Skulduggery agreed on the jealousy front, but not for the reasons Wreath believed. And that was what made this whole conversation so much harder than it had any right to be; Wreath wasn't even capable of considering the truth. That was, in a way, Skulduggery's fault. He'd abandoned the investigation far too early.

"He felt betrayed," said Skulduggery, "by me, for something that happened years earlier. He believed I'd forgotten him." And he'd been right, but since that was partly Lugan's own fault, Skulduggery considered it beside the point. "He was jealous of you because I'd taken an interest. Rather than confront the both of us about it, as any rational and mature adult would have done, he decided the world was out to get him and I needed to be punished."

Lugan had succeeded there, far more than he knew. Skulduggery shook his head. "I'm sorry. If I'd known for a moment he was involved - "

- he would have done what, exactly? Tried harder to convince Wreath that the Temple was the wrong path, for all the good that would have done? Skulduggery didn't know, so he cut himself off.