Page 127 of The Alien's Vicious Starflash Manor

“Will you help me?” I ask again, my voice barely above a whisper.

She’s quiet for a long moment, studying first me and then the ground intently. Finally, she lifts her gaze to mine, and something in my chest constricts at the fire I see there. “Yes,” she says. “I’ll help you overthrow your prince.”

“Thank—”

“But,” she interrupts, “only if Izzy agrees. I won’t do this without her full consent.”

Relief floods through me, followed immediately by guilt at how much her conditional acceptance means. I incline my head, frost falling from my hair. “Of course. I would expect nothing less.”

“And if she says no?”

“Then we’ll find another way.”

“Okay. Good.”

Her words should bring only triumph. I’ve won her agreement, if only conditionally—the first crucial step in my plans. Instead, the relief flooding through me is tinged with a guilt so sharp it steals my breath.

“Lara,” I breathe, and for a heartbeat I consider telling her everything. About the crown. About her true heritage. About what the spell will require.

But then she shivers, and I realize how cold the maze has grown. Ice coats every surface, our breath clouding between us. Even her Icecaix blood can’t completely protect her from this level of cold.

I step back, letting my hands fall away from her. The loss of contact feels like tearing open a wound.

“We should return to the manor,” I say, my voice rougher than intended. “You’re freezing.”

“I’m fine.” But her arms wrap around herself, and I have to clench my fists against the urge to pull her close again, to warm her with my body even as my magic continues to leak cold into the air around us.

The ice maze shimmers around us, its walls catching and reflecting the light like the facets of a diamond. Like the fractured pieces of my own heart, trying to find a way to reconcile duty with desire.

Every surface shows us reflected back infinitely—the duke and his captive, the monster and his prey, the liar and the deceived.

I’ve gotten what I came for. Lara’s agreement to help.

The first step toward saving my world.

So why does victory taste so bitter on my tongue? Why does each beat of my heart feel like it’s pumping poison through my veins?

“Come,” I say, gesturing for her to precede me back through the maze. “Before you freeze entirely.”

She gives me a look I can’t quite interpret before starting down the path. I follow a step behind, watching how the remaining golden sparks from her magic dance in her wake, melting tiny spots in the frost I’ve left everywhere.

Fire and ice.

Life and death.

Truth and lies.

How many more paradoxes can I hold within myself before they tear me apart?

Ultimately, I decide, it doesn’t matter.

Let them rip me to shreds—as long as I can find a way to save her from the destiny heading toward us in a collision course I charted the moment I bought her.

CHAPTER 34

LARA

The walk back to Starfrost Manor feels endless, my legs shaky from everything that’s happened.

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