Page 34 of The Alien's Cruel Starfrost Domain

“Shut up,” I mutter, but there’s no heat in it. We’ve known each other too long for true animosity, even if we’re supposed to be natural enemies.

The servant’s stairs are narrow and steep, designed for efficiency rather than comfort. As we descend, I’m acutely aware of every creak, every groan of the ancient wood. Vazor moves with surprising stealth for a creature of his size, but his heat makes the air shimmer around us.

We’re almost to the bottom when I hear voices from the kitchen. I freeze, holding up a hand to stop Vazor. Lara’s laugh drifts through the door, followed by Kila’s higher pitch. Of course the human would still be awake, probably huddled by the fire with that tiny Starcaix raya of hers.

We had been heading for the most private exit, a door that leads to the gardens, but we would have to cross the kitchen to reach it. Unless...

“How do you feel about snow?” I whisper to Vazor.

“You can’t be serious.”

“The window, then.” I gesture to the narrow opening halfway down the stairs. “It’s that or risk being seen.”

Vazor glances betweenme and the window, his expression distinctly unimpressed. “If anyone ever told me I’d be climbing out windows with the Duke of Starfrost Manor...”

“They’d never believe it,” I finish for him. “Now move.”

The window is a tight fit, even for Vazor’s humanoid form. I watch him squeeze through, his scales scraping against the frame, and wonder what the baron would make of the marks left behind. I’ll have to remember to ice over the evidence.

I follow him out into the snow, landing silently beside him. The storm has picked up, thick flakes swirling around us in a white curtain. Perfect cover for a clandestine escape.

We make our way along the manor’s wall, staying close to the shadows. When we reach the postern gate, I press my palm to the lock, ice crystals forming and reshaping until it clicks open.

“Well,” Vazor says as he steps through, “that was certainly more interesting than our usual meetings.”

I don’t reply, and he heads toward the forest. I watch until he vanishes completely, then turn back to the manor.

I have some evidence of his passage to hide.

And a throne to usurp.

CHAPTER 10

LARA

Sneaking out of Starfrost Manor was always harder than it seemed like it ought to be.

The first time I tried to run away, I’d been at Starfrost Manor for just less than three weeks—or two ten-days, as the Caix would say.

Back then, Kila had not arrived yet. I guess in some ways, I’m glad the attempt didn’t succeed. Because Adefina was right—the Starcaix raya would have died without my help.

But in those first few weeks, the horror of the hanging I had seen the day I arrived kept me awake late into the night. When I finally fell asleep, I sometimes dreamed about it. Inevitably, I woke in the morning sick to my stomach, weary with exhaustion and dread.

So I guess it’s no surprise I decided to get the hell out of there.

I waited until everyone was asleep, packed up a loaf of bread Adefina had cooling, and took off. I was already layered up in some extra clothing I’d cadged from Adefina, my clumsily stitched-together cloaks having not proved warm enough for the lands of an Icecaix lord.

Over my blue jeans, I wore a pair of rough woolen pants about two sizes too big for me, cinched in at the waist with a strip of leather Fintan had found somewhere and fashioned into a belt. And over my own shirt, I wore a tunic that hung almost to my knees, made of the same scratchy material as the pants.

Adefina had given the outfit to me to wear on laundry day that first week and a half—ten-day, I reminded myself—and I hated the feel of it against my skin. But when worn over my own clothes, it provided a layer of warmth against the biting cold.

Fintan had confided to me that he never bothered to lock the courtyard door, so I went out through the stable where Fintan slept with the animals he tended, tiptoeing past his giant, slightly snoring form to a door leading into part of the courtyard, and then to a gate leading out the back into the fields where I sometimes saw the goats stomping at the frost-covered grass or using their tiny hooves to kick away snow. As soon as I hit the fields, I headed toward the tree line in the distance.

As an escape plan, it wasn’t very well thought out. I had no idea where I was going, no clue what might lie beyond the lands controlled by Duke Ivrael. No real clue how I might get back to Earth, for that matter.

But I had to believe that someone out there would help me. After all, if Ivrael could bring me to this backwards-ass planet, then someone else out there could take me home. When we’d first arrived, Ivrael told his footmen to take that flying saucer of his to a spaceport and said something about apole. If I could find out where that was, maybe I could get help there.

It didn’t matter how sketchy I was on the details of the plan. I was desperate to escape Starfrost Manor.

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