That should have made sense. It did, sort of. But all that sense really accomplished was making Erskine sink further into the chair, and deeper into a black mood. "Fat lot of good we did, helping him. He still doesn't trust us. Every single one of us stuck by him when we found out, and he still thinks he has to do everything by himself."

Betrayal. That was really what it all boiled down to. No matter why Skulduggery thought he'd been doing the right thing, no matter what his reasons were, he still didn't think twice about betraying his closest friends. Not once, but twice. "What did he think was going to happen? Lucifer would get here and decide to leave the Sanctuary alone? That he'd ignore anyone who didn't know he existed? Does he really have that little faith in us?"

He wasn't really talking to anyone by that point, unless the scenery outside the window counted as a person. Nor did Erskine expect a response. He fell back into an uneasy silence himself, vaguely wondering how Anton had fared over the last week.