Page 40 of The Alien's Vicious Starflash Manor

I give a harsh laugh. “Hell, no. I’ve been baking bread and scrubbing out fireplaces and dusting sitting rooms and washing dishes. And sleeping on the floor by the kitchen fireplace. Last night was the first real bath I’ve had in months. The rest of them have been in a tin tub like a water trough for horses—you know, the kind Joey Benjamin’s family used out on their ranch?”

Izzy shoots me an incredulous look. “Seriously? That sounds awful.”

“Oh, you have no idea. I was definitely not here as an honored guest. I stayed in the kitchens with Adefina and Kila.”

Izzy rolls onto her back, tucks her hands under her head and stares up at the ceiling. “Why does the duke want us? It’s not like we’re special.”

“I have no idea. Although every time I tried to escape he came to rescue me, it wasn’t like I was exactly coddled.” I glance around the luxurious quarters. “Until now, anyway.”

“Tomorrow’s your birthday, you know.”

I blink at the apparent non sequitur. Her words startle me. Somehow, in the midst of everything, I have completely forgotten my own birthday.

“You’ll be nineteen,” Izzy continues. “And then two days later, I’ll be eighteen. You said he made a big deal about you being a legal adult. That makes me think we should try to get out of here and go home before we’rebothtechnically adults.”

I move to sitting, leaning back against the headboard, and lift my fisted hands in front of me to waggle them. “I can’t get that far from Ivrael. You saw what he can do to me now.”

Izzy bites her bottom lip and shakes her head. “I don’t believe it.”

“Which part? The bit where he tied magic ribbons around my wrists?” I hold out my hands again and turn them back and forth to show off the ribbons. “Or the part where it almost dislocated my shoulders when I tried to walk away?”

I don’t say the words that race through my mind next:Or the part where he kissed me senseless, and I liked it?

“Look,” Izzy says, sitting up and crossing her legs like a kindergarten child. “Last night, I spent hours traveling on a flying horse made of I don’t know what.”

“Ice,” I supply helpfully, mirroring her posture.

“Ice that didn’t leave my ass frozen to it. Ice that moved like a real horse,” Izzy counters. “Ice that disappeared into the air when he was done with it. I’m not saying he isn’t capable of magic. I’m thinking he is. This is at least the most bizarre shit I’ve ever seen. But it’s not the kind of stuff you see in our world. Right?”

“Usually not,” I say dryly.

“What if…” Izzy began. “What if their magic doesn’t work in our world?”

“But it did. He put these damn things on me in the Trasqo Market.” I flick one of the ribbons circling my wrist.

“Right. But…”

“Dammit, Iz. He put those ribbons on me right in the middle of the market,” I repeated, emphasizing my words heavily.

“The market,” Izzy repeats. “TheTrasqoMarket, you said.”

“Yes.”

“When Roland took me there, we entered through some regular gate. Did you?”

“Yeah,” I say slowly, not sure what she’s getting at. “Like we were going to a regular flea market or something.”

“Right. But once you were inside, most everybody was weird, right?”

“Yeah. They’re all Caix—that’s what Adefina told me, anyway.”

“Right. So here’s the deal,” she said. “I think maybe the Trasqo Market isn’t like our world. Not entirely. Like…it’s beentreated toworklike Trasq or something—set up so they can work magic there.”

I wasn’t sure where she was going with any of this, but I nodded to let her know I was following along.

“So… like, Ivrael has to go to the Trasqo Market to get us. He doesn’t just ride his magic ice horses to our house.”

I blinked, not having considered any of this before.

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