Sean gathered his feet under him and looked at his hands as Ghastly pulled a chair over. He sat across from him.

"Now then," Ghastly said, "you want to talk about ugly, Sean?"

Sean swallowed.

"There are those who have said over the years that I myself am ugly. What do you think?"

Sean gave the tiniest of terrified shrugs.

Ghastly leaned forward. "Am I ugly, Sean?"

"You... you have scars."

"And do they make me ugly?"

"I don't... I..."

"Well?"

"No. They don't make you ugly."

"So I'm not ugly? Am I handsome?"

Sean nodded quickly.

"Am I the most handsome man in the world?"

"Yes."

"Just as I suspected," Ghastly said to Elsie, "this guy doesn't know what the hell he's talking about."

A small smile flickered on Elsie's lips, and Ghastly looked back at Sean.

"She's trying to help you, you idiot. She asked to come in here, to talk to you, to try and get through to you. Because no one else wants to help. You hear an army of people outside this door, begging to be allowed to help you?"

"N-no."

"No. Exactly. Because there isn't one. But Elsie wanted to try, and this is how you repay her? She told us you were a good guy, Sean. That you were decent. Not like Doran. Doran's a psycho. And not like Kitana. She's... she's something else. Elsie told us that you just got carried away a little. The power went to your head. Is that what happened?"

"Yes."

"Did the power go to your head, Sean?"

"Yes."

"Is that why you killed those people?"

"I'm... I didn't..."

"You also killed a few of ours, outside that school. And another sorcerer, a man named Patrick Xebec. He had a wife, did you know that? I bet you didn't. And you killed him."

"No," said Sean. "I didn't. I didn't kill anyone."

"Where are your friends, Sean?"

"I don't- I don't know."

"Where are they staying?"

"I don't know, I swear."

"Then where were you staying?"

Sean hesitated. "Please... I don't want-"

Ghastly slammed his fist on the table and Sean jumped. "You don't have your magic in here, Sean. In here, you're just an ordinary boy. You're an ordinary boy in an awful lot of trouble. It's over for you. You're caught. We have you. You've got to help yourself as much as you can, because no one apart from Elsie cares about you. Where were you staying?"

Sean swallowed thickly. "A friend's house," he said. "His name's Morgan Ruigrok."

"Don't make up names, Sean."

"He isn't," said Elsie. "I know him. His whole family's got weird names. I know where he lives."

Ghastly nodded. "Well, OK then. This is a good start." He got up, walked to the door.

Sean licked his lips. "Am... am I going to get a lawyer?"

Ghastly opened the door and didn't look back. "We have people who can read your mind, Sean. Why the hell would we need lawyers?"

Valkyrie and Skulduggery joined Ghastly and Elsie outside.

"Elsie," said Ghastly, "this is Valkyrie Cain, Skulduggery's partner."

"Hi," Valkyrie said, shaking her hand. "You know these Ruigroks?"

"Morgan goes to school with us," Elsie said. "His family live in Stonybatter, but they're all in Holland for a few weeks."

Ghastly nodded. "We have a lead," he said. "Better get going."

Skulduggery and Valkyrie turned to leave, but stopped. Ghastly cursed. Ravel walked towards them, Quintin Strom and Grim right behind. Strom looked furious.

"You," he said, jabbing a finger at Skulduggery. "I want to talk to you."

"I really don't have time."

"You'll make time," Strom said, his lip curling, "because I am dying to hear why you went into that school without waiting for back-up."

"Oh, come on," Valkyrie said, her own anger rising. "If we'd waited ten minutes, who knows how bad things would have got? Yeah, stories are circulating on the Internet but no one's dead. A teacher got a few bruises but that's it. Isn't that a win for us?"

"This is a disaster," said Strom. "Pure and simple. With the technology available today, we have to be extra vigilant in blocking communications and stopping the word from getting out. This is exactly the kind of thing we were worried about."

"The situation is being handled," said Ravel.

Strom glared at him. "Handled? This is being handled? This? I have been treating you with great sensitivity and tact because I know that having a Supreme Council looking over your shoulder cannot be easy to accept. I've almost been embarrassed to be here. But now I see I have to be here. I need to be here."

"Now just hold on a second-"

"No!" said Strom. "No, I will not hold on a second! You have been entrusted with the responsibility of running this Sanctuary and enforcing all of its laws and policies and you are failing, and failing spectacularly."

