Page 103 of The Alien's Cruel Starfrost Domain

But I see all this only in my peripheral vision. I’m not watching any of them because almost the instant I realize the firelord has entered the room, my gaze shifts to Ivrael—only to discover that the duke is already watching me again, the ice-cold blue of his eyes glimmering with something hot.

Meanwhile, Lady Uanna, still standing next to Ivrael, claps her hand to her mouth in horror as she catches sight of the firelord—but then she realizes Ivrael is staring up, and she follows the line of his sight straight up to me. Her nostrils flare, and her gaze turns cold.

I drag my gaze away from his—but I’m not sure if it’s a smart move.

I have no idea which creature in this room is most dangerous.

The firelord’s scales begin to shimmer, his skin glowing so brightly I almost have to look away—but I manage to squint so I don’t have to take my eyes off him.

I’m not the only one watching, either. Everyone in the ballroom has frozen. Even the fanged Caix about to attack Kila and me has paused and turned around to hover in the air, staring at the firelord who has shown up at an Ice Court ball, directly contravening their treaty.

The young firelord opens his mouth as if to speak, but he doesn’t. He instead inhales and lets out a roar too loud for any human—or any human-sized Caix, as far as I know.

The sound fills the entire ballroom, then expands further, forcing itself into my ears, my mind, every cell of my body. I can’t hear anything else, can’t think, can’t even see as my vision blurs out in a shimmeringfield of gold.

I clap my hands over my ears and squeeze my eyes shut, but it does little to block out the noise.

The entire ballroom seems to tremble and shake, the floor beneath us bucking and groaning as the ground shudders and the house creaks.

When the enormous, overwhelming sound finally ends, vanishing from my mind more like water draining away than like echoes disappearing, I realize I’m curled into a ball on the ledge, my face buried against my knees. Kila has dropped onto my shoulder, also curled in on herself.

We’re both panting. The agony of that aural and psychic assault has left me exhausted. And when I glance down at the ballroom floor, I find many of the Caix huddled together.

Some of them fell to the floor and now lie prone with their arms crossed over their heads. Others dropped to their knees. A few cling to each other, sobbing. None of those with wings are flying at the moment.

A ripple passes through the firelord’s golden skin, his chest swelling and stretching like molten metal being forged. Scales burst through his flesh in waves, each one catching the light in turn. His fine waistcoat and jacket split at the seams, fabric shredding as his body expands beyond its constraints.

His bones crack and reform with sounds like breaking timber. His spine elongates, vertebrae pushing through skin already turned to armor. His neck stretches upward as his skull reshapes itself, jaw extending, teeth lengthening into daggers that glint in the reflected Caixlights.

Wings erupt from his shoulder blades in a spray of golden scales, membranes unfurling like silk banners caught in wind. Each wing tip scratches the ceiling as they spread to their full span, and heat shimmers in the air around them.

His hands curl into talons, nails extending into obsidian hooks longer than my forearm. His feet burst from his boots, claws scoring deep grooves in the marble floor. A tail lashes out behind him, thick as a tree trunk and tipped with spikes that look sharp enough to pierce armor.

Where moments ago stood a man my height, now towers a beast that nearly brushes the ballroom’s vaulted ceiling. Power radiates from him in visible waves, distorting the air like heat over summer roads. Every breath he takes sounds like a forge’s bellows, and sulfur taints the air.

His eyes, though—his eyes remain the same, filled with cruel intelligence, and they fix on the Caix below with predatory focus.

My body vibrates with the raw force of his presence, like standing too close to lightning-struck metal. I’ve never felt so small, so fragile, so utterly at the mercy of something that could snuff out my existence with a single breath.

Everyone below me seems frozen in terror, unable to move. The entire ballroom holds its breath in disbelief, unwilling to accept that this is really happening.

The monstrous creature swings his head from side to side, surveying the entire room.

The movement shocks people out of their stupor, and several of them turn to run. But before they can get very far, the firelord inhales again, pulling the air into his lungs so fast that it turns cold as it blows past me, almost seeming to draw the breath out of my lungs. At the last minute I grab Kila to keep her from tumbling head over feet across the ballroom and being sucked into the dragon’s mouth.

Several of the Caix who were running are pulled off their feet or dragged backward by the gusts of dragon-induced wind, unable to get away.

And then the dragon blasts the ballroom with his fiery breath.

It’s a conflagration.

Flame bursts forth from his mouth in a stream of fire. Icecaix scream as everyone directly in the path of the firelord’s fire is swept into the inferno. The huge gouts of flame rush out through the center of the room, cutting through a swath of fleeing Icecaix. Their screams take on a higher pitch, and then are cut off sharply as they’re swallowed in flame and their vocalcords snap or melt.

At first, I see everything as if it’s in slow motion, the Caix-wine combining with sheer horror to freeze me in place, slow my responses.

The dragonfire explodes against the opposite wall, the flames flashing out and licking up the nearest wall, so hot I can barely see it except in its effects—that silver and white wallpaper curling up, the shimmering shadow of a heat mirage wavering in the air above it as each rolling strip is limned first in a bright glowing orange and then crumbles away into black ash.

Pandemonium erupts throughout the ballroom, and my vision snaps back into real time. Uncertain which way to run, the remaining Icecaix rush toward the only exits on the opposite side of the room from the dragon. The firelord turns his attention to the door directly opposite him, taking several steps forward, the whole house trembling as he moves.

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