ANY DAY THAT STARTS WITH DRAGON ARGUMENTS IS GOING TO BE BAD.  

Kaylin returned from the West March in one piece. Now that piece is fraying She’s not at home in the Impe­rial Palace — and she never intends to be. All she wants is normal garden-variety crim­i­nals and a place of her own. Of course, normal in her new life involves a dragon as a room­mate but she can handle that.

She can’t as easily handle the new resi­dents to the city she polices, because one of them is the outcast Barrani Nightshade’s younger brother. On a night when she should be talking to land­lords in perfectly normal build­ings, she’s called to the fief — by fellow Hawk and some­time partner Teela. A small family disagree­ment has become a large, compli­cated problem: Castle Nightshade’s latent magic is waking.

And it’s not the only thing.