Crux burst into her apartment and China turned, appraising him coolly.

“We have the girl,” Crux said triumphantly. “I tracked her down and arrested her. Put her in the cell myself.”

“She’s fourteen,” China said. “That was very brave of you.”

“You can save your snide comments. The Diablerie have the Grand Mage.”

“It’s the talk of the town, but apparently, you’d still prefer to go after Skulduggery than the real enemy.”

“He is the real enemy. I worked it out and it’s all so obvious. It fits.”

“What fits, Remus?”

He stood with his hands on his hips. “Skulduggery Pleasant is Batu.”

“Oh my God…” China stared at him. “You are actually thicker than you look.”

Crux stepped in close. “Where is he? Where are they keeping the Grand Mage?”

“I tried to help you, Remus. I told you where Skulduggery was making his headquarters and you went in, you stormed the place, and what happened? You missed Skulduggery, you missed Valkyrie, and you got the Grand Mage kidnapped. I’ve done what I can – it’s not my fault you’re not very good at your job.”

“I’m good enough, China. I was good enough to work out your dark little secret, wasn’t I?”

“You didn’t work anything out. A dying man told you because you were the only one around at the time.”

“Where is the skeleton?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then where will he be?”

“Oh, now that one I do know. Once he learns that you’ve arrested Valkyrie, you’re not going to have to look for him. He’ll come to you.”

“I’m not scared of Skulduggery Pleasant.”

“Yes, you are, Remus. Everyone is.”

“You have failed to co-operate with a Sanctuary investigation, and furthermore, you are an obstruction to said investigation. I’m placing you under arrest.”

Crux produced the handcuffs with a flourish. China sighed and allowed her hands to be shackled behind her back.

“Once again, you’re concentrating on the wrong people. First it was Skulduggery and now it’s me, when the people you should be after are the Diablerie. Why are you doing this, Remus? Are you afraid of challenging them? Is that why you’re going after everybody but them?”

“You will lead me to the enemy. You’re working with Pleasant—”

“If Skulduggery was Batu then he wouldn’t have brought in Fletcher Renn in the first place, would he? He’d have locked him up until he needed him.”

“Your attempts at logic are as pathetic as your attempts at seduction.”

China laughed. “You have my word, Remus – I have never tried to seduce you.”

His face reddened. “You’ve made a huge mistake in underestimating me, China. You chose to believe that I am not a man of my word. I told you what would happen. I made it quite clear. But you haven’t helped me, and so I must go public with your secret.”

“I don’t know where he is,” she insisted.

“It’s too late.” Crux took her by the arm and escorted her to the door.

“Remus, listen to me. No matter what you think you know of what happened, no matter what you were told, it isn’t the whole story.”

“You can tell your friend that when he finds you,” Crux replied. “I’m sure he’ll be in the mood to listen.”

“You don’t know what this could do,” she snarled.

He smiled back at her. “I have an idea.”

Crux opened the door and there was a man standing outside.

“Hello, China,” Jaron Gallow said.

He walked in and Crux quickly backed into the apartment, taking China with him. She wrenched her arm from his grasp.

“You’re part of it,” Crux said to her, as Gallow gently closed the door. “You’re all part of it. You’re all working together.”

“You’re absolutely right, Detective,” Gallow said, a small smile on his lips. “Everyone is in on it. It’s a conspiracy the likes of which you have never seen. China, Skulduggery Pleasant, even the Grand Mage. We were going to invite you to join us at Aranmore Farm for the final act, but we took a vote and nobody wanted to ride with you. Please don’t take it personally.”

Crux snapped his hand against the air, but Gallow moved out of the way, hooked his foot under the coffee table and sent it into Crux’s chest. Crux staggered and went for his gun, but Gallow twisted it from his hand.

“Not much of a fighter, are you?” Gallow asked, and threw the detective across the room.

Crux tumbled and spun. He was panicking. Gallow was blocking his escape route and he must have known he didn’t stand a chance against him, because he turned and ran for the window. He leaped, crashing through the glass and falling from sight.

Gallow strolled over, eyebrow arched in quiet amazement. He leaned on the sill, looking out, and smiled.

“He’s alive,” he said. “He’s not crawling away particularly fast, but he’s alive. It looks like his leg is broken. Possibly an arm. Can you hear him screaming? Unusually high-pitched.”

“Why are you here, Jaron?” China asked.

He turned to her. “We can’t be stopped, I hope you realise that. In an hour we’ll have Fletcher Renn, and then we’ll be at the farm, and the gate will open, and we’ll win. Just like we were always meant to.”

“You’re inviting back an angry race of gods who hate us. I hope you realise that.”

“Have faith, China. Maybe they will rule, maybe they will scorch, maybe they will obliterate, or maybe they will just simply be. It is not our place to question them. A long time ago you told me that. You told me this world belongs to them. We’ve overseen it for millennia and now it’s time to give it back. You taught me well.”

“You were an excellent student,” she admitted. “But if you’re trying to get me to return to the fold, I’m going to have to disappoint you.”

“Is that what you told Baron Vengeous when he asked you?”

“Something along those lines, yes.”

“But he was alone, and unaware that Batu was orchestrating everything. Things are different now. This is a chance for you to come back to the Diablerie. Batu is a good leader. He has his plan. But he’s not you. He could never be you.”

“You want me to take over, just when Batu’s plan is coming to fruition?” She smiled. “Why, Jaron, how delightfully treacherous of you.”

“The Diablerie is yours, China, it always has been. Your family has been devoted to the Dark Gods for a thousand years. It’s in your veins. It’s in your blood. It’s in your heart. This isn’t something you can just shake off.”

“My brother managed it.”

“Mr Bliss is… unique.”

“And Batu?”

“Will die by your command.”

China strolled to the middle of the room, thinking about it. Finally, she stopped and looked at him. “The offer is, admittedly, somewhat tempting, but the fact of the matter is inescapable. I am a traitor to a race of sadistic gods who loathe humanity. Why would I want them to return?”

Gallow sighed. “That is unfortunate. I really didn’t want to have to kill you.”

“And I really didn’t want to have to be killed. I don’t suppose you’ve developed a sense of fair play since last we met?”

“You mean would I free you from those shackles? I’m afraid not.” He picked Crux’s gun up off the floor. “I’ll make it quick though. I promise.”

China stamped her foot. “How gracious of you.” She took a step back and stamped her foot again.

He frowned. “No one’s going to hear that, China.”

She moved again, stamping her foot a third time. Gallow looked down at the carpet and his eyes narrowed when he recognised the three symbols she had just stamped on. She stepped out of her gorgeous shoes and stood in the middle of the triangle. She smiled as the floor gave way beneath her.

China dropped through the trapdoor, landing awkwardly in the second-floor corridor. The ceiling closed up above her just as Gallow was about to follow her down. She rolled to her knees and got up and ran for the stairs.

There’d be someone out the front waiting for Gallow to emerge. It would either be someone in a car – Gruesome Krav or Murder Rose – or someone capable of their own kind of travel, like Sanguine. She didn’t want to find out which.

She got to the first floor. Gallow’s footsteps were heavy on the stairs above her. She ran the length of the corridor, the floor sticky beneath her bare feet. She had built a lot of escape routes into this building and she ran for the nearest one.

Once again, events beyond her control had dragged her into the middle of things. China was not impressed.