Page 25 of The Alien's Vicious Starflash Manor

“Why are we at the pole?” Izzy asks through chattering teeth.

He gestures at his ship. “Technology and magic don’t mix well on Trasq. The poles are the only safe places to dock.”

There’s something in his tone—a bitterness, maybe, or frustration—that makes me look at him more closely. His jawis tight, and those golden sparks are dancing through his eyes again.

I think about Cyan, his AI, safely hidden away in the ship. About all the other secrets he keeps. About how much of what he’s told us might be lies.

A gust of wind whips across the landing pad, carrying ice crystals that sting like tiny needles against my skin. Izzy presses against my side, seeking warmth, and I wrap an arm around her shoulders. She feels so small, so fragile. How am I supposed to protect her when I couldn’t even protect myself?

“Come,” Ivrael says, and there’s that tone again, the one that makes my body want to obey even as my mind rebels. “The sooner we reach the manor, the sooner you can warm up.”

He starts walking toward the gate that shimmers like a mirage in the distance. The two footmen fall into step behind us, their boots crunching on the ice. I note their positions, calculating possible escape routes out of habit, even though I know it’s useless. There’s nowhere to run on this frozen world.

“I don’t understand any of this,” Izzy whispers against my shoulder as we follow Ivrael across the landing pad. “Why us? Why here?”

I squeeze her shoulders, wishing I could tell her everything. About Ivrael’s plans, about the royal blood that apparently runs in our veins, about all the ways this beautiful, terrible world will try to destroy us.

But I can’t. Not yet. Not until I figure out how to save us both.

“Like I told you, he’s an ice lord,” I say instead, watching Ivrael’s back as he walks ahead of us, his golden hair catching the moonlight.

“Like I know what that means.”

“Yeah,” I mutter.

Things are only going to get worse from here.

I don’t say that out loud, either. I’m too busy thinking that Ivrael might not realize it, but him bringing my sister with us made me less willing to follow his orders, not more.

He’s made me twice as determined to escape the Icecaix lands.

As soon as we’re all on the ground, Ivrael flicks a gesture back at the spaceship, and it disappears. Izzy gapes back at where it presumably still sits—or hell, maybe it’s really gone, for all I know.

A year in, and I still don’t know all of what these aliens can do.

“What now?” my sister asks.

“We go through that.” I point at the giant white wrought-iron gate—the one that can’t possibly be iron. “And then we get on magic flying ice horses.”

“Not really.”

I heave a heavy sigh. “Oh, yes. Really.”

I can’t take my eyes off Izzy as Ivrael leads us toward the massive gate. My sister looks so small between Khrint and Tenyt, the two Icecaix footmen flanking her like sentinels.

The bitter wind whips her hair around her face, and she keeps reaching up to tuck the wayward strands behind her ears with trembling fingers.

I want to go to her, to wrap her in my arms and protect her from everything that’s about to happen. But I know better now. There’s no protection from Ivrael’s plans—only survival.

“What’s his name?” Izzy asks, nodding toward the duke.

“Ivrael,” I say, just as Khrint says, “You may call him ‘Your Lordship’.”

I snort. “Yeah. He prefers that.”

In the end, she doesn’t call him anything, simply calling out, “Where are we going?”

Ivrael’s jaw tightens almost imperceptibly.

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