“The guardian pledge,” Manda’s smile was boarding on a smirk. “Now there’s something I haven’t heard in years.”

There were tears streaming down Horace’s face now, making tracks down his red cheeks. I shifted from foot to foot, feeling incredibly awkward. “Thank you. You can…you can get up now.”

“We’re almost out of time.” Jai gestured at the hourglass on the table beside us. He was right, there was only a thin layer left in the top, vanishing fast. “Do you have a room here? Or somewhere nearby we can retreat to? I don’t like the look of that one.”

We all turned to look at the hulking man who had been frozen rising up from the corner table. His face was strained and red, like he was ready to explode. He would be free to explode any minute now.

“Yeah, he’s got a screw loose.” Horace turned for the back door, waving at us to follow him. “This way, I’m renting a room from the barkeep. It’s a ridiculous price, but there aren’t many other options around here. This is one of the only places still left open.”

I snatched the hourglass off the table before following him, noticing that Manda and Jai hemmed me in on either side as we went upstairs. Horace checked the hallway in front of us, peering around the corner of the door before he waved us through. The way they acted together was easy and fluid, like long dormant instincts were kicking in. It was like having a team of body guards escort me.

Horace showed us into a dark little room at the end of the hallway. He strode in and turned the knob on a camping lantern that sat in the middle of a rickety table. He turned the handle a few times, cranking it faster and faster, until the light blazed more brightly, setting it back down with a clunk. It chased away the shadows and showed us exactly how dirty the suite was.

Jai was the last one in, and he shut the door just as the final grains of sand trickled through the hourglass and into the bottom. There was a scuffle and a thump from downstairs, and the four of us stayed still for a moment, listening.

Someone cursed loudly, and we could hear a muffled voice floating up through the ceiling that kept repeating, “Where’d they go?  I swear there was someone here.”

Jai chuckled. “They’ll probably think they’ve gone crazy.”

“Too much to drink,” Manda said, and she looked at Horace pointedly. “Maybe they’ll give up the booze.”

Horace didn’t look at her. “Sorry about the place, my lady. I didn’t realize how dirty it was until you stepped inside. It really isn’t a proper place for you…”

“It’s fine,” I said hastily. It made me feel horribly awkward that he was treating me like some kind of royalty. It was weird. “You can just call me Kali, okay?”

He hesitated, glancing over at Jai, who shrugged and nodded. “Yes M’lady…er, Kali.” He gestured to the corner of the room, where a dirty looking sofa hunched in the corner. “You guys can have a seat there, or here at the table if you like. We can stay here tonight. Kali can have my bed, and the rest of us will just have to fight over the couch.”

“I might crash in the jeep tonight,” Manda said. “I don’t trust the locals not to try anything. Is there someone around here who can put in a new windshield?”

Horace raised a brow at her. “What did you do to the old windshield?”

While Manda was regaling Horace with tales of her mad charge on the blockade, I wandered over to the couch and sat down, gingerly. The springs let out a wheeze and something was poking me in the leg almost immediately. It was lumpy and uncomfortable, and I felt bad for whichever one of the guys “won” the right to sleep on the couch. Should I feel bad that Horace was giving me his bed? Maybe I should volunteer to sleep on the floor.

“What’s the plan?” Horace was asking.

The three guardians sat themselves at the table, and I curled up as best as I could on the couch to listen.

“We need to get at Thanatos.” Jai placed his elbows on the table and leaned forward, chin in his hands. “We need a way into his fortress somehow.”

“How are we gonna do that?” Horace frowned. “He’s walled himself up in that old castle in Victoria, it’s as heavily armed as a high security prison.”

“That’s why we need a plan…”

Manda interrupted them. “I have someone on the inside.”

They both turned to her, and Jai said loudly, “What? Why didn’t you say that right away?”

She shrugged. “He isn’t a big honcho or anything. Just a soldier.”

Jai raised his brows at her, tilting his head to one side. “Uh huh, and how did you get in good with this soldier?”

Manda actually blushed, right to the tips of her ears. There’s something I never thought I’d see. I sat up a little straighter on the couch and watched her expression turn from embarrassed to defensive.

“I have my ways of doing things. It was necessary to get on the inside.”

Jai grinned. “By getting into his army fatigues?”

“That’s not the guardian way.” Horace didn’t look nearly so amused.

“And getting drunk enough to pass out every night is?” Manda snapped. Her cheeks were bright red. Horace didn’t say anything, but he got up abruptly, shoving his chair back. He stomped into the grimy kitchen just off the living room and yanked open one of the cupboards, grabbing a can of beer from inside. He popped the tab and took a swig, glaring at Manda the entire time.

Jai said hastily, “So that’s good. We have an in with someone. Now we just have to figure out how exactly to get in. Even if he lets us in the back door we can’t just waltz inside with Kali and the instruments….”

“Leave the instruments,” Horace drained half the can and set it on the counter with a crunch. “It won’t take long for them to catch up with her.”

“That’s insane,” Manda snapped at him. “It’s not an exact science, we have no way of knowing where or when the instruments will show up. They could pop up on the wrong floor, or outside, or two seconds after Thanatos has killed us all…”

“Do you have a better idea?” Horace rasped.

All three of them were quiet for a minute. “No,” Manda admitted. “No, I don’t.”

