Playing With Fire

Playing With Fire
Derek Landy

She’s twelve. He’s dead. But together they’re going to save the world. Hopefully.The second book in the bestselling Skulduggery Pleasant series.Vengeous. Dusk. Sanguine. Three of the deadliest killers alive are in town to resurrect an unstoppable creature of horrifying power. And only Skulduggery and Valkyrie stand in their way.

Copyright (#ulink_e361f5e0-ee58-5916-96c5-498ec969169c)

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2008

First published in this edition in the United States of America by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2018

HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd,

HarperCollins Publishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

Skulduggery Pleasant rests his weary bones on the web at: www.skulduggerypleasant.co.uk (http://www.skulduggerypleasant.co.uk)

Derek Landy blogs under duress at www.dereklandy.blogspot.com (http://www.dereklandy.blogspot.com)

Text copyright © Derek Landy 2008

Illuminated letters copyright © Tom Percival 2008

Skulduggery Pleasant logo

HarperCollins Publishers

Skulduggery Pleasant

© Derek Landy

Cover illustration © Neil Swaab 2018

Derek Landy asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of the work.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 9780008248796

Ebook Edition © ISBN: 9780008266325

Version: 2018-04-27

This book is dedicated to my family – because otherwise I’d never hear the end of it …

Nadine: warm, kind and considerate. I am all of these things.

Audrey: the greatest thrill of your life is probably the fact that I’myour brother.

Ivan: meaningless words such as “brilliant”, “amazing” and “inspirational” have been used to describe me, but not nearly enough.

If any of you thought that there’d be anything sincere or heartfelt inyour dedications, allow me a moment to quietly laugh at you …

Because the heartfelt sincerity is reserved for my nana.

Chic, this book is also dedicated to you, for all the love and support you’ve shown me over the years. I love you much more than any of your other grandchildren do, I swear.

Contents

Cover (#ufb1502ad-4885-58cd-8f3b-650e734d89c0)

Title Page (#ubfa7a4d2-b30b-52cc-b6b2-62249562c7df)

Copyright (#udc7dc4df-cdea-5f02-a913-a406c4b49190)

Dedication (#u6ad0f01d-1338-501c-9897-0af7f9c5e38d)

Chapter 1: Hanging Around (#u74d19247-ed07-5c15-8c70-037449addc81)

Chapter 2: Killer On The Loose (#uc023912a-16f0-56f2-a500-6c9e8e3e6e9a)

Chapter 3: Vengeous (#u242d2fd8-e351-53d6-8e4b-9b9a04b8d5fd)

Chapter 4: The Beauty, The Beast (#u1bca8151-8ca3-5345-b450-daa92eb0d043)

Chapter 5: The Terror Of London (#u0ae5c776-8f90-5549-bb7c-ab65d99eba3e)

Chapter 6: Fireballs In The Park (#u2554eef1-7afe-5530-aacb-1d7c928104ae)

Chapter 7: Unwelcome Visitors (#ufa5822f0-6e45-5441-8f4d-4fa334d15a19)

Chapter 8: Billy-Ray Sanguine (#ua73a0951-b8bf-5431-a4b2-b44a2ab377f3)

Chapter 9: The Hidden Room (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10: The Armour Of Lord Vile (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11: The Terrifying Brain-Sucker Of London (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12: Barfight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 13: Roarhaven (#litres_trial_promo)