Prologue
Skulduggery woke up with a start. He was lying on hard ground. He groaned and put a hand to his head. His hand was cold. His vision was beginning to clear and he began to see shapes. Standing around him were the people he had been longing to see for ... how long had it been? He didn't believe it. Ghastly was kneeling beside him open mouthed. He helped Skulduggery sit up to look at everyone else, all of whom seemed to be mimicking Ghastly's surprised expression.
"What?" he asked. Actually now surprised didn't seem cover it. Shocked, horrified and scared was probably closer to it. China put a hand to her mouth. Now Skulduggery was a little taken aback. Since when had China been at a loss for words? Never. Probably the reason they got on so well. Sort of.
Valkyrie ran to Skulduggery's side and hugged him, tears in her eyes. He didn't know! Skulduggery hugged her back. But as he put his arm around her he saw his hand and gasped. It had skin. Pale white skin. He pushed Valkyrie away gently to look at himself more thoroughly. His clothes were stretching over his thighs where his trousers had become too tight. His shirt too. He was human again? He put a hand to his head where he felt hair. Pulling it down to his line of vision, he saw it was the colour of night, as long as it had been when Serpine had killed him. Was he alive?
Kenspeckle Grouse appeared just as the question came into his head. He felt the side of Skulduggery's neck for a pulse and the breath caught in his throat. Thump, thump, thump, thump .Apart from a cut along his cheek, Skulduggery seemed perfectly fine. Healthy. Alive, even.
"You're coming back to the Cinema," he said gruffly.
"Honestly Professor I feel fine," Skulduggery protested. He tried to stand up. His legs were stiff and didn't seem ready to take his weight but he was not going to stay in a damn hospital bed now. I'm alive, thought. What point is there staying in bed when i have escaped Death yet again?
"No, Detective," Kenspeckle shoved a hypodermic needle inot the back of Skulduggery's knee. Skulduggery collapsed in a heap within milliseconds. "That is something I have wanted to do for two long centuries..."
Valkyrie thought about protesting but she was just as curious, if not more curious than the professor, as to how Skulduggery was alive again, never mind up and around. She grabbed Skulduggery's hat off the soggy earth and followed the others to Ghastly's van.