Ghastly's gaze was torn away from their hug only by Erskine, who had gotten up onto his knees and was giving Ghastly a meaningful look. It took a moment for the tailor to realise what it was about, but when Erskine's gesture towards Anton finally did the trick, Ghastly felt a smile cross his face and he nodded.

No words. No words were ever needed. Ghastly looked down at where Saracen and Descry still hadn't moved, knowing full well that Descry would know exactly what they were about to do and that Saracen probably also had some idea thanks to his magic, and moved to kneel down next to them as if he was about to give Descry a hug.

At the last second, he twisted around and joined Erskine in latching onto both Rover and Anton's legs, pulling the pair down on top of them.

On the side, Skulduggery laughed. It was always a bit of a surprise to hear him laugh. Ghastly tried to disentangle himself from the group long enough to crawl over and pull the disguised skeleton down as well, but Erskine wouldn't let him and Rover's animal magnetism was just a little too much.

So he settled for waving a hand ineffectually in the air. "Skulduggery. Come join us."

"No, I think I'll stay here, thank you."

Damn it. Ghastly had been sure that would work.

Valkyrie, standing next to Skulduggery, grinned. "I think you should go join them. I think this is the most adorable thing ever and I think someone needs to take a picture of it. Fletcher, I think you should go and get my camera for me. Please," she added as a hasty afterthought.

Fletcher held up the bottle of extra-virgin olive oil. "What am I supposed to do with this?"