Chapter 11: The Faceless Ones (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 12: Down the Barrel (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 13: No Thanks (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 14: The Fact of the Matter (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 15: Back on Cemetery Road (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 16: The Temple (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 17: Dead Man Talking (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 18: Darquesse (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 19: The New Pet (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 20: The Zombie Horde (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 21: The Raid (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 22: The Man Who Killed Esryn Vanguard (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 23: Crux (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 24: The Plot Thickens … (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 25: Last Vampire Standing (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 26: Kidnapped (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 27: When Kenspeckle Met Scarab (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 28: The Midnight Hotel (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 29: The Sit-Down (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 30: Mid-Aftrnoon of the Dead (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 31: Billy-Ray (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 32: Things Get Worse (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 33: Possessed (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 34: The Meeting (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 35: Myron Stray (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 36: Playtime (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 37: China’s Dark Secret (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 38: The Castle (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 39: Hollow Man (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 40: With Gordon (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 41: The Exorcists (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 42: The Necromancers (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 43: The Road to Croke Park (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 44: Revenge (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 45: Searching for Scarab (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 46: Endgame (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 47: Crazy (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 48: A Quiet Moment (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 49: Escorting the Prisoner (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 50: Back to Haggard (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 51: Whispers (#litres_trial_promo)
Keep Reading … (#litres_trial_promo)
The Skulduggery Pleasant series (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
(#ulink_13a98629-44bd-5943-9c46-5fa6f31cdf8d)
hen Dreylan Scarab had been locked away in his little cell, he’d thought about nothing but murder. He liked murder. Murder and long walks had been two of his favourite things when he was younger. He’d walk a long way to kill someone, he’d often said, and he’d kill for a long walk. But after close to 200 years in that cell, he’d kind of lost interest in walks. His passion for murder, however, burned brighter than ever.
They let him out of prison a few days early, and he stepped into the Arizona sunshine an old man. They had kept his power from him, and without his power his body had withered and aged. But his mind stayed sharp. Try as they might, the years could not dull his mind. Still, he didn’t like being old. He counted how long it took him to cross the road and wasn’t pleased with the result.
He stood there for two hours. The dust kicked up and got into his eyes. He looked around for something to kill, then quelled the urge. The entrance to the underground prison was within spitting distance, and killing something while the guards were still watching was probably a bad idea. Besides, Scarab’s magic hadn’t returned to him yet, so even if there were something in this desert worth killing, he might not have been able to manage it.
A shape came through the shimmer of the heat haze, solidifying into a black, air-conditioned automobile. It pulled up and a man got out slowly. It took Scarab a moment to recognise him.
“Why the hell didn’t you break me out?” Scarab growled. His voice depressed him. In the open air, away from the confines of the prison, even his growl sounded old and frail.