Page 78 of Runaway Magic
Marshall and Jack had broken through the shield surrounding the Blaike secret hideout they’d discovered and had been greeted with complete pandemonium. Though it was long past sunset, the compound was bathed in the light from over a dozen fires scattered haphazardly across the base. Sharp barks of gunfire were interspersed between unintelligible shouts from the people fighting fires.
Gunfire was an odd noise to find on property belonging to a member of the Other, even if it was under attack. Witches were far more comfortable using spells for combat over guns. It bore looking into.
The air next to them wavered as Adelle came through the shield around the compound. Her eyes went wide as she noted the uncontained fire sweeping through most of the buildings. “At least you don’t have to worry he’s in over his head,” Adelle remarked.
“There is that.” Marshall took a slow, steadying breath and put on the mantle of Guardian Marshall. “Come on, we need to get down there and see what’s going on.”
Rounding the corner of the closest building, they came face-to-face with complete bedlam. Most of the outbuildings were on fire, and each one had at least one witch casting suppression spells in an attempt to minimize the damage.
“Sheeze, are you sure our man is still alive in all of this?”
On the opposite side of the compound, Marshall could hear shouting followed by gunfire.
Marshall raised his eyebrows and said, “I am now.” He motioned for his team to follow him and ran toward the sound of fighting.
As they ran, Marshall sifted through the surface thoughts of anyone within eyesight of his team and told the bystanders not to see them. He could have gone deeper to find out exactly what was going on, but the time it would have taken to do so might end up getting the Blaike heir killed.
When they reached the far side of the compound, they found nothing but destruction and a pile of bodies.
“We need to find them. Fast. Ideas?” Marshall dug a hand roughly into his hair as if trying to pull out an idea.
Adelle chewed her lip thoughtfully. “Hold on. Maybe we can’t find where soldier boy is, but what if we could find where he isn’t?”
Marshall tugged on a stray curl as he considered. “You mean looking for a deadzone? That might work in the ’Scape, but here, it’ll be fairly iffy. We’d need a lot of people around him for his nothingness to bounce off in order to find him.”
Adelle motioned to the chaos around them. “You don’t think the perpetrator of this has a ton of people after him?”
“Fair point.” He grinned sheepishly, “Cover me, I’m going to take a Walk.”
They crowded into a nearby alley, and Adelle and Jack bracketed him facing outward on either side. Marshall sat down and did his best to accept and transcend the chaos of the compound. Immediately, pinpoints of lights popped into his awareness, and he saw a mass of yellow, red, and orange dots converging on a point behind him and to the right. The general emotion of all the dots was excitement, but without going deeper he couldn’t see why and he didn’t have the time.
He let his mind unfocus and zoom out to see if he could sense the nothingness of Fourteen. As he did, he noted a small cluster of blue, green, and purple lights grouped in the main building. He also noticed a swarm of aggression-laden black lights moving quickly toward the same place as the yellows, reds, and oranges.
He caught no trace of Fourteen’s nothingness, but the converging lights were enough for Marshall to go on. He was ready to come out of his trance until his attention was captured by a blazing, white light so putrid that if he’d been fully in his body he would have retched.
He came back to himself so fast he saw starbursts in his vision. “Demon… Great big massive demon. That way.” He was panting, covered in sweat, and he felt like he’d just run a marathon.
The flames from the building across the street illuminated Jack’s shocked face as he reached down and hauled Marshall to his feet by his upper arms. Jack was the only person big enough to move Marshall around like that without the use of magic. “How?”
“You tell me. I’ve never heard of them getting this big in the Real.” Even the one that took Marshall’s father hadn’t been this size.
The corners of Adelle’s eyes tightened minutely, but her voice was calm as she said, “Lead the way, we’re behind you.”
“At least we’re all at full power this time,” Jack said cheerfully, though his serious expression told Marshall he wasn’t as optimistic as he sounded.
Marshall nodded in agreement and stated simply, “We can do this.” He had to be their rock in a situation like this, and he refused to allow even the smallest gap in his outward show of confidence. But on the inside, his mind crawled with terror and doubt. His team wasn’t up for fighting a large demon without notice. No team was. He’d just come from a battle where he’d almost lost Jack. What if he lost his whole team this time?
They couldn’t run for backup. It could be hours before help arrived. Even if he pulled the entire network of the Boston chapter house—which mostly consisted of politicians and scholars—they’d never arrive in time to stop what was happening.
At that moment, all Marshall wanted to do was run into the night with his friends and not look back, and he was pretty sure he could control both of them long enough to get them far away until the shitshow on the compound had run its course. Only the memory of those who died in the past to protect him kept his feet rooted to the ground. Being a coward was no way to repay them for what they had done.
Team Fire was going to have to stand and fight. He hoped Fourteen had something special up his sleeve.
Marshall cleared his mind and forced himself to let go of the worry, anxiety, and cowardice clawing at him. In their place, he allowed the mantle of team leader to fall around him like a shield. Once it was firmly in place, he said, “Adelle, on my mark, sleep any norms you can find. The witches are probably protected, so don’t waste your time on them, but if you can take out the norms, it’ll give us some breathing room. Jack, Fourteen probably has the heir. Find him and get them both to the chapter house. Adelle will help you once she’s done giving the norms a nap, and I’ll meet you all there once I’m finished here.”
“You aren’t going up against the demon alone, ass,” his sister said firmly.
“Ditto,” Jack said.
