Page 132 of The Alien's Vicious Starflash Manor

Kila hisses softly as the lady glides away.

And as we prepare to head upstairs, I press my fingers to my lips and wonder what exactly we’ve just agreed to.

“Idon’t trust him,” Izzy says as soon as we are back in our suite alone.

“Wait. What? You mean Ivrael?” I stare at her blankly “Didn’t you just agree to help him?”

“Yeah. Don’t get me wrong—I still think we need to keep the creepy prince from freezing kids.” She tilts her head and looks thoughtful for a moment, tapping her cheek with her forefinger. “Though come to think of it, freezing some of our old high school classmates might’ve been kind of fun to watch.”

“Stay on topic, Iz,” I say.

“Right. It’s just…if that was the deal all along, if he really always just wanted to save the world—then why didn’t he just tell us that from the beginning? Why go through all the weirdness of buying us from Roland, keeping you locked away as a servant for a year?” Her voice turns intent as she continues. “No. There’s definitely something fucked up going on here. I just can’t figure out what it is.”

“Maybe he’s been alone in this for so long he’s afraid to open up?” I suggest.

“Yeah, right,” Izzy says “Not a chance. I mean, I might believe what he’s told us—as far as it goes. But he’s definitely not telling us everything.”

I think about what Adefina once said to me about Ivrael being better than I gave him credit for.

Was she right?

Or is Izzy?

He seemed distraught enough by the story of those kids—definitely more upset than I’ve ever seen him before.

And yet, Izzy has a point. The things Ivrael chose to do—buy us from our stepfather, bind me to him with magic ribbons around my wrists, force me to work for him for a year—none of those things are the actions of a man who is being perfectly honest and transparent.

“So what do you think we should do?” I ask.

“If he’s telling the truth, what he has planned for tomorrow at the peace summit is going to be huge. If it works, he’ll be busy taking over the kingdom afterwards.”

“And if it doesn’t work?”

“Then he’ll be busy being punished by the kingdom,” Izzy finishes. “In either case, he’ll be too busy to pay any attention to us.”

“Are you saying we should run?” I shake my head. “I don’t know if we’ll be able to get home from here.”

“I’m saying that I think we should take that opportunity to find a firelord who isn’t conspiring with Ivrael and see if they’ll give us asylum… just like we originally planned.”

I give her a skeptical look. “You have a particular firelord in mind?”

“Not…really.” My sister blushes a shade of red I’ve rarely seen on her before. “I like the twins.”

“Right. Thetwins.”

She rolls her eyes. “Okay, fine. I like Rhaela. But I don’t trust their father. So I think we should see who else might be open to helping us get back home.”

By the time we head downstairs for our last miserable attempt at a court-style dinner, I’ve agreed to try Izzy’s plan.

And I’m certain before my time in the Ice Court is done, I’ll betray one of them, Izzy or Ivrael.

I’m just not sure which one.

CHAPTER 35

LARA

As we prepare to depart for the Ice Court the next morning, Madame Evangeny steps back to admire us.

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