“I glared at him. “You came all the way to Essex just to spy on us?”“Yeah.” He smirked. “I crossed the street. It was really rough.”

“Hey!" I turned, crossing my arms and glaring. "I was talking to him!"Tybalt eyed me with amusement, which just made me glare harder. "No, you were inciting him to stab you with a toothpick. Again, the difference is small, but I think it matters.”

“He called me a piece of cow poop!""Oh, really?" I raised an eyebrow."Yeah! I was just talking to him, and he was all, 'Bull crap!”

“He was smirking the smirkiest smirk of all smirks to date. I laughed, even that smirk was hard to ignore. F**k, maybe I should call him Mr Smirk.”

“Stairs," Valkyrie said, disappointed."Not just ordinary stairs," Skulduggery told her as he led the way down. "Magic stairs.""Really?""Oh, yes."She followed him into the darkness. "How are they magic?""They just are.""In what way?""In a magicky way."She glared at the back of his head. "They aren't magic at all, are they?""Not really.”

“Were you her lover? Did she cheat on you?” He paused. Rhoswen glared at him but remained silent. He said, “I’m gonna take a wild guess and say that’s a no. Did she really have to get rid of her servant just because I came along? Wait, here it comes again: no.”