It must have killed her to say that. Her face was gloomy, and I stood up abruptly, annoyed with Horace for some reason. Manda was a spitfire before we’d got here, and Horace was making her sullen and defeated. I didn’t like it, I needed the vicious, warrior version of Manda.

“It’s the best we’ve got, right?” I said, trying to make my voice sound firm. Like I suddenly knew what I was talking about. They all turned to look at me and my stomach sank a little. I wasn’t fooling anyone. Well, maybe Horace. He still seemed to regard me with some kind of cautious respect. He reminded me of a kicked dog, and I felt bad. Like I’d been the one that kicked him.

“We leave the…instruments here. We sneak in, or this guy lets us in. What, in disguise? Can we pretend to be soldiers too?”

Jai brightened. “Yeah. Not bad, can we get our hands on army fatigues?”

Manda snorted, shoving hair out of her face as she stretched back in her chair. “Right, it’s half a good idea, because Jai and Horace would be fine…” she gestured at me and then back at her. “We’d be screwed.”

“Right.” Jai looked crestfallen. “Thanatos doesn’t have female soldiers.”

“Only use for us is screwing,” Manda dug one of her nails into the table, glaring at the wooden surface, “according to Thanatos. And it doesn’t matter if it’s voluntary either.”

My fingers curled into fists at my side. I could feel my chest tightening with anger. What she was implying was obvious, and horrifying. “Can we kill him?” I blurted. “Is he immortal?”

Manda and Jai both looked surprised, and Manda actually laughed. “Look at you! Getting back some of your old fire…”

Horace was staring at his feet. “Thanatos can be killed, once we get him into our realm.”

“How do we do that?” I asked.

“We need you to get your hands on the Kronos portal,” Jai explained, and Manda gave a sharp laugh at my confused expression.

“It’s not as crazy as it sounds,” she said. “It just looks like a big fancy clock.”

“And that will, like…transport me or something?”

“Right, it will open the veil. We need to get that clock back.” Horace downed the rest of the beer and crunched the can in one massive fist.

Jai hesitated. “And the necklace. It’s our duty to…”

“Why the necklace?” Manda said sharply. “She doesn’t need…”

“It’s too dangerous,” Horace put in.

Jai went silent, looking at both of them, shaking his head. I frowned, getting the impression that I was missing something here. There was definitely silent communication happening, and I felt like an outsider.

I glared at them. “What necklace? Why do we need it?”

Jai didn’t look at me, he kept glaring at Manda and Horace. “Your memories are likely still in Thanatos’ necklace, the vessel he used to transport you. We should get it.”

“And try to fight Thanatos?” Manda said.

“It might come down to it anyways,” Jai said pointedly. “He could have the Kronos portal right there next to him.”

“Or maybe not,” Manda shot back, “maybe he doesn’t have it right there, and he can be avoided until we can get the portal open. Maybe we’d be risking all of our lives just to get some memories…”

He glared at her. “It isn’t just her memories, it’s the memories of how to use her power, of who she used to be.”

I was nearly at a boiling point now. “Stop talking about me like I’m not here!”

“I’m sorry,” Jai’s expression became softer when he turned to me. “Kali, I’m sorry. We don’t mean to, it’s just hard to explain everything. We’re…this is a new situation for all of us.”

Another long stretch of silence, and then Horace bent towards the cupboard again. We all jumped as Manda slammed her fist down onto the table. “Horace, enough.”

He paused, stared at her, and then very deliberately reached into the cupboard and brought out another can of beer.

Manda shot up out of her chair, the wooden legs shrieking on the dirty kitchen tiles. “Are you kidding me? You sad, pathetic excuse for a guardian. You can’t even go two minutes without getting pickled? You can stop now, she’s here. Time to do your duty.”

Horace slammed the can down on the counter with a crack, his brows drawing down low. The thunderous expression made his already craggy face look truly frightening. “You should speak to me of duty. You traitorous little…”

“Don’t you dare!” Manda’s voice was climbing, her face was turning red and she braced her hands on the table as she leaned forward to yell at him. I flinched, thinking she was going to throw herself at him.

“You left…” Horace was cut off by her animal scream of rage.

“Of course I left! You stupid bastard! You were a disgusting mess. You drove me away!”

The rising voices were sending jolts of panic through me. What if someone heard us? What if it brought soul suckers, or more mercenaries? What if…

I seized the scythe where it was leaning against the wall and brought the base of the pole down on  the ground with all my might. There was a sharp crack that echoed around the dirty apartment, and the three guardians stared at me, frozen.

“I swear to god,” my voice was filled with relief now that the screaming was over. “If I had some form of power I would turn you both into rabbits or something. Something quiet.”

Manda blinked at me, her mouth hanging slack, and Horace was staring at the floor again. Jai seemed to be fighting back a smile.

Now that they were listening, it might mean they would actually pay attention to me. Horace at least, seemed cowed for some reason. Stomach churning, I pointed the blade at him. “You pour it down the sink, all of it. This…mission thing we’re about to do, it sounds dangerous. The last thing we need is for you to be drunk.”

Manda looked sullen still, but her mouth tugged upwards in a smirk. The satisfaction disappeared when I pointed the scythe at her. “And you nearly punctured my eardrums. I’ll thank you to discuss things with a little less volume next time. We don’t know who might overhear us.”

I don’t know what I was expecting from her. A middle finger most likely, or a rude face. So I was shocked when she slumped back in her chair and muttered, “Yeah, alright.”