Skulduggery Pleasant. Derek Landy

killed all his friends and all his family, realised what he had done and hurled the Sceptre deep into the earth, where the ground swallowed it.”

      “What did he do then?”

      “Probably went for a snooze. I don’t know, it’s a legend. It’s an allegory. It didn’t really happen.”

      “So why does Serpine think it’s real?”

      “Now that is puzzling. Like his master before him, he believes some of our darker myths, our more disturbing legends. He believes the world was a better place when the Faceless Ones were in charge. They didn’t exactly approve of humanity, you see, and they demanded worship.”

      “The ritual that he’s been looking for – is it to bring them back?”

      “It is indeed.”

      “So he might think that the Sceptre, which drove them away, could somehow call them home, right?”

      “People believe all kinds of things when it comes to their religion.”

      “Do you believe in any of it? The Ancients, Faceless Ones, any of it?”

      “I believe in me, Stephanie, and that’s enough for now.”

      “So could the Sceptre be real?”

      “Highly unlikely.”

      “So what does any of this have to do with my uncle?”

      “I don’t know,” Skulduggery admitted. “That’s why they call it a mystery.”

      Light filled the car and suddenly the world was bucking, the only sounds a terrifying crash and the shriek of metal on metal. Stephanie lurched against her seatbelt and slammed her head against the window. The street outside tilted wildly and she realised the Bentley was flipping over. She heard Skulduggery curse beside her and for an instant she was weightless, and then the Bentley hit the ground again and jarred her against the dashboard.

      It rocked back on to its tyres. Stephanie looked at her knees, her eyes wide but her brain too stunned to think. Look up, said a faint voice in her head. Look up to see what’s happening. The Bentley was still, its engine cut out, but there was another engine. A car door opening and closing. Look up. Footsteps, running footsteps. Look up now. Skulduggery beside her, not moving. Look up, there’s someone coming for you. Look up NOW.

      A window exploded beside her for the second time that night, and the man from the house was grabbing her and hauling her out of the car.