Skulduggery hesitated, half-expecting that dreadful death rattle to start ringing in his ears again. Thankfully, it stayed silent. Perhaps the hallucination was only an issue if he was physically in the Sun Room.

"There was a creature there last night," he explained. "Dead, most likely. It certainly felt dead. It could also control mounds of black hair, which isn't nearly as fun as it sounds." Skulduggery had faced far worse than zombies with unique magical powers, of course, but when those fights were over, they were over. Either the thing was dead, or behind bars, or otherwise incapacitated. This time, not only had it gotten away, but... "I don't think it's stopped attacking me yet," he added, sounding for all the world like that was a capitol offense.

Skulduggery's smile at Gabe's secrecy wasn't on his face, but in his voice. "Fair enough," he conceded. Everyone was permitted to keep secrets, particularly in a place like this. An absent-minded glance down at the beads, however, brought on a new question. "Are you religious?"