custody? Maybe he’s got information we could use. Do we do protective custody, or is that a mortal thing?”
“We do it,” said Skulduggery, “but I doubt we’ll have to. Parthenios Lilt has been arrested.”
Omen blinked. “Because of me?”
A nod. “Directly because of you, Omen. I passed on your suspicions to the City Guard and they wasted no time in kicking down his door. They do so love to kick down doors. Lilt’s involvement opened up a fresh list of suspects, and I have a very strong feeling that we’ll put a stop to whatever the anti-Sanctuary is planning because of it. We owe you a huge debt of gratitude.”
Omen blushed. “It was nothing. I mean, I just … I just kept my eyes open, like you asked.”
“What you did was very brave. Never forget that.” Skulduggery stood up.
“Are you OK?” Omen asked him.
Skulduggery tilted his head. “Excuse me?”
“I heard you were hurt.”
“Ah. Yes, I was, but I’m OK now. It’s a dangerous business.”
Omen smiled. “I’ll try to remember that. So what do I do now?”
“I don’t know,” said Skulduggery. “Go to breakfast, I’d imagine.”
“I mean about the mission.”
“I have good news about that, actually. Your mission is over.”
Omen’s smile faded. “It is?”
“Now you can go back to being normal,” Skulduggery said. “Study. Do your homework. Do what you’re told. All the things that normal people like doing.”
“Normal people don’t like any of that.”
“They don’t?”
“No. Nobody likes doing what they’re told.”
Skulduggery took a moment to process the information. “Then why do they do it?”
“I don’t … I don’t know. Maybe they don’t know what else to do.”
“Huh. Interesting.”
“Are you being serious, about the mission being over?” Omen asked. “Because I really think I can be more useful. I have one of their masks, the kind the Scholars wear, and I’m thinking I can get into the room where they hold their meetings.”
Skulduggery slipped his gloved hands into his pockets. “Omen, you’re a good lad. There’s a reason we came to you.”
“Yeah,” Omen said, “because I’m invisible. Because nobody notices me.”
“There is that, obviously, but also because of who you are. You’re one of the good guys, Omen. You’re one of us. We knew we could trust you, and you’ve proven us right. But if I can get hurt, and I’m sure you know how wonderful I am, then anyone can get hurt. These people, the anti-Sanctuary, these Arcanum’s Scholars – they’re dangerous. They’re too dangerous to underestimate. I can’t risk you because I don’t have the right to risk you.”
“You risked Valkyrie’s life when she was two years younger than me.”
Skulduggery nodded. “And it’s very hard to argue with that logic, especially when the reason is ‘it just felt right’. But it just felt right, Omen. I knew she could handle herself. I knew she’d make it through. I can’t explain it, I just knew. But even she, even Valkyrie, has been damaged by this. Damaged by me dragging her into it all. She does her very best not to show it, but I know her too well to be fooled.”
“But if you’re so damaging to her, why didn’t you just leave her alone?”
“Because we’re caught in a loop, Valkyrie and I. A very destructive loop. And I’m sorry, but I’m just not going to damage another good person. Not if I can help it.”
Skulduggery moved past him, reached for the door handle.
“But I’m nobody,” Omen said, and he was surprised to find his eyes blurring with tears. “I don’t have anything. There’s no purpose to me.”
Skulduggery looked back. “There’s a purpose to all of us.”
“Not to me, and I should know. When you grow up with the Chosen One, all you hear about is destiny, and purpose, and becoming who you were always meant to be. Nobody ever said any of those things to me. Nobody ever asked me what my purpose was, because they knew, they all knew, that I didn’t have one. I’m the leftovers.”
Skulduggery turned to him slowly. “You don’t honestly believe that, do you?”
“Yes,” said Omen. “I mean, what else do I have to believe?”
“If you can’t believe in yourself, then believe in me. Because I believe in you.” Skulduggery held his hand out, and Omen hesitated, then shook it. “Thank you for your help, Omen. We couldn’t have come this far without you.”
And then he was gone, and Omen was left alone in the cupboard in his stupid pyjamas and his cold, bare feet.
The news about Lilt spread through the school in whispers and text messages. History class was supervised by other teachers and the students were told to keep quiet and busy themselves with their work. No one whispered the news to Omen, though. No one cared enough to share.
His moment was gone. His chance at being something, at being somebody, had flowed from his grip like a fistful of water. At break time he sat alone, a ghost, fading slowly back into the furniture. It was what he was good at. It was the only thing he was good at. Any hope he’d ever had of being somebody who’d make any kind of difference had disappeared. What a fool he’d been, to think himself part of the team. Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain and … Omen Darkly? Really? Had he seriously thought that? Had he seriously thought that the two of them, that two legends like that, would take him on as an apprentice? What the hell would they need him for? What would anyone need him for?
But it had felt so good. That was the really pathetic part. Being a part of it, however briefly, had filled a need within him that he’d never known existed. Up until now he’d been content to be the irrelevant brother. He hadn’t minded that everything was about Auger, that nothing was about him. It was how he’d been raised. He’d never known any different.
And then Skulduggery and Valkyrie had come along and told him that he could be a part of something bigger, and it was like a light shining down on him from above. He was singled out. He was special. Not once in his fourteen years had he ever been special. Auger was the first-born. Auger was the Chosen One. From the day of his birth, Omen had been the other one. His parents treated him like an annoyance. The people brought in to train Auger treated him like a prop. See what your brother is doing, Auger? That’s the wrong way to do it. Do it like this. Good boy. And Omen was left in the shadows, always so eager to please, always so compliant. Never complaining. Always grateful for whatever scraps of attention, no matter how meagre, were tossed his way.
And, for two glorious days, it had all changed, and he’d glimpsed what it was like to be important. It had been good. It had been … fulfilling. He’d never been happier. The realisation hit him like heartbreak. He had actually never been happier.
Tears came to his eyes again and he wiped them away, roughly, with the back of his hand. Nobody laughed at him, nobody pointed, because nobody saw, and nobody cared. A sea of black uniforms and coloured ties all around him, ebbing and flowing, and not one of them bothered to even mock him.
Skulduggery was worried about putting Omen’s life in danger, but the truth was if Omen had been killed, nobody, apart from Never