Page 108 of The Alien's Vicious Starflash Manor

I should head that way, too.

Instead, I find myself moving toward the study door. My fingertips brush the ornate handle, the chilly metal sending shivers up my arm.

I need to tell him about the maze, about how I shattered the darkness. Need to understand what’s happening to me, what these powers mean.

But the memory of Vazor’s words stops me cold.

They suspect someone with royal blood was tracked leaving Earth. They’re fairly certain she has powers beginning to manifest.

My hand falls away from the door.

No. I can’t trust Ivrael. Not with this. Not when I still don’t know his true plans for us.

I have to get back to Izzy. Have to tell her about the hunters.

Have to figure out how to escape before they find us. I turn and hurry back the way I came.

But then a floorboard creaks behind me as I head toward the main staircase.

I freeze, every muscle going taut. Another sound—footsteps, maybe?—echoes from further down the corridor.

They answer directly to—Vazor had said, before Ivrael cut him off. Who are these hunters? And who sent them?

More footsteps, closer now. The sound of voices murmuring, too low to make out words but definitely not the familiar tones of Ivrael’s servants.

My pulse pounds in my ears as I press myself against the wall, trying to breathe silently through my mouth. The voices are coming from the direction of the stairway.

Izzy.

Oh God. What if they’ve already found her?

But no—she’s still with the twins. Has to be.

Which means I need to stay away from our rooms, lead any pursuit away from where she might be.

I ease back toward the door that leads to the hidden servants’ staircase, wincing at every whisper of silk against stone. The voices grow louder, and now I catch fragments of words in a language I don’t recognize—harder and sharper than the Caix tongue Ivrael sometimes uses.

My fingers find the door handle, ice-cold against my palm. I turn it slowly, terrified the mechanism will squeal and give me away.

It opens silently—thank God for Caix precision—and I slip down the back servants’ stairs.

I spent a year in Starfrost Manor, learning to move through it silently. No intruders could possibly find their way around as well as I can.

But I have to stay away from the kitchen, too, or risk putting Adefina and Kila in danger.

I make it all the way to the bottom of the stairs and move outside.

The midnight air hits my face like a slap, and I have to bite back a gasp at the shock of cold.

Where can I go? The stables are too far. The kitchen entrance will be locked at this hour. And the gardens offer no real cover.

A shadow moves at the corner of my vision. Then another.

I slip away, moving from one dark patch to another, hoping they can’t see me.

They’re between me and the manor now. At least three dark figures, moving with predatory grace across the snow.

My breath catches in my throat as one of them turns toward me. Even at this distance, I can see their eyes gleam with an unnatural light.

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