“Thank you, Addy. That was giving me a headache.”

Jack made a queasy noise of agreement from the back.

“Make sure to replace it once we’re through the gate. There’s no point in pissing off our hosts until it’s necessary,” Marshall felt the need to add.

“Of course,” was Adelle’s offended response.

“So,” Marshall said, continuing their conversation earlier, “the only people who have a problem with the Blaikes are the Benighted. How is that any different from their usual grumbling against the Beloved?”

“You’re spending too much time with the older Guard members, Marshall,” Adelle said, rolling her eyes. “Their antiquated way of thinking is rubbing off on you. Just because they can’t assimilate as easily into the Real as we can doesn’t mean the Benighted have nothing to offer the Guard.”

Marshall twisted his mouth in disgust, realizing that he’d been caught quoting the sentiments of the Council. “Ugh, it really sneaks up on a person, doesn’t it?”

Adelle acknowledged his concession with a nod but continued to drive her point home. “Just because you haven’t joined the council doesn’t mean they won’t use every chance they can get to groom you for the position of Praetor. You’re going to have to come to a decision soon.”

Marshall grunted noncommittally.

“But to return to your question, yes, these rumors come from the disadvantaged aspects of our society. That’s why I haven’t acted on them, considering how much of what comes from the Benighted is violence and lies. However, they are still people, Marshall, and sometimes they need our help. If these aren’t just rumors, we’ll need to act. From what I’ve heard, the Blaikes are ruthless in their dealing with the Benighted, and it’s gotten to the point where most of them refuse to deal with anyone in the family.”

“Whereas the Beloved can’t stop singing their praises. Sounds like a case of sour grapes to me,” Jack drawled.

“What I’ve failed to mention is that a significant enough portion of their contacts in the Benighted have gone missing recently.” Her clipped words let Marshall know he needed to tread lightly here. If Adelle took up a cause, she’d tear through friend and foe to see justice served.

Marshall nodded slowly. “That’s more serious. Why am I only hearing about it now?”

“Because each and every one of the missing people were all skeezy enough to have found their end in a dozen other ways,” Adelle conceded, blowing a stray hair away from her nose grumpily. “I was planning on looking into it after we finished our original assignment, but that’s all shot to hell now.”

“Hold that thought.” Marshall pulled the truck up to the gate and stopped. His windshield became translucent and an animated domino mask greeted them. “Welcome, Guardians. What business brings you to the Blaike house today?”

Marshall slipped into guardian-mode. “We are here for an audience with Matriarch Elanor.”

The mask’s delicate features took on a semblance of friendly sympathy. “It pains me to tell you this, but our beloved matriarch is away on a restorative holiday. She hasn’t been feeling well as of late. Perhaps another clan member could help?”

“That will do. Let us speak to Stella.”

“Oh dear.” The expression in the mask’s face became strained, if still pleasant. “I’m afraid Mistress Stella has had a bit of an altercation today and is in the infirmary. She isn’t available either.”

“I’m not afraid of the infirmary, are you, Adelle? Jack?”

Adelle shook her head. “Can’t say that I am.

Jack leaned forward and poked his head between Marshall and Adelle. “Who doesn’t love a trip to the infirmary? I can’t remember the last time I got to see gauze and sterile pads. People covered in sores and blood—that’s where the fun is!” He attempted to put an arm around Adelle’s shoulders.

“Jack,” Adelle said in a warning tone.

Without missing a beat, he aborted the motion, instead choosing to invade Marshall’s personal space with a heavy elbow on his shoulder. “Why, just the other day I said to myself, ‘Self, a good jaunt down to the infirmary is just what the doctor ordered.’”

“Jack, no one likes you. You know that, right? Your mother paid us to pretend to be your friends,” Adelle declared, brushing invisible wrinkles off the sleeve of the shoulder Jack had dared to touch.

“The infirmary is really only for family members.” The gatekeeper ventured tentatively.

“Nonsense. Guardians are welcome everywhere in magical society. Now clear off before I unmake you.” Adelle snapped her fingers, and the mask flinched in fear.

