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“An explosion. Took out part of the castle wall.”
I pause, stunned. “What?”
“I know. It’s crazy.”
Crazy is an understatement. I can’t remember the last time someone attacked the god-king’s residence. A thousand years? Two?
“What part of the wall?” I ask, my thoughts racing ahead toward injuries, targets, and a million other things to be concerned about.
“The southern rim.” Klyn pauses as if letting his words sink in. When he speaks again, his voice is heavy with what he hasn’t said yet. “That side of the wall gets a lot of traffic.”
I tense, knowing he’s right. It’s the main thoroughfare connecting the towns on either side of the royal house. “How bad?”
“Not sure yet.”
“How long since it happened?”
“Twenty minutes ago. I came straight here.”
I head for the door, forgoing my usual launch pad in the back of the estate for the open front yard.
Klyn follows me out as I ask, “Suspects?”
“One in custody so far. Caius granted you full authority with the interrogation.”
That’s my cue.
I stride onto the grass in the darkness that’s fast becoming dawn.
“Casualties?”
Klyn doesn’t answer, and I turn back to him when I reach the center of the clearing. The morning air is chilled, but it doesn’t bother me in this form or the other.
“Six so far,” he says, his voice rough. “A couple of guards—and three women and a child. We’re digging out more now.”
“Fuck.” My dragon rises to the surface, begging to be let loose on the fucks who decided to kill innocent women and children.
“I’ll see you down there,” I tell Klyn, who’s already rippling with the change as he takes the form of a massive wolf.
I’m barely done speaking the words before I’m in my dragon form.
Klyn backs off to give me space, and I leap into the air, letting my massive black-scaled wings lift me airborne. Below me, Klyn’s wolf is already on the move, sprinting down the mountainside I call home.
Following his lead, I soar toward the castle as fast as I can fly.
It doesn’t take long for me to see the smoke. I swoop lower, noting the activity near the castle walls, but my destination doesn’t take me quite that far. I head for the ground a half mile south of the wall, landing hard on the small hilltop next to Command, the structure that houses the military’s headquarters.
A soldier, Marques, is waiting for me when I touch down. Even from here, I can see he’s the only figure standing still while everyone else rushes past. The moment I shift back to my human form, he walks up and holds out a pair of wrinkled uniform pants. One of many I keep in a storage bin just outside my offices for commutes such as this.
I take the pants and shove them on before heading toward the rear doors of the large building before us. The military’s headquarters serves as both a hub for the different companies that serve throughout Tartarus and a prison. And tucked into a lesser-known wing of the basement is my interrogation room.
“Where’s the suspect now?” I ask.
“In holding, General. We’ve got a medic looking at his wounds?—”
“No.”
He shoots me a look. “He’s lost a lot of blood. We need him to live long enough to talk.”
