Page 54 of Fae King's Secret Baby

“Fine,” I agreed reluctantly, allowing the guards to secure me in the armored vehicle and drive me back to the castle.

I passed two blazes on the short drive, fire and police crews already on the scene. Craning my neck, I strained to look for evidence of injuries.

“Stop!” I ordered the driver at the second fire.

“Alpha?”

“Pull over here,” I instructed. “I want to see what happened.”

“Alpha, with all due respect, I think we should get you home.”

“Pull over!” I snarled, unaccustomed to being defied.

The chauffeur didn’t protest again and stopped the car, leaving me to jump out and head to the nearest emergency worker.

“What happened here?” I barked out. The firefighter did a double take when he saw me, bowing, but I stopped himimpatiently. “Never mind the formalities. Is this an accident? Arson?”

He exhaled and removed his mask. “There have been five so far. Serial arsons,” he admitted. “And I hear that someone was murdered.”

I recoiled inwardly. “In one of the blazes?”

The fae shook his head. “No. Separately. It’s like the entire city’s gone nuts. I don’t know what’s happening, but it stinks of dark magic.”

“That’s impossible,” I intoned, appalled by the suggestion. “We take precautions against dark magic.”

The firefighter shrugged as someone called out to him. “I’m sorry, Alpha. I don’t have any other information to give you right now.”

Gritting my teeth, I stepped back to watch the magnificent flames lick and destroy the shop in front of me.

Arson? Murder? Dark magic? In my kingdom? No. I wouldn’t stand for any of it.

Shaking, I retreated to the car and ordered the driver back to the castle, calling Maren on the way. She wanted to know what was happening, but without details of my own, how could I tell her anything?

Instead, I called Drakias and warned him not to let Maren out of the apartment.

“Neither one of you is to go anywhere until I tell you otherwise,” I informed Maren’s personal guard. “Is that clear?”

“Yes, Alpha.”

He didn’t ask me any questions. Drakias was going places.

Odette met me at the front doors, her face paler than I’d ever seen it. She looked like a painted doll with her porcelain skin that shade of white.

“Finally!” she choked. “What took you so long?”

I scowled at her. “You can’t just drop a bombshell like that on me and expect me not to ask questions. How did this happen? What happened? Where did it start?”

Noticing the servants in the foyer, I waved her toward my office at the back of the palace, not wanting the staff to overhear anything they shouldn’t. Odette immediately understood my gesture and said nothing until we were behind closed doors.

“There have been some rumblings in town over the past few weeks,” she blurted out. “Rumors, nothing more.”

“Rumors about what?” I growled, flopping into my office chair and turning on my computer. I wanted to get a full hold of all the incidents in the city. I scanned the web pages for evidence of fires or the murder that the firefighter had spoken about.

The enchantress cleared her throat, and I suddenly noticed she hadn’t responded. “What rumors, Odie?”

I turned my attention to her, and she paled. “A caravan of warlocks moved in on the outskirts of Mynton.”

Staring at her, I wondered what warlocks in a suburb had to do with what was happening today. The kingdom was a busy place, faeries coming and going from all parts of Mystara. I didn’t necessarily need an update on every migrant caravan, but this was potentially useful information.

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