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“One of the guards said he saw a smoke-like entity circle the throne,” Jarrod said. “The castle is no longer safe. There’s wrongness about it, especially in the palace. I’ve come here a few times after everyone left, but I can’t pinpoint what’s wrong.”
I paused midway on the partially-chipped away stone stairs. Was the smoke-like entity the same as the one that possessed the demon captain? The demon had used his filthy smoke to pin down Iokul and almost killed my mate in Pandemonium’s arena.
Had the evil followed us back? How had it infiltrated my old home?
Elvey had warned me that danger would follow me every step of the way once I left that savage planet behind.
I leaped up into the air and shifted, anxious to reach the palace sitting atop the castle.
Wings fluttered around me, and the wind ruffled at the movement. Every dragon accompanying me shifted as well. Clever Sybil landed on Iokul’s scaled back to hitch a ride as the dragons surged toward the king’s palace.
CHAPTER 2
I alighted in front of the main entrance of the golden palace. Its surrounding rose garden was withering. My grandfather had set the beloved garden of my memories ablaze.
I would get to the bottom of whatever caused his madness.
The doors—all made of crystals—were blackened, and some shattered. Three granite sculptures of the dragons between the doors stayed intact, just as I remembered, but the fourth statue had lost half of its head, and the fifth one was sheared of its left wing.
Those statues represented the guardians of the five elements.
It was a blow that even our symbols hadn’t avoided the demolition.
I shifted back to my Fae form. Jarrod shifted after me, though some of the warriors, including Blaze, remained as dragons.
If the smoke entity was still inside, Blaze would be the first one to burn it to oblivion.
The scouts, who had gone before us, had shifted at the same time as I had. They’d all joined us but left my hellhound behind. I could hear his whimpers of complaints somewhere down the castle. I wasn’t worried about him. Henry was a survivor.
Jarrod insisted on entering the palace first, as did Quintrell, Rai’s right-hand man. Quintrell had urged Rai to cut off my three Fury heads on our first encounter. He’d been awkward with me after I became Rai’s mate, assuming I held a grudge against him.
“Clear,” both Jarrod and Quintrell called.
I sighed. My days as the wild Furies were over. Apart from my mates guarding me as if I were a priceless treasure and frail glass, guards would always be around me.
I strode into the palace, my mates by my side, the warriors flanking us.
Henry shot into the palace like a black arrow. He squeezed between Rai and me and rubbed his shiny fur against my leg in affection. Rai scowled down at him, but restrained himself from scolding the beast. He knew Henry and Sybil were dear to me.
When Henry spotted the scouts who had abandoned him, he opened his jaw and snarled at them.
I rubbed the fur on his side, and he stopped snarling. “I know, Henry,” I said. “They aren’t very considerate and quite rude. You must forgive them. They fed you in the ship, didn’t they? They’ll take you to hunt when we all settle in.”
Rai laughed.
Henry turned one of his heads, his long tongue licking the back of my hand, then he gave Rai a somber look and trotted toward Jarrod’s group to make the path safe for me.
“How can any man argue with a beast,” Rai murmured, “especially a cute, tender one such as Henry?”
Only a dragon would think Henry was tender. I sent Rai a smile, and Iokul kissed the top of my head to remind me of his existence. I turned to beam at him.
Rai and Iokul held my hands, and together we walked through many turns in the halls, chapels, and spiral staircases.
The interior of the palace had a red and gold theme, except for the paintings on the wall. They depicted the dragons’ brutal hunt and our glorious past when humans and other sub-species had worshiped our kind as their gods. Those paintings had been crafted by humans. As a warrior race, dragons didn’t make much art.
Iokul looked up at Blaze’s dragon hovering near the domed ceilings.
The castle was built to accommodate a dragon’s need. There were either high windows or skylights in every chapel and chamber, an escape route when needed.
