"We'll have to come up with a way to encourage you to reach for something else, then," Gabe said thoughtfully. "Like how chain-smokers use candy. And I've seen an alcoholic teach herself to drink milk instead. Things like that."

He was still holding Skulduggery's hand in his. The Archangel looked down at it with a tilt of his head, stroking the back of the sorcerer's hand and concentrating for a moment. Not much at all. He wasn't sure if it was because of Landel or if it was because of the strain of leashing Skulduggery's necromancy the night before, but nothing happened.

"I don't know if I have the power to add in a loophole," he admitted, "but instincts are powerful things. Like muscle-memory. How did you train yourself to use elementalism again over necromancy, back when you quit the first time?"