Page 119 of The Alien's Vicious Starflash Manor

“But if I have to choose between that and you,” he continues, “I choose you.”

A shudder runs through me, and I search his face for any sign of hesitation. But as I look into Ivrael’s eyes, I see something else.

Hope.

Everything I’ve believed about him, everything I’ve thought I understood, teeters on the edge of some great chasm, and my head spins with it.

He grips my hand tightly. “I never thought I could feel this way about someone. But now that I have you, I can't imagine a life without you.”

A surge of warmth rushes through me at his words, and our fingers intertwine as if they’re made for each other.

I just hope he means what he says.

I don’t know if Izzy and I can survive this place if he doesn’t.

CHAPTER 31

IVRAEL

I’m still lost in the afterglow of Lara’s touch, my skin humming where her warmth branded me, when the voices reach me.

They slice through my pleasure-hazed mind—harsh, determined voices that don’t belong in my maze. My body tenses, every muscle coiling tight as instincts I didn’t realize I possessed roar to life.

Protect. Defend.

Kill if necessary.

“I don’t think those voices are real,” Lara says, her voice still languid, her body relaxed. “I think the maze amplifies whatever you’re worried about.”

“Oh, these are real. Not the usual magical whispers meant to unsettle visitors—though I don’t doubt you heard those earlier, too.”

“Oh, my God. They are?” She shakes her head, closing her eyes for a moment and swallowing hard. “I swear, this is the most fucked up, terrifying place.”

“Stay behind me,” I whisper, but she’s already moving, pressing herself against the icy wall.

Her golden-red curls catch the light filtering through the crystalline maze walls. And her eyes—Goddess, her eyes are wide with a fear I haven’t seen since that first day in the Trasqo Market.

The sight sends a molten rage coursing through my veins.

My fingers curl into fists, nails biting into my palms. Frost crackles beneath my skin, spiraling inward and out in patterns I can’t control. The magic writhes inside me, different somehow—wilder, more primitive than anything I’ve felt before.

“The girl has to be in here somewhere.” The hunter’s voice bounces off the walls, the words distorted yet unmistakable. “The duke can’t hide her forever.”

Hide her?

The presumption sends another wave of that strange, burning rage through me. As if Lara is something to be hidden away, as if she belongs to anyone but me.

Mine.

Fury rises in my chest—a howling winter storm, a maelstrom of razor-sharp ice crystals that threatens to tear me apart from within. When it hits the rage, violence billows inside me like steam.

The temperature around us plummets. I should moderate my power, protect her from this bone-deep cold, but I can’t seem to rein it in.

Not now. Not with these threats so close to what’s mine.

My blood feels strange, alternating between burning hot and freezing cold, as if two natures war within me. The sensation is familiar from my recent power fluctuations, but stronger now, almost overwhelming.

“Found fresh tracks.” Another voice, closer this time. “She passed through here recently.”

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