WHEN CASTLES FALL

It was a night of horror, but the days that followed were nearly as terrifying when those in charge became the perpetrators, deceit and false accusations became the rule, and chaos and confusion became the norm.

Dreaming of armadillo soup and serpent pie was not unexpected for Jade Castle after the events of the last twenty-four hours.

She'd sat across her kitchen table from an intruder who appeared to morph into a different species of snake at will and later was interrogated by a detective whose motives were suspect at best—a slow transmutation to an armadillo being a dead give-a-way—all the while trying to save an innocent teenager caught up in the evil whims of society's predatory wildlife.

It started with a power outage and a deadbolt left unlocked during a typical Florida storm. It ended with a police shooting, a death, and an aftermath of lies and manipulation.