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. Kaylin can't as easily handle the new residents to the city she polices, because one of them is 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 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.