Marshall sighed. There was a reason he was in charge instead of one of his teammates. Unlike Jack and Adelle, he could be relied on to interact in Beloved high society without a handler. Neither one of them had the aptitude nor the desire for diplomacy.

Quivering, the mask stuttered out, “P-p-please follow the road to the main steps, and someone will greet you s-s-shortly.” It dipped itself in an approximation of a bow and vanished, leaving the windshield transparent once more.

“I can’t take you two anywhere.” Sometimes Marshall felt more like a parent than a leader. Not for the first time, he wondered if his team did it on purpose to make him feel necessary.

“The way I see it, they are either stalling for time or are being rude. In any case, I’m not putting up with it.” Adelle squared her shoulders as if readying herself for a fight.

“I’m just here to be eye candy.” Jack added helpfully as he settled himself into the back seat once more.

Marshall pinched the bridge of his nose tiredly. “If the stories you told me are true, Addy, hurrying things along isn’t a bad idea. But you can’t storm through life threatening people when they’ve pissed you off. It’s a bad idea to rub people’s noses in the fact that guardians have so few restrictions. That’s how revolutions start.”

“Personally, I find it tiresome getting my head lopped off,” Jack said with an air of boredom.

Adelle brought her fingers back together sharply, reengaging the camouflage spell. The back half of Marshall’s truck now looked as though it had been buried by several tons of rock. “It’s worked for me so far.”

“That’s exactly the sort of thing people say before they get their heads lopped off.” Jack groused, shifting uneasily now that he was encased inside an intangible rock formation.

Ignoring them was really the only way Marshall had found to deal with them when they were in this mood, so he said, “Addy, when we get there, I want you to verify their numbers.”

It would look less threatening to have Adelle do it—when she wasn’t talking, she looked like a nice young woman. Maybe it had something to do with his size, but even if no one knew him by reputation, when Marshall did magic, people had a tendency to get nervous.

Adelle nodded in compliance and relaxed her shoulders minutely. Giving Adelle something to focus on usually helped her calm down.

“Jack, do your best to get lost as soon as you can. If they’re hiding something, your job is to find it.” Even with his massive size, there was no one sneakier than Jack. If he didn’t want to be found, even Adelle couldn’t track him down.

“You got it, boss.”

The tree-lined road opened to reveal a towering stone mansion perched on the edge of a cliff. Once upon a time, Marshall might have found it impressive, but by the age of seven he had been regularly living out his wildest fantasies in the Dreamscape. The majesties of the Real paled in comparison to being able to ride a dragon through an exploding star.

Instead, he barely noticed the improbable topiaries blooming out of season and out of temperate zone. He pulled the truck to a stop at the circular drive and put on his guardian face—friendly with a heavy dose of impartial.

Marshall got out first, indicating to the nervous crowd gathered on the steps that he was the one in charge. Adelle and Jack exited at the same time and stayed a pace behind Marshall as the group closed around them. They were escorted inside the massive estate with pomp and circumstance mixed with equal parts hand-wringing. Marshall did his best to soothe the ruffled feathers of Emily, the woman sent to greet them.

“Of course you meant no offense, Emily. It’s perfectly natural to want to protect your sick family members. If I were you, I would have given the gatekeeper the same orders.” Marshall waved away the drink one of the trailing servants was trying to offer him.

Marshall could be friendly, but he wasn’t going to be too friendly. If he didn’t keep a certain distance from the people he investigated, they tended to try and extract promises of leniency from him, and that was something he refused to do. For all Marshall knew, her mistress was possessed by a demon, and he would need to kill her in front of the entire Blaike family.

Breaking promises was something Marshall was strictly against. Never again.

“I just wouldn’t want you to think the Guard wasn’t welcome here.” Emily simpered. “As soon as I told Ms. Stella about the mishap at the gate, she insisted I bring you to her at once.” Emily’s hands waved emphatically as she spoke, nearly knocking the drink tray out of a servant’s hands.

Marshall did his best to calm her down, but Emily peppered him with apologies the entire way to the infirmary. It could have been nothing more than an overeager servant trying to diffuse a social gaffe, or she could have been trying to distract the trio from something.

Marshall gave a pointed look at Jack.