through the cloud, slamming into Serpine. The Scepter fell and rolled away. Serpine's hands closed around Skulduggery's neck, forcing his head back.
'You ruined it!' he snarled. 'You ruined it all, you pathetic creature!'
Skulduggery slammed a fist into Serpine's face and batted the hands away. He stepped in with a jab that rocked the sorcerer's head. Serpine blasted Skulduggery with purple vapor, and Skulduggery was flung off his feet.
He landed on his side and rolled, coming up to his knees as Serpine whipped a tendril out for the Scepter. It sped toward him, but Skulduggery pushed outward at the air, breaking the tendril and knocking the Scepter off course.
Skulduggery gathered flame in his fist and threw it at Serpine, who barely managed to deflect it. It exploded on the wall behind him and Serpine hissed, stumbling away before being launched backward as the air rippled around him. He hit the wall and stayed there, high off the ground, held up by Skulduggery's outstretched hand from across the room.
'I'll destroy you,' Serpine snarled, his emerald eyes blazing with hatred. 'I destroyed you once.
I will do it again!'
He struggled to raise his right arm. Skulduggery pressed against him harder, drawing on his last reserves. But Serpine refused to be beaten. The fingers of his red hand pointed at Skulduggery.
'Die,' Serpine whispered.
Skulduggery inclined his head a little to the right, and didn't fall. Serpine's face contorted with rage.
'Die!' he screamed.
Skulduggery remained standing. 'Looks like there's something that hand of yours can't kill after all.'
A figure moved in the doorway. Serpine's laugh was one of spit and gritted teeth as the White Cleaver appeared.
'So you have an immunity to my power. ... No matter. That scythe of his will shear through your bones. You'll be nothing but rubble when he's through with you. Cleaver, attack!'
But the Cleaver stayed where he was, and Serpine's confidence started to ebb. 'What are you doing? Kill him!'
The White Cleaver took another moment and then walked away.
Serpine screamed his rage.
'You've lost, Nefarian,' Skulduggery said. 'Even your henchman is abandoning you. Even he recognizes your defeat. I'm placing you under arrest for murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and, I don't know, possibly littering.'
Serpine spat. 'You will never beat me. I will always find a way to make you suffer.'
And then Serpine's green eyes flickered toward Stephanie, still lying on the ground.
'Don't,' Skulduggery said, but Serpine was already moving his hand across his body. 'Serpine, don't!'
Stephanie cried out as a pain more intense than anything she had ever felt scourged her body. Serpine twisted his fingers and the pain intensified, turning her cry into a scream, turning the scream to silent agony. She curled up, feeling something cold spread from her belly, a welcome numbness that canceled the pain, that moved into her arms and legs, that wrapped itself around her heart and seeped into her mind. And now there was nothing, now there were just vague images of Serpine and Skulduggery; a distant voice, Skulduggery calling out to her, but that too was fading. No pain now. No sound. Her eyelids fluttered. Serpine, with that grin.
Skulduggery, holding his free hand out, and something moving through the air, everything moving so, so slowly.
The Scepter. It was the Scepter, and then it was in Skulduggery's gloved hand, and his fingers were tightening around it. He was raising his arm, and pointing, pointing the Scepter at Serpine, and the little crystal started to glow. It glowed dark, a pretty little darkness, and then the air cracked.
The coldness had overtaken her now, the numbness was everywhere, and the last bits that made her who she was were gradually drifting away. She didn't care. She didn't mind at all. Let them go. She didn't have a care in the world.
Serpine's grinning face. His eyes. His smile. All those teeth. His skin, creased in savage pleasure. And now that skin was changing, and it was drying, and it was cracking, and the smile was fading, and the emerald-green eyes were losing their gleam, clouding over, and Serpine turned to dust that fell to the floor.
And there was a ringing, a ringing in her ears, and her fingertips were tingling, and warmth was rushing back to her and her heart was beating again and her lungs sucked in air and Stephanie gasped.
Skulduggery ran over and knelt beside her. 'Are you all right?' he asked, but all she could do was shiver. Her leg twisted and she hissed in pain, but it was a bearable pain, it was a good pain.
'Come on,' Skulduggery said, taking her arm gently. 'Let's get you out of here.'
He put her weight on him and half carried her, half lifted her out of the chamber and into the corridor. They passed the jail as the door opened and Tanith toppled out. She hit the ground and groaned. Stephanie looked down at her friend, at all that blood.
'Tanith?'
Tanith raised her head. 'Oh good,' she muttered. 'You're alive.'
Skulduggery reached for her, pulled her carefully to her feet, and with an arm around each, guided them both to the foyer. They climbed the stairs slowly and moved through the Waxworks Museum. The rain had stopped and the ground was wet as they emerged into the night.
China Sorrows was standing beside her car, waiting for them. When they were so close that Stephanie could see the delicate earrings she was wearing, China spoke. 'You've all seen better days.'
'Could have used your help,' Skulduggery said as they came to a stop.
China shrugged her slender shoulders. 'I knew you could do it without me. I had faith.
Serpine?'
'Dust,' Skulduggery said. 'Too many plans, too many schemes. Sooner or later they'd cancel each other out. That was always his trouble.'
'How did you manage it?'
'He wanted immortality, so he chose death on his own terms — a living death.'
China smiled. 'Aha. And because the Scepter can only be wielded when its previous owner is dead, or in this case, when its owner is the living dead ...'
'I took it and used it on him.' He held up the Scepter. 'Something happened, though. There's no power in it anymore.'
China took it from him, turning it over in her hands. 'It was fueled by his hate. Obviously, using it against him made it feed on itself. Congratulations, Skulduggery — you've managed to break the ultimate weapon. It's nothing but an ornament now.'
'An ornament I'd like back,' he said, holding out his hand. She smiled, turning her head slightly to look at him out of the corner of her eye.
'I'll buy it from you,' she said.
'Why would you want it?' he asked. 'It's worthless.'
'Sentimental reasons. Besides, you know what an avid collector I am.'
He sighed. 'Fine, take it.'
There it was, that smile again. 'Thank you. Oh, and the Book?'
'Destroyed.'
'How very like you to destroy the indestructible. You have quite an appetite for destruction, don't you?'
'China, these bones are weary. ...'
'Then I shall leave you.'
'Bliss is still in there,' Stephanie said. 'I think he was working against Serpine the whole time.
I don't know if he's alive, though.'
'That brother of mine is quite resilient. I've tried to kill him three times already, and he just won't stay down.' China got into her car, looked at them through the open window. 'Oh, by the way, all three of you — congratulations on saving the world.'
She gave them a beautiful smile and they watched her drive off. They stood there for a while.
