and hitting him three times before flipping him to the ground.
Valkyrie stared, her entire body cold.
Skulduggery caught a boot to the face that sent him sprawling. He got to one knee and snapped his palm out. The air rippled, but Lethe had already moved up beside him. He grabbed Skulduggery’s wrist and brought his elbow down and Skulduggery’s forearm broke.
Skulduggery cried out in pain and fell back. His gloved hand hit the street, bones spilling. Lethe kicked it away.
Valkyrie started forward, but the woman in the tuxedo intercepted her, slapping her dislocated shoulder. She cried out and the woman smiled at her.
“We’re giving them a fair go, remember? One on one. To the death.” She was Australian. “Things are always more exciting when they’re to the death, don’t you reckon? Hopscotch – to the death. Dance-off – to the death. Fight to the death – to the death.” She shrugged happily. “It’s fun.”
Clutching his flapping sleeve, Skulduggery tried getting up. Lethe leaped, spun in the air and came down on top of him, pinning him in place.
“Can you lose consciousness?” Lethe asked, hitting him. “You’ve got no brain to concuss, so maybe not. But it’s fun trying, isn’t it?”
Lethe hit him again, then reached down, forcing a hand into Skulduggery’s mouth, taking a grip. “I told you,” he said. “The world is a different place.”
Lethe wrenched and Skulduggery screamed as Lethe pulled his jawbone off.
Valkyrie grabbed the Australian and sent white lightning coursing through her, and she shot back off her feet and Valkyrie spun, raising her arm to Lethe.
But everything was moving so fast. Lethe blurred and her lightning was too slow. She tried whipping the lightning after him, but he blurred back, ducking under it. Impossible. Nobody was that fast, not even with magic.
And then Lethe was moving at normal speed again and Valkyrie stepped back, trying to work out what the hell had just happened. Suddenly the guy with the bleached hair was standing right in front of her. He hit her, square on the chin, and her head rocked back and her legs gave out and she was on the ground, looking up at the cloudless sky.
“You shouldn’t have come,” the Teleporter was saying. “Should’ve found somewhere else to hide. Now we’ve got you.” He grinned down at her. “Bet today isn’t turning out how you hoped, huh?”
“Don’t gloat, Nero,” said Lethe. “It’s not cool.” He looked down at Skulduggery, who was sitting up, his broken arm curled against him, his good hand clutching at his damaged skull. “I’ve damaged you. Richard could put you back together quite easily, I imagine. He might even be able to do more, given time. That’s why we have him, after all. To breathe life into the lifeless. But as interested as I would be in seeing that, from a purely academic point of view, I’m afraid I cannot allow it. You are the enemy. You must die. Richard, can you kill him?”
Melior hesitated. “Yes,” he said. “Probably.”
Lethe beckoned him over with Skulduggery’s jawbone. “Then, by all means, have at it.” He tossed the jawbone away.
Melior hesitated, but with a nudge from the goateed man he started walking over. Valkyrie tried getting up, but Nero stomped on her shoulder and she screamed and fell back.
And then Fletcher Renn appeared in the middle of it all.
Even through tear-filled eyes, Valkyrie recognised him. Tall. Good-looking. Blond hair still ridiculous.
Fletcher turned, taking in the scene. For the first time, Lethe and the others didn’t seem so confident. Fletcher winked at Valkyrie.
“I don’t know exactly what is going on here,” he said. “All I do know is that two dozen Cleavers are on their way. You can try to leave if you want. I don’t care. But I’m taking Valkyrie and Skulduggery. If I were you, I wouldn’t try—”
He stopped talking.
Valkyrie sat up. At first, she thought Fletcher was frozen, but no, he was still moving. Just very slowly. Incredibly slowly. The nervous guy in the ill-fitting suit had his hands raised and his eyes were narrowed. He was doing this. She’d seen it before, or something like it. Jeremiah Wallow had been able to slow time whenever he attacked, so as to prolong the pleasure of the kill. It seemed to her to be the perfect power for serial killers everywhere.
“Nero,” said Lethe, “I think it’s only fitting that one Teleporter should kill another.”
“As you command,” Nero said, taking a long knife from his jacket and walking up behind Fletcher.
Hissing with the pain, Valkyrie got to her knees and let loose a stream of lightning. She missed the guy in the ill-fitting suit, but did make him duck away.
“—to stop me,” Fletcher said, moving normally again.
“Behind you!” Valkyrie called, and Fletcher vanished just as Nero went to stab him in the back, appearing beside him an instant later and slugging him across the jaw.
Nero stumbled and Fletcher teleported to Skulduggery’s side and they both disappeared. A moment later, he was pulling Valkyrie to her feet and then they were indoors, in a hospital, and Fletcher let go of her and teleported again.
Two orderlies were helping Skulduggery on to a bed. Another one came for Valkyrie. Reverie Synecdoche hurried in from another room, eyes wide in alarm. Fletcher reappeared, his hands full of Skulduggery’s discarded bones.
“Here’s the rest,” he said, and Nero appeared behind him.
“No!” Valkyrie cried, and Fletcher turned and Nero plunged the knife into his belly.
“Ouch,” said Omen, sticking his thumb into his mouth and sucking it.
Never didn’t even look up from her textbook. “What’d you do?”
“Paper cut,” said Omen.
“I’m sure you’ll survive.”
The detention hall was empty except for them. It would have been empty except for Omen if Never hadn’t decided to keep him company at the last minute.
“You’re hiding from someone,” Omen said.
“No, I’m not,” Never replied. “I just thought I’d make a start on my homework, that’s all. How far are you through Peccant’s punishment?”
Omen checked. “Almost halfway.”
“You’d want to get a move on.”
“It’s really difficult.”
“That’s why it’s called a punishment and not a treat.”
Omen
