There was something about having several handfuls of peanuts tossed into your face that rendered speech a lot more difficult than Skulduggery remembered it being.

He'd wondered before about higher powers. When Larrikin died, there had been moments when it felt like he was still with them. But Skulduggery had never allowed himself to hope, because if there were higher powers of any kind, then he'd been resurrected only to become Lord Vile. The obvious conclusion there was less than comforting.

Now, he knew his resurrection had a motive. And he'd met the higher powers. It stood to reason that Rover, from the moment he first arrived in Heaven, would know everything. And to someone who knew everything, the actions of people whose knowledge was more limited were probably frustrating as hell.

Then again, Skulduggery would never have imagined still having Ghastly as a friend after all this. People continued to surprise him.

"For myself?" Skulduggery thought about it. "Not especially. You're not wrong. You're not the first person to say so. I'm more interested in why I'm not the only offender."