Page 24 of The Alien's Vicious Starflash Manor

I press my fingers to my temples. “Your sarcasm isn’t helping.”

“No, but it is keeping you from freezing my circuits in frustration. You’re welcome.” Her tone softens. “We’ll figure it out, Ivrael. We always do.”

But we’ve never had stakes quite this high before. Never had quite so many ways everything could go catastrophically wrong.

Never had quite so much to lose.

I close my eyes, and unbidden, Lara’s face appears in my mind. The way she looked in the gallery that night, moonlight silvering her golden-red hair, her eyes full of heat.

The way she moaned my name and shattered against my mouth.

The way she defies me at every turn, her spirit unbroken despite everything.

How quickly could the court crush that spirit? How long before they strip away everything that makes her uniquely, beautifully herself?

You’re going to kill her anyway, a voice in my head reminds me.What does it matter if the court breaks her first?

But it does matter. It matters more than I can afford to admit.

I stare at the viewscreen, my earlier peace completely disrupted.

The stars streak past outside, carrying us inexorably toward Trasq. Toward the reception that could expose all my careful plans.

Toward whatever fate awaits me—and Lara, too.

CHAPTER 7

LARA

The first thing I register is cold—not the gentle chill of the cryochamber, but a bone-deep, burning freeze that makes my teeth ache.

My muscles feel like they’re made of ice as the crystal coffin slides open with a soft hiss. I blink against the harsh light, trying to orient myself. The last clear memory I have is Ivrael forcing that apple on me, his body pressed against mine, his voice in my ear...

No. Wait. That was last time. This time Izzy is with us.

“We’re here,” Ivrael announces.

Fuck. I hate how my body still responds to that voice, even now.

I struggle to sit up, my limbs heavy and clumsy. Two days. It must have been two days since he drugged us, but my mind feels stretched and foggy, like time has become elastic. Through the disorientation, I see Ivrael watching me with those impossible ice-blue eyes.

Our gazes meet, and I quickly glance away.

This time, the spaceport spreads out before us as we descend the exit ramp—a sprawling complex of crystal and metal. The whole facility gleams under the strange light of Trasq’s twin moons, their pale glow reflecting off every surface until it feels like we’re walking through starlight.

Izzy stumbles slightly beside me, and I reach out to steady her. She’s trembling, though whether from the cold or fear, I can’t tell. Probably both.

I remember my own first glimpse of this frozen world, how overwhelming it all was. But I was alone then. At least Izzy has me—for whatever that’s worth against Ivrael’s plans.

“Fuck, it’s cold,” Izzy says, wrapping her arms tightly around herself. Her breath clouds in the air like smoke. “It’s like... negative a million.”

I want to laugh at her familiar way of exaggerating everything, but the sound catches in my throat.

Because she’s not wrong—the cold here is different from anything I’ve ever felt on Earth. It’s like it’s alive somehow, sentient, like it’s actively trying to freeze the blood in your veins.

I catch Ivrael watching Izzy’s reaction to the cold with that calculating look I’ve grown to hate. Is he gauging her resistance to the temperature? Testing her blood’s response to this world’s magic? I step closer to my sister, as if I could somehow shield her from his scrutiny.

“The temperature at the poles is considerably lower than what you’ll experience at Starfrost Manor,” Ivrael says, as if he’s giving a tour rather than leading us to our enslavement.

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