Things are … tense. Anton knew they were tense. He managed well enough last month, but after dancing with China at the masquerade, they became more so. It still wasn’t until he almost snapped at one of the kedan that Anton realised he … really couldn’t continue this way. If he was starting to snap at his own staff, things were not well at all.

Which was why he left a message for Skulduggery to meet him there, at the Hotel, and arrange for someone else to be present at the desk so he could leave. This wasn’t a conversation he wanted to have actually at the Hotel. It wasn’t a conversation he wanted to have at all, but it did need to be had, especially given the grief both Skulduggery and Erskine had put everyone through because they hadn’t been willing to broach it for themselves.

That morning, Anton was even more taciturn than usual. And he didn’t smile.