“Ana, don’t you know what the sword means?” Gabe says.

“No. What does it mean? Tell me.” I keep my voice calm and steady, nothing to betray my nerves.

Gabe watches me, his expression preoccupied. Then he sits forward. “It means that your mission, to find this friend of yours, has become our mission.”

“What?” All my fake calm disintegrates. “Why?”

Gabe glances at the others and settles back into his chair. The leather creaks. “What did you think of Mother?” he asks.

I shrug. “She’s out of her mind crazy.”

Gabe laughs. “Yeah, that’s a fact. And you don’t know the half of it. I’ve known her a long time and…Well, let’s just say—”

“Look, what’s this got to do with Bea?” I demand, interrupting him.

Gabe strokes his chin, undeterred. “We’ll get there,” he says. He lifts his glass of blood-red wine, tilts it, rolls it in his hand and takes a sip. “Mother’s been a Pathfinder longer than anyone at this table. Than any other Pathfinder in the multiverse, in fact.”

Murmurs of approval around the table.

I shift in my seat, feeling uneasy again. “How long?”

Gabe puts down the glass. “Long,” he says. “Centuries.”

The idea should frighten me. But it doesn’t. I’m becoming inured to multiverse surprises. And I remember her comment about meeting Lewis Carroll.

“So you’re saying…she’s what? Immortal?”

Everyone smiles. Some laugh. Gabe shakes his head. “She ain’t no vampire, Ana. She’s just old. Really, really old. And, with that comes a deep wisdom.”

“So, when she says something,” I murmur, “you believe her.”

“You catch on fast.”

“She’s been gifted with astonishing power,” the woman with the high cheekbones says. “Abilities like no other. If Mother sees something in you, then it is true.”

“I still don’t get what this has to do with Bea,” I say.

“Whoa, when you get the bit between your teeth,” Gabe says, eyes laughing. “But don’t fret, we’ll come to that. First, you need to understand some things.” His fingers toy with the stem of his wine glass, turning it absently. “When I said before I’d heard of you…it didn’t surprise you?”

“It did. But when you consider everything else—you know, Falling between universes, almost getting murdered by Reapers—it wasn’t exactly high on my ‘what the hell is going on?’ list.”

He smiles. “The thing is, we’ve known about you a long time, Ana. See, all this is linked to Mother’s prophecy.”

“Mother’s prophecy? About the key that will open a pathway to Kronos through the Seventh Gate?” I say.