“I’ve already explained where they are⁠—”

“Not to mention you personally are suspected of being in a battle tainted with demon energy, and your aura is cleaner than the day you were born.”

“I’ve explained that too! I’m going to have a word with the Guard council about this…” Stella gasped for breath. “Just see if I don’t!” she yelled at his back, panting heavily as she tried to keep up.

As they reached the massive doors leading outside, Marshall opened one and waited for Stella, allowing her to precede him. “Acting Praetor Constance could be here with the entire council, and I would still do a turnout for just one of your excuses. Your family is known for being ruthless in the war against the Demon Realm. Stella, you should be the first person insisting this be done. So why aren’t you?”

Stella’s large, round eyes shimmered with injured innocence. “I don’t like being threatened in my own home. I know there aren’t any nightmares or demons camping inside my people—I’m not a complete novice. But what do you care about my word? It means nothing to you. I mean nothing to you.”

“Well, with a looker like me around, you wouldn’t expect him to notice anyone else, would you?” Jack came from out of nowhere and bounded to the top of the steps, slinging an arm around Marshall’s neck when he reached him.

Marshall smiled up at his teammate.

Jack never cared much about what others thought of him—he always said exactly what he was thinking, and he knew how uncomfortable Stella had made Marshall during their last meeting. There was little chance of him passing up a chance for payback. Not with how protective Jack was of him.

“Stella, I believe you’ve already met Jack.”

She stared at Jack’s arm on Marshall and sneered. “I’ve always thought it was a pity our future praetor was saddled with someone so beneath him. Tell me, Jack, was the plan to ride his coattails to a better life, or were you just planning on dragging him down into the dirt with you and the rest of your kind?”

Jack put the back of his hand to his forehead and sighed. “My kind? I had no idea you felt that way about brunettes.” For all his playfulness, his eyes had a dangerous glint.

“Why you allow this Unregistered to play at being a guardian, I will never understand.” Stella said the word Unregistered like dirt she wanted to spit out of her mouth.

“Not everyone can trace their family back to the Great Flood like you can, Stella.” Jack said, gripping the back of Marshall’s neck. When his thumb traced the line of Marshall’s throat, he knew Jack was deeply agitated. He only used Marshall like a fidget toy when he was truly pissed off.

“How about just one generation, then? No one even knows who your parents are, you abnormality. How do we know you didn’t just sneak out of the Dreamscape one day?”

“A former praetor vouched for him. That’s good enough for me,” Marshall said pointedly. Jack wasn’t the only one who was protective of his friends.

Even Stella wasn’t fool enough to ignore the steel in Marshall’s voice, so she changed tactics like the well-seasoned politician she was. “Of course, I respect all your father’s decisions, Guardian. Even the ones I don’t understand.” She glared at Jack, who blew her a kiss in response.

Marshall looked down the steps at the crowd of people shifting nervously before him. “Is this everyone?”

She squinted at her people and nodded. “This is everyone on the compound at the moment.”

:Addy?: Marshall could feel his sister heading in his direction, but he didn’t want to wait for her report.

:Other than the people I checked in the infirmary, everyone on the estate is now outside with you. My people were all clear, by the way. Sterling and Helen were as clean as Stella—they had to have been scrubbed right before we arrived.: Adelle’s tone was grim. :I’m willing to bet time in the ’Scape that they are hiding something.:

:Right there with you. Let me see how far this goes.: Marshall slowed his breathing and concentrated on the cool air touching his skin. He felt irritation from the situation sitting inside his chest and concentrated on where its edges were, accepted that the feeling was there, and observed it until it faded gently away.

Now that Marshall was centered and free from the control of his emotions, he could access his magic safely. He decided to go as deeply as possible to see if he could gain any more clues from the Blaike family.

He was able to discern right away that none of them had demon taint nor had any of them been cleaned. They were all as bland and unassuming as beige paint. If he’d been asked to paint a picture to represent a group of unremarkable witches, the group in front of him was what he would have painted.

