Chapter Eight

Back To 'Normal.'

Ghastly and Tanith watched Skulduggery and Valkyrie. Valkyrie kept shooting looks Skulduggery's way and Skulduggery kept smiling. Valkyrie leaned over and whispered in the detective's ear and Skulduggery laughed. She kissed him on the cheek and gazed out the window, joy spread on her face.

"Wonder what happens with China?" Ghastly asked Tanith quietly. "She's not going to take this lightly."

Tanith shrugged. "She's going to have to get over it. She might have loved Skulduggery, but times do change. And anyway, I heard a quiet rumour that she may be dating Solomon Wreath."

"Fitting match. They both help us occasionally, but they're both not to be trusted."

Tanith nodded slowly. "Now I know you've been back to 'normal' for ages, but I missed you when you were a statue, you know that?"

"I didn't."

"Well, now you do."

Ghastly smiled, continued driving. He turned out onto the main road as a heavy rain began to fall.

"Bugger and buggeration." Skulduggery muttered. "When does it ever stop raining? I can physically feel wet now that I'm human. And cold. I don't want to feel wet and cold. I want to be warm."

"Then it's a pub for you," recommended Ghastly. "Feel like a beer?"

Skulduggery smiled. "Oh, yes."

Valkyrie grinned at the thought of Skulduggery and Ghastly drunk. It would surely be more amusing than the drunk people that had been at the Edgely family reunion a few years back. That was when they had been fighting Vengeous and the Grotesquery. Valkyrie still had nightmares about the moment when she had killed it, and the immense pain it had caused her as it died. The shadows, and the terrible scream that had pierced her and almost turned her inside out…

Valkyrie woke up from her little flashback. Then, very randomly, she thought of Fletcher Renn, the natural-born Teleporter that had helped them retrieve Skulduggery from the Faceless Ones' portal.

"Anybody heard from Fletcher lately?" she inquired.

"Nope," answered Skulduggery.

"No, not me," said Tanith.

Ghastly was silent. He looked very seriously at the road as all three of his companions stared at him.

"Ghastly…" Skulduggery said, a hint of amusement in his voice. "Your turn to say no."

"Is it? Oh, I didn't realise. No."

"While that is the reaction I was intending, there is a new fact here. Fletcher has been in contact with you, hasn't he?"

"And it matters why?"

"I'm offended he didn't come to visit me."

"No, you're not."

"You know me too well."

"I know, and that is why I didn't tell you. He's annoying to you."

"He's not to you?" Skulduggery asked incredulously.

Ghastly frowned slightly as they pulled up outside a tavern. "No. In fact he's rather kind. And he helps me make clothes, as my kind of assistant."

"Right…"

"Next time he comes, I'll call you. He's in London at the moment."

"OK."

Ghastly cut the engine and pointed to the tavern. "Pub. Now. In. Drink."