without even swaying. He looked down at them, his ragged coat flapping in the wind and his hat staying on.
“If there is one thing I cannot abide,” Skulduggery said, pointing his gun out of the window, “it’s hood ornaments.”
Before he could fire, Jack stepped up on to the roof.
“I’ve got him,” Tanith said, handing her sword to Fletcher and opening the window. Moving with unerring grace, she slid out of the car.
“We can’t do this,” Valkyrie said, glimpsing the astonished faces of people they passed. “We’re in public, for God’s sake! People can see us!”
But Skulduggery’s attention had returned to closing the gap on the car in front. They swerved on to a side street and the Bentley roared. They were gaining again.
Jack crashed on to the bonnet and Skulduggery muttered a curse, craning his neck to see around him. Valkyrie watched Tanith step off the roof. She kicked Jack and he rolled off the side of the car, but as he fell, his fingers found purchase, and for a moment he clung on to the door, his malformed face pressed against Valkyrie’s window.
And then he hauled himself up out of sight and Tanith joined him, their feet heavy on the roof.
“Please stop standing on my car,” Skulduggery said softly.
There was a moment of sudden silence and then Tanith’s boots passed over the windscreen, kicking. Jack followed. He stepped from the roof to the bonnet, his right hand closed around Tanith’s throat, lifting her up and holding her out before him.
Valkyrie watched in horror as Jack held Tanith over the side of the car, the ground rushing beneath her. He looked down at Valkyrie and as he did so, he let go.
Valkyrie screamed Tanith’s name as Tanith dropped, but the Bentley sped on and she didn’t see Tanith hit the road.
Skulduggery put his hand out of the window, his fingers moving, and ahead of them the air started to ripple. Jack turned, realised what was happening, but was unable to prevent it. The Bentley passed through the wall of air, but Jack slammed into it and it knocked him back.
Valkyrie spun in her seat, and managed to see him land on both feet in the middle of the road, but the Bentley was already rounding another corner.
“She’ll be all right,” Skulduggery said, not even waiting for Valkyrie to ask. “Tanith Low has fallen off more cars than you’ve ridden in.”
He wrenched the wheel to the right and the Bentley fishtailed a little, then the tyres found their grip again.
The car in front wasn’t doing so well. It veered off the road and pedestrians jumped from its path as it mounted the kerb and crashed through an iron gate. The car jolted and spun, and the gate pinwheeled over it and hit the ground. Skulduggery slammed on the brakes.
The car ahead had stopped, its bonnet crumpled and thick grey smoke billowed from its engine. Valkyrie saw movement.
“He’s getting out,” she said, unbuckling her seatbelt and kicking open the door. Instantly she heard the siren.
She ran by a teenage boy, his eyes wide and his mouth open, raising his phone to take a picture, and she snatched the phone from his hand and leaped over the mangled gate. She ran to the ruined car, pushing at the air to clear the smoke from her sight, but the car was empty. She glimpsed Sanguine, dragging Kenspeckle around the corner of a building.
She grabbed Fletcher’s hand and pointed. “There!”
And then a Garda squad car braked sharply behind them.
They froze. She could tell that Fletcher was fighting his natural instinct to teleport. Her eyes flickered to Skulduggery. They all had their backs to the Gardaí, but Skulduggery had lost his scarf. If he turned, they’d see what he was.
“Get down on the ground!” one of the cops shouted. She watched them out of the corner of her eye as they advanced cautiously. They weren’t armed.
“Put