The only unusual thing he noticed was that their magics were all shades of green, purple, and blue—traditionally protective, but very passive forms of magic—his own blue essence was the only magic he knew of that didn’t fit the tradition. Other than Stella—whose vivid, blood-orange magic was already beginning to bleed back into her aura—there were no witches here with offensive magic.

Watching him intently, Stella pounced on him as soon as he broke from the trance. “Have you seen enough, then? Unless you’re planning on arresting us all, I’d like to dismiss my people to go back to their jobs.”

Several members cringed at the words arresting us all, and Emily made an animal-like sound of distress in her throat.

“Lady…” Emily croaked and plucked at Stella’s arm.

Stella shook her off and stood as tall as she could manage. “There’s no point beating around the bush. Either we’re free to go about our business, or we aren’t. I want to know so I can begin planning the rest of my day.” Her mouth was a hard line, and she crossed her arms over her chest. And though the gesture must have agitated her injured arm, she showed no sign of it on her face.

Marshall looked down at her. “You know I can’t detain you—as I see it your family has broken no laws.”

“Marshall—” Adelle cried in anger.

He cut her off with a firm mental poke.

“While I and my team are off searching for your lost family member, you will send the rest of your family to the Boston chapter house within the next twenty-four hours to complete the turnout, or they will be considered fugitives.”

Stella growled in outrage.

Marshall raised his voice, “Including your matriarch. Unless she is about to die, she will be there.”

“Is that all, Guardian?” The title was a curse on her lips.

Marshal was about to turn to leave but paused.

Stella’s arrogant entitlement couldn’t be allowed to stand. Any opposition to the Guard had to be swiftly punished. If the governing body of the Other was perceived as weak, the entire world would fall into chaos in the ensuing power struggle.

The time for diplomacy was over. In his opinion, the entire Blaike family needed a reminder of why they should respect the Guard.

He dropped back into a mild trance and gathered the lights representing the souls of the assembled Blaikes in his mental hand and squeezed. Every member of the family went still as death, including Stella. He felt her light batter against him, and he clutched her soul even tighter.

Right now Marshall could do anything to them: force them to break into song, rewrite their personalities, even tell them to die. Only the strict moral code of the dreamwalkers kept the urge to do so from taking over and turning his desires into reality.

Respect for life and free will had been drummed into every potential dreamwalker from birth. Between that and the Guard's core tenant to protect the balance, Marshall rarely got to use more than a fraction of the abilities at his fingertips. But today it was his job to scare the living hell out of these people in the name of protecting the balance.

As a child he thought it would be fun to play with other people like puppets. He used to imagine forcing his babysitter to make him cake or buy him toys. And oh, how he used to rail against the watchful spells his father had cast to keep him in line—any indication of Marshall using his magic unsupervised, and his dad would shut his mind down.

Due to his father’s care, looking at the blank faces in front of him now and the grim expressions of his partners, Marshall knew playing with other people’s souls wasn’t fun.

It was a heavy burden.

“While you have broken no laws set by the Guard, I consider the treatment of your nephew abhorrent. If anyone in your family gets in my way during this investigation, I will cut them off from the Source.” Marshall tightened his hold on the family for emphasis before releasing them.

Nearly everyone collapsed to the ground, gasping and shivering as they all regained control of their bodies. Emily lay draped over a nearby concrete urn. She struggled to rise and kept flopping back down to crush the pansies planted in it. They must have been enchanted because they sprang up unscathed each time Emily managed to haul herself off them.

Only Stella remained standing. The moment Marshall let go she went on the offensive. “You—you can’t do that!”

“I’m a guardian on a mission,” he said. “You’d best to remember that.”

With a gesture to Jack and Adelle, he left Stella standing there with her quivering servant and her recovering family. Even without a trance, Marshall could see Stella’s blood-orange magic flaring around her wildly as she struggled to contain herself.

Marshall left without another word, trusting his team to follow him without a command.