The muscle in Ravel's jaw stood out. "You're still a guest here, Grand Mage Strom. Do not make me regret my decision to allow you to observe."

"You didn't allow me anything! I allowed you! I allowed you to fool yourselves into thinking you had a choice!" Strom took a breath. When he had his anger under control, he spoke again. "You are clearly unfit to serve as Grand Mage," he announced, "and all three of you are unfit to serve on the Council of Elders. By the authority vested in me by the international community I am hereby taking command of this Sanctuary. You are relieved of your duties."

Nobody moved.

Valkyrie was frozen to the spot, though her eyes darted from person to person.

Moving slowly, Grim reached for his jacket, and Skulduggery drew his revolver and pointed it into his face.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Skulduggery said.

The bodyguard raised his hands.

Strom's eyes widened. "What you just did is illegal."

"We're in charge," Ravel told him. "You think we're going to roll over just because you tell us to? Who the hell do you think you are?"

"I am a Grand Mage, Mr Ravel, a title I earned because of hard work and dedication. Whereas you, on the other hand, are Grand Mage because nobody else wanted the job."

"Whoa," said Ravel. "That was a little below the belt, don't you think?"

"None of you have the required experience or wisdom to do what is expected of you. I know you'll find it hard to believe, but we didn't come here to take control. We came here to help."

"And now you want to take control anyway."

"You have proven yourselves incompetent. And what are you doing now? You're holding a Grand Mage at gunpoint?"

"Technically, Skulduggery is only holding a Grand Mage's bodyguard at gunpoint. Which isn't nearly as bad."

"You all seem to be forgetting that I have thirty-eight mages loyal to the Supreme Council in this country."

"And you seem to be under the illusion that we find that intimidating."

"If I go missing-"

"Missing?" Ravel said. "Who said anything about going missing? No, no. You're just going to be in a really long and really important meeting, that's all."

"Don't be a fool," said Strom. "You can't win here, Ravel. There are more of us than there are of you. And the moment our mages get wind of what's going on down here, the rest of the Supreme Council will descend on you like nothing you've ever seen."

"Quintin, Quintin, Quintin... you make it sound like we're going to war. This isn't war. This is an argument. And like all arguments between grown-ups, we keep it away from the kiddies. You've got thirty-eight mages in the country? Ghastly, how many cells do we have?"

"If we double up we'll manage."

"Don't make this any worse for yourselves," said Strom. "An attack on any one of our mages will be considered an act of war."

"There's that word again," said Ravel.

"This is insanity. Erskine, think about what you're doing."

"What we're doing, Quintin, is allowing our people to do their jobs."

"This is kidnapping."

"Don't be so dramatic. We're just going to keep you separated from your people for as long as we need to resolve the current crisis. Skulduggery and Valkyrie are on the case. When have they ever let us down?"

Ravel turned to them, gave them a smile. "You'd better not let us down."

Skulduggery inclined his head slightly, and Valkyrie went with him as he walked away.

"Holy cow," Valkyrie whispered when they were around the corner.

"Holy cow indeed."

Before Kitana and her friends had made it their temporary home, this had been a perfectly nice house. But now there were holes blown and punched through walls. Valkyrie did not envy the family who were going to return to this mess. Ordinarily there would have been a clean-up crew hard at work already, but with everything that had been going on they just couldn't afford to bother with the little stuff.

"No sign of where they moved on to," said Skulduggery. "Ghastly's going to try and get a little more out of our prisoner, but I don't like his chances. I think if Sean had anything else to tell us, he'd have told us."

"Are you worried?"

"Do I look worried?"

"You never look worried."

"That doesn't mean I'm not."

"Are you worried about putting Quintin Strom in shackles?"

"Oh," he said, "that. Hmm. I don't know. It's definitely a situation we have found ourselves in."

"Could it lead to war?"

"Possibly."

"But would they really go to war? I mean, war's a pretty big deal. It's huge, like. It's war."

"War is war," Skulduggery admitted. "This is very true."

"Would they really go to war over something so small as pulling a gun on a Grand Mage and imprisoning him and all of his bodyguards and sorcerers and stuff? It's not like we killed him or anything. This isn't Franz Ferdinand we're talking about."