Anton landed and he blinked rapidly to clear his sight of the tears caused by dust and dazzling flames, and caught Larrikin's--Skulduggery's--figure rising a few feet away. Anton lunged just as Skulduggery reached his feet, unsummoning one gauntlet to punch him square in the face with a minimum of damage.

He didn't even wait for Skulduggery to regain his senses; he slammed the skeleton back against the wall a moment later, holding him there with an arm across his chest. "Is this," he said in a low voice made raspier by the mask, "how you strive to honour Mistress Aoife's memory, Skulduggery--by being puppeted by another force of darkness?"