Page 102 of The Alien's Cruel Starfrost Domain

Not even if Ivrael’s gaze holds me captive every time he looks at me. If staring into his eyes makes me want to feel his mouth on me again.

“Oh, dusting damns,” Kila says, her gaze flickering between Ivrael and me. “We do need to leave. Right now. We never should have come up here in the first place.”

I know she’s right—the safest thing to do right now is get the hell out of here. But Ivrael said the firelord needed to make an entrance. I don’t know what he meant, but I want to find out, so I shake my head. “Not yet.”

Ivrael moves to the switch that controls the rotating ceiling. The Caix firelights dim, and the stars begin to dance through the ballroom. It serves as an effective distraction—no one’s thinking about the duke’s greeting any longer. Not even me.

I’m thinking about the day in the ballroom he showed me those same lights, and I’m fighting not to smile.

“Oh,” Kila breathes out. “I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

“I have.”

I’ve just finished speaking when one of the winged Caix, smallerthan an adult human but much bigger than a raya, begins swooping around the ballroom, laughing maniacally.

As she comes close to our hiding place, I catch the reflected gleam of Caix firelights off of her pointed fangs. She sees us suddenly and flips upright in the air, her wings dragging back to pull her to a stop, then buzzing to keep her hovering just in front of us.

“Oh, shit,” I mutter.

The small Caix wears a short dress as sheer as her wings, just a tiny hint of color shimmering all around her body, her tiny, pointed breasts pressed against the fabric and clearly visible through it. For a split second, I wonder how many of the women below wear such transparent clothing.

But even as that thought crosses my mind, a ball of terror begins to congeal in my throat, and I discover I can’t swallow around it.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” she announces happily. “Duke Ivrael told us he would use only Caix servants tonight.” She claps her hands in delight. “But here you are, breaking the rules. I am going to have such fun with you tonight.” The joy in her smile as she flashes those sharp teeth terrifies me.

My heart seems to stop, then stutters in my chest, resolving into a hard thump and racing as adrenaline floods my mouth. The Caix in front of me seems to almost hear it, and she nods in time to my racing heartbeat.

Things are about to go seriously wrong. I know it from the instant she catches my eye, from the way her tinkling laugh turns into a cackle. The way that, when she smiles, those fangs of hers are tipped in blood.

But I can’t move.

I’m frozen in place, the buzz of her wings and the echo of her laugh holding me still as surely as any prey caught in a spider’s web. And there is no doubt that I am her prey.

I begin to silently struggle against whatever hold she’s using on me. Luckily, the hold isn’t perfect, and I’ve just begun to edge back from the ledge when the Icecaix reaches outand grabs my hair, one small fist wrenching me forward again as she once again uses some kind of Caix power to hold me in place.

“You don’t get to leave,” she announces, her tone some unholy mix between annoyed and cheerful. She opens her mouth wide, her jaw unhinging like a snake’s, her upper and lower fangs dripping some kind of venom. Beside me, Kila rises into the air, ready to do battle with this creature at least twenty times her size.

“Don’t,” I tell Kila, forcing the words out past the Caix-induced paralysis. “I’ll be okay.”

But we both know I won’t.

I try to pull away from the tiny monster, praying Ivrael will see and intervene, though for all I know, he’ll let me suffer whatever this monstrous mega-pixie has in mind.

At the same time, my mind races as I try to come up with other ways to escape, discarding plans as useless or too dangerous almost as quickly as I think of them.

In the end, though, all I want is for Ivrael to save me.

I tell myself that’s the last lingering effect of the drugged Caix wine, and I should shake it off. Still, there has to be someone here who will help, right?

I’m just opening my mouth to scream, even knowing that doing so is at least as likely to bring the unwanted attention of other Icecaix as it is to bring Ivrael—or anyone else, for that matter—to my rescue. I inhale, but I never have the chance to release it.

The double doors at the far end of the room crash open, and the Caix holding me twists her head around to look, then lets out a curse. She uncurls her fist from my hair, shaking her hand to untangle it from the clinging curls. Turning around completely to face the door, her mouth is still open—but this time it’s agape rather than preparing to attack with those nasty fangs of hers as she catches sight of the new arrival.

Tossing a black cloak away from one shoulder in a dramatic motion, the younger firelord I saw earlier strides into the ballroom, the golden shimmering scales along his neck and jawline a warm contrast to the ice-cold colors of the Icecaix.

I expect him to say something immediately, but he waits as the ballroom slowly falls silent, awareness of his presence growing like a wave washing over the Caix, starting with those closest to the firelord and rippling outward through the crowd.

The music falters, trailing to a stop. All the dancers who haven’t already gone motionless—those Caix on the dance floor who had not yet noticed the firelord’s entrance—stumble, finally stopping too.

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