Derek Landy - Mortal Coil

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2010

Reissued in this edition in 2017

HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd,

HarperCollins Publishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

The HarperCollins website address is:

www.harpercollins.co.uk

Skulduggery Pleasant rests his weary bones on the web at:

www.skulduggerypleasant.co.uk

Derek Landy blogs under duress at

www.dereklandy.blogspot.com

Text copyright © Derek Landy 2010

Illuminated letters copyright © Tom Percival 2010

Skulduggery Pleasant logo TMHarperCollins Publishers

Skulduggery Pleasant © TMDerek Landy

Cover design © blacksheep-uk.com

Cover illustration © Tom Percival

Derek Landy asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of the work.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780007326013

Ebook Edition © 2017 ISBN: 9780007414352

Version: 2019-04-15

This book is dedicated, with great reluctance, to my editor, Nick Lake, because he is forcing me to.

Personally, I would have liked to include Gillie Russell and Michael Stearns who, along with Nick, really welcomed me into the publishing world with my first book.

Unfortunately, because Nick is now my sole editor, he has threatened to edit this dedication down to an unrecognisable mess of blacked-out lines, and so as a result this dedication is to him, and him alone.

Personally I think that this shows a staggering amount of and , which proves that Nick is nothing but a with for , but hey, that’s just my personal opinion.

Here, Nick. You finally get a book dedicated to you.

Hope you’re happy.

.

(Editor’s Note: Nick Lake is a great guy.)

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2010 Reissued in this edition in 2017 HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF The HarperCollins website address is: www.harpercollins.co.uk Skulduggery Pleasant rests his weary bones on the web at: www.skulduggerypleasant.co.uk Derek Landy blogs under duress at www.dereklandy.blogspot.com Text copyright © Derek Landy 2010 Illuminated letters copyright © Tom Percival 2010 Skulduggery Pleasant logo TM HarperCollins Publishers Skulduggery Pleasant © TM Derek Landy Cover design © blacksheep-uk.com Cover illustration © Tom Percival Derek Landy asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of the work. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins. Source ISBN: 9780007326013 Ebook Edition © 2017 ISBN: 9780007414352 Version: 2019-04-15

Dedication This book is dedicated, with great reluctance, to my editor, Nick Lake, because he is forcing me to. Personally, I would have liked to include Gillie Russell and Michael Stearns who, along with Nick, really welcomed me into the publishing world with my first book. Unfortunately, because Nick is now my sole editor, he has threatened to edit this dedication down to an unrecognisable mess of blacked-out lines, and so as a result this dedication is to him, and him alone. Personally I think that this shows a staggering amount of and , which proves that Nick is nothing but a with for , but hey, that’s just my personal opinion. Here, Nick. You finally get a book dedicated to you. Hope you’re happy. . (Editor’s Note: Nick Lake is a great guy.)

Chapter 1. Wreath’s Task

Chapter 2. The Smiling Detective

Chapter 3. Tesseract

Chapter 4. Grander Scales

Chapter 5. Valkyrie’s Dilemma

Chapter 6. The New Messiah

Chapter 7. Blood

Chapter 8. The Zombie King

Chapter 9. The New Grand Mage

Chapter 10. The Bonebreaker

Chapter 11. The Roarhaven Mages

Chapter 12. Keeping a Straight Face

Chapter 13. Suffering

Chapter 14. Dead Men

Chapter 15. The Banshee

Chapter 16. The Interrogation of Davina Marr

Chapter 17. The Job

Chapter 18. Licking Wounds

Chapter 19. Christmas Morning at the Midnight Hotel

Chapter 20. ’Tis the Season

Chapter 21. Nye

Chapter 22. Soul Searching

Chapter 23. The Grave

Chapter 24. The Dead Girl

Chapter 25. Dirt

Chapter 26. The Truth

Chapter 27. Back With Finbar

Chapter 28. The Z-Word

Chapter 29. Her Guardian Angel

Chapter 30. Meet the Parents

Chapter 31. The First Wave

Chapter 32. Shenanigans

Chapter 33. The Twins

Chapter 34. Remnants Unleashed

Chapter 35. Scrutinous

Chapter 36. Quiet, Please

Chapter 37. Enemy Hands

Chapter 38. Fighting

Chapter 39. Muriel

Chapter 40. The Plan

Chapter 41. The Head in the Box

Chapter 42. The Lesson Begins

Chapter 43. By the Sword