Page 108 of The Alien's Cruel Starfrost Domain

“Tell me about my mother.” The words come out steady, stronger than I feel. When neither of them responds, I take another step forward. “She must have been Caix, right? For me to have this royal blood you’re so interested in? Or was it my father?”

“Lara—” Ivrael begins, but I cut him off.

“Don’t.” Heat floods through me, so intense it makes my skin prickle. “You don’t get to say my name like that. Like you care. Not after what you just did.”

The images flash through my mind again—the firelord’s flames consuming flesh and bone, Oriana’s face melting away, the screams of the dying. My stomach turns, but this time the nausea is burned away by something hotter, fiercer.

“All those people,” I say. “All those deaths. Just to test a theory about my blood?”

“It was necessary.” His voice is still perfectly controlled, perfectly reasonable. That only makes it worse.

“Necessary?” The word tastes like ashes on my tongue. “Like it was necessary to keep me prisoner here for a year? Like it’s necessary to buy my sister too?”

“You don’t understand?—”

“Then explain it to me!” The shout rips from my throat, raw and jagged. “Explain how any of this is necessary! Explain why our ages matter so much, why you need both of us, why?—”

And suddenly, I am filled with rage. Pure, white-hot rage at everything Ivrael has done. At how he’s manipulated me, used me, planned to use my sister. At how he sacrificed his own people just to test his theories about my blood.

For the first time since he bought me, I see fear in Ivrael’s eyes. Good. He should know what it feels like. He takes a step back, and satisfaction curls through me like smoke.

The rage burns through me like dragonfire, and this time, I welcome it.

CHAPTER 31

IVRAEL

Apulse of magic cuts through the night, so strong it makes my teeth ache, and I take a second step backward.

Lara’s skin seems to glow from within, iridescent with newly awakened power. The ancient blood finally stirring in her veins.

She’s magnificent like this, raw power made flesh, everything I hoped she would become. Everything I need her to be, for what comes next.

And furious.

Her eyes swirl with her power, silver-white sparks leaping and dancing in her topaz irises, and the magic inside her calls to something in my blood, something ancient and hungry.

I think she might not even realize that she holds the power.

And I want her more than I ever have before, despite what I have to do.

It’s not what I intended—not initially. When I set out to buy Lara Evans, I wanted more than anything to save my people, my land, my domain.

To save my entire planet.

I’d been glad that was going to require only the sacrifice of two young women. Just two. That’s all.

I have become a monster. Assuming, of course, I wasn’t one all along.

“Let me make sure I have this straight. This was all a test,” she says as she takes a step forward, and the air around her shimmers. “You orchestrated everything just to see if I would survive? To see if I was worthy of whatever sick game you’re playing?”

“Lara—” I begin, but she cuts me off.

“Don’t.” The word cracks like breaking ice. “I should have known. I should have realized when I overheard you plotting with the firelords.”

I half expect Lara to back down, to retreat as she has so many times before. Instead, something dark and ancient flashes in her eyes. The air around her crackles with power. “Tell me, Ivrael. Tell me why you needed to buy a—a what? A bride?—with royal blood.”

Not a bride, I think.A sacrifice.

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