Page 36 of Runaway Magic
:Have you found anything useful?:Marshall wanted as much information as he could get before acting. With the power he wielded—both politically and magically—he had to make sure he was doing the right thing before acting.
:I found the room they were keeping the boy in. It was nice, but he was kept away from everyone. With the amount of magic the place had wrapped around it, you could contain a magical nuke in there. He must have been packing something big.:
:If he was completely out of control, we would have been brought in on this long before now. I don’t think Stella is being honest with us. Let’s see what she’s hiding.:
Marshall allowed his thoughts to drift away. He slowed his breath, and then he looked at Stella using the innate talent every dreamwalker had—the ability to sense the raw creative power of the universe. Without trying, he could pick up superficial bits and pieces of the world around him, but if he wanted to know more, he had to dig deeper.
Marshall saw nothing. He should have seen something on Stella. Ambient magic collected around everyone, and even norms had trace amounts of it clinging to them. A magic user should be covered with it. Stella would have had to scour herself down to the core minutes before their arrival to remove all of it. And since ambient magic was completely benign, the only reason for anyone to clean themselves so completely would be if they had something to hide.
Also, a complete magical cleanse was a better explanation for why her magic was so low—from the spells he’d seen her throw,Stella was too powerful for her magic to be wiped out this long after the fight.
:She’s been wiped clean. Jack, meet me out front. I’m ordering a full turnout, right now.:
:Copy that.:
Marshall stood up and took a step back from Stella’s bed. “Cymbeline is now under the jurisdiction of Fire. Stella, you are to order your family to stop looking for him immediately.”
Stella twisted her lips into a pretty pout. “I think that’s a bit much, Marshall. You’ll need us to help find him.”
Marshall ignored her and turned to Emily. “I want a full turnout of your family outside immediately.”
Emily went so pale he thought she might faint.
Stella was silent and calculating for a moment, then nodded her acquiescence to Marshall, and said to Emily, “Do it.”
:She was prepared for that,: Adelle said. :What do you bet she isn’t the only one wiped clean?:
Stella turned her attention to Marshall and said, “You won’t have our full family, Guardian. Most of us are with my sister on holiday or out hunting for my nephew.”
“Convenient,” hissed Adelle, no longer keeping her thoughts to herself.
“How many are here?” Marshall asked.
“Right now, our compound only has twenty-two people in it.”
“You had that number very fast, Stella,” said Adelle.
“When I was put in charge, I made sure to ask how many people were under my care.”
“I find it interesting that your sister went on vacation and left her newly injured sister in charge.”
“Elanor has been ill for some time now and couldn’t put the trip off any longer,” Stella said stiffly. “She knows that, even injured, I am more than capable of protecting my family.” Her polished words were laced with a threat.
Before Adelle could rise to the challenge Stella presented, Marshall said, “Stella, your family isn’t under threat unless they have been doing something illegal. Your aura was scrubbed bare moments before we got here. That alone is enough to have your entire family scanned.”
“That?” Stella laughed, a brittle bark that grated on his ears. “Of course I was scrubbed bare. I was nearly killed by my psychotic nephew using twisted magic no one understands! The gods only know what it did to me. If you look at Sterling and Helen, you’ll see the same thing.” She pointed at the far end of the room toward two curtain-covered beds. “Only don’t expect Helen to talk to you, she’s very single-minded right now. All she wants is another crack at her cousin, and if you aren’t interested in helping her, well… teenagers, right?”
Adelle drew his eyebrows together and looked at the beds thoughtfully. “Marshall?”
“Check them and the nurse. If they are clean, meet me and Jack outside.” He began to walk away and stopped, telling Stella, “You can come too, if you’re up to it.”
“Thank you so much for allowing me to go somewhere in my own home,” Stella snapped and began to struggle out of bed.
Marshall offered his arm, but she shook it off.
“I meant what I said. If you don’t have our help, anything could happen. That boy is a disaster.” Stella tried to get ahead of Marshall as he left the room, but she cradled her arm as she walked and moved slower than a woman twice her age.
Marshall easily made it out into the hallway first and allowed himself to give Stella a sardonic smile.
