In any case, the events hadn't seemed to dampen Rita's optimism. Skulduggery eyed her as she sat down, searching for any sign of further injury, but she hid it well if there was. A lot of the skin down Skulduggery's right side was burned, forcing him to walk slightly bent to the side, so she was better off physically. But she probably didn't walk away without some kind of scarring, mental or otherwise.

"Indeed," Skulduggery agreed with a short nod. "And fairly unscathed, too." He might have to shave all his hair off if he could get his hands on a razor or a pair of scissors, but that could wait. Decisions made in haste, as they say. Maybe he could find a hat instead.

"I wouldn't call it useless. In my experience, creatures like that are only so persistent when they're protecting something valuable." That wasn't strictly true, but there was no way Skulduggery was letting some arrogant hair-controlling ghost-zombie stop him from getting somewhere, no matter how much dead flesh it shoved into his face. That flash of sensory memory brought on a repulsive shudder, but Skulduggery managed to ignore it. He was already getting better at ignoring a lot of what his body randomly decided to do.

"You didn't happen to get into the library, did you?"