Page 85 of The Alien's Cruel Starfrost Domain

My legs give out and I slide down the door, still clutching my ruined dress to my chest. The rough wood catches at my hair, but I barely notice.

Footsteps approach from the other side. The door pushes inward then stops as Ivrael encounters the lock. I tense, waiting for the click of a key, or of magic—whatever will render my pathetic attempt at self-protection useless.

It doesn’t come.

Instead, I hear a soft thud as he leans against the other side of the door.

We sit there, back to back with only the wooden barrier between us, our breaths somehow syncing despite everything.

“Let me talk to you,” he says, his voice muffled by the door but still too intimate, too close.

I press my hands over my ears, not wanting to hear whatever justification he might offer. Not trusting myself not to believe him, even knowing what he is. What he’s done.

What does it say about me that I gavemyself so willingly to someone capable of such cruelty? That even now, some treacherous part of me wants to unlock the door, to let him in, to believe whatever beautiful lies he might tell me?

Maybe I’m not so different from him after all. Maybe that’s why I could forget his crimes so easily in the heat of passion—because I’m becoming just as corrupt.

I think of Kila, of how often I planned to leave her behind in all my plans to escape, how simple it seemed to abandon her in order to save my sister. Of how easily I’ve learned to lie since coming here, how readily I’ve adapted to this world of casual cruelty and calculated betrayal.

“Go away,” I hiss through the door, hating how my voice shakes. “Please, just...go away.”

For a long moment, there’s silence. Then I hear him sigh, the sound heavy with something that might be regret. Might be manipulation. I don’t trust myself to know the difference anymore.

“As you wish,” he says softly, and I hear him stand. Then he pauses. “But Lara? What happened between us... it wasn’t a lie. Whatever else you may believe of me, believe that.”

His footsteps retreat down the corridor, each one an echo of my thundering heart. Only when they fade entirely do I allow myself to break down, tears streaming down my face as I curl into myself.

I don’t know how long I sit there, shivering despite the kitchen’s warmth, before I finally drag myself to my feet. My legs are still unsteady as I make my way to the basket holding my clothes.

But my jeans and sweater are being washed, so all I have is the second dress Adefina arranged for me to have.

Another house uniform, when the last thing I want is to be associated with Ivrael in any way.

As I dress, I catch sight of myself in the polished copper bottom of a pot hanging nearby. My lips are swollen from his kisses, my neck marked where his mouth claimed me. I look thoroughly debauched.

And thoroughly broken.

What kind of person lets a monster touch her like that? What kind of person enjoys it?

I close my eyes against my reflection. I came to this place believing I was strong. Believing that I was a good person.

But now?

Now I’m starting to wonder if Ivrael didn’t buy me in that market because he recognized something in me. Something dark. Something like him.

The thought terrifies me more than anything else that’s happened today.

Because if that’s true—if I am becoming like him—then how can I trust myself to protect Izzy?

How can I trust myself at all?

CHAPTER 25

IVRAEL

The next morning, my plans for that night settle around me, freezing into place as I stalk through the corridors, my fingers twitching with the need to create something, to destroy something—to do anything but think about the way Lara ran from me last night.

But as I round the corner toward my study, I catch a glimpse of Lara disappearing down a side passage. Before I can follow, rapid footsteps echo through the hallway. A messenger in Prince Jonyk’s livery bursts into the corridor, his chest heaving.

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