Remus? Did you see those things? Those flying things? Did you look at them?”
He tutted and shook his head and held himself tighter. His mind was broken. He must have looked up as the third Faceless One passed by in search of its vessel.
Which would make this so much easier.
China hunkered down, laying a comforting arm across his shoulders. “Did you tell anyone my secret, Remus? Anyone at all?”
“Secret?” he whispered.
“I won’t be mad,” she smiled. “I promise I won’t. Who did you tell? About Skulduggery?”
“Skulduggery …” Crux said, trying to remember.
“Did you tell anyone?”
He turned his head to think, and his jacket opened, and she glimpsed gold.
“What have you got there?” she asked softly, reaching in slowly. His hands closed around it and she saw it was the Sceptre.
“Mine.”
“Yes, it is yours, Remus. It’s so pretty. Can I see?”
“It’s mine. I found it. Saw a man dig a hole. Saw him dig. And then she came.”
“Who came?”
“The girl. She hurt me.”
“She’s a mean girl. Can I see that? I’ll give it right back, I promise.”
Reluctantly, Crux released his hold, and China took the Sceptre from him, and smiled again.
“We’re friends, aren’t we? Did you tell anyone about my secret? I’m not going to be mad.”
He shook his head. “No. No. Told no one.”
“Good boy.” She took a long, thin blade from the sheath on her boot. “You’re confused, aren’t you? I’m going to make the confusion go away. I promise.”
“Give it back now.”
“I’m afraid not.”
He snarled and turned suddenly. The rock in his hand cracked against her head. China fell back and Crux tried getting up on his broken leg.
“You’re in on it!” he screeched. “You’re all in on it!”
He made it up and stood over her, the rock ready to smash down, but something hit him and he was flung off his feet.
China sat up, dazed, and Valkyrie ran up to her.
“Give me the Sceptre!” the girl shouted. There was a Faceless One right behind her and it was running.
China threw the Sceptre and Valkyrie caught it and turned. The Faceless One stopped running and studied her with its blank face. It raised its hand to her slowly.
China could see the panic on Valkyrie’s face, like she expected her body to explode or implode or, at the very least, twist. Then she raised the Sceptre and fired.
The crystal glowed and the black lightning crackled and shot out, hitting the Faceless One in the chest. It staggered, and even though it had no mouth, it shrieked, an inhuman scream of pain and rage. The black lightning curled around its body and Valkyrie hit it again. The skin dried and cracked. China saw the god try to abandon its vessel, but it was too late, and the body erupted into a cloud of dust.
China got to her feet as the wind took the dust away. Valkyrie realised she was still holding the Sceptre straight out, and she tried to lower her arms, but they didn’t seem to want to go down.
Skulduggery ran over. “What happened? Are you all right? What was that scream?”
“That was the sound of a god dying,” China said.
“Paddy!” Valkyrie blurted. “Paddy is Batu!”
China didn’t know who this Paddy was, but Skulduggery tilted his head and his fist clenched.
“That’s how he got close enough to kill the Teleporters,” he said. “I doubt he even came to Peregrine’s mind when we asked him who he’d been talking to.”
China could see that Valkyrie was barely listening. She pointed at the spot where the Faceless One had been standing.
“It just looked at me,” she said. “It could have turned me inside out, but it didn’t. Why didn’t it?”
“It must recognise you,” China said. “It must recognise the Ancient blood in your veins, marking you out as something different.”
China wiped the blood from her forehead and glanced at Crux, but he was gone. Her jaw clenched in anger, but she said nothing.
“Now we can stop them,” Valkyrie said. “We have the Sceptre, we can stop them. All I have to do is point and shoot.”
“That’s right,” Skulduggery said.
“OK then, so where’s the next one?”
China heard something in the trees behind her and turned.
Fletcher Renn said, “Hold on,” in her ear and then they teleported.
A blink.
Then they were on the far side of the farmhouse, beside the burning van. Fletcher let go and she whirled.
“You came back!”
“Naturally.”
“Skulduggery!” she exclaimed. “We can’t leave them!”
“Wasn’t planning on it.” He moved against her and she hung on to him.
In an instant, they were back in the field. China was still down and the Faceless One saw them, picked up Skulduggery and hurled him at them. Valkyrie dived and Skulduggery slammed into Fletcher.
The Faceless One strode to her.
She saw the Sceptre and opened her hand, felt the air and used it to tug at the weapon. It rolled slightly. The Faceless One was almost upon her.
She held out both hands, clutching at the air and dragging it back, and the Sceptre flew at her. She jumped to her feet, but the Faceless One snatched the Sceptre from her grasp.
Valkyrie tried to take it back, but the Faceless One shook her hand off with such force that she was sent sprawling. It took the Sceptre into a two-handed grip, and she saw the anger in its stance, and the violence, like it was remembering what this weapon was, and what it could do, and what it had done, an eternity before. The golden rod began to crumple, began to break, and she saw the black crystal, glowing fiercely beneath the fingers that were tightening around it. It shattered, and lightning spilled out, and then the Faceless One was crumbling to dust.
The Sceptre fell, mangled and beyond use, and the fragments of crystal, which were dull and robbed of power, fell with it.
Valkyrie got up, hurrying over to Skulduggery and Fletcher. “Are you OK?”
“I’m fine,” Skulduggery said gruffly, but she ran by him and helped Fletcher to his feet.
“I’m OK,” Fletcher groaned. “One more to go, huh? Not doing too badly.”
“Actually,”