Page 74 of The Alien's Vicious Starflash Manor

Lucilline is already back, carefully unpacking our new dresses and hanging them up in the armoire, exclaiming over each of them.

She takes out a pale pink dress meant for Izzy, who wrinkles her nose at the delicate color. “I hate pink.”

“But you look beautiful in it,” I say, which earns me a snarl. She finally gives me more than a passing glance. “Why are you wearing your old clothes?”

I glance down at myself as if the change of clothes doesn’t matter. “Ivrael stepped on my dress during our dance lesson. It ripped. Lucilline sent it to be repaired.”

“Really?” Izzy’s gaze turns considering as she examines the excuse with that analytical gaze that sees far too much, and I silently pray she won’t pierce through this lie.

“Yep. Ripped easier than I expected, so be careful. That shit’s fragile.” I turn my back on my sister under the cover of examining the dresses. I don’t want her to see the way my cheeks flush.

A knock at our door surprises us all, and Lucilline rushes over to answer. I’m grateful for the distraction. Ivrael never bothers to knock, so I follow her into our small receiving room to see who has come to visit.

“Ooh. This is lovely.” Adefina strides into our sitting room carrying a tray laden with an evening snack and gazes about with interest. “I do believe you’ve moved up in His Lordship’s estimation.”

“I think you’re right,” Kila trills out as she flits in behind the cook.

I snort, wanting to tell them all the ways I know they’re wrong. Ivrael wants me and Izzy because we could help with his plot. My willingness to allow him to do terrible things to me is just a bonus.

“I’ve brought you tea,” Adefina announces unnecessarily, plonking the tray down on a small table and setting out cups, saucers, and plates of bread and cookies. “Best cure for a headache.”

“Thank you,” Izzy says. “I’m feeling better already. I’m sure the tea will help, too.”

Kila’s wings catch the light as she flutters near my ribbons, and I wonder if she sees what I’m desperately trying to hide—the way they pulse in time with my racing heart. She lands on my shoulder, her tiny hand patting my neck.

Adefina pours the tea with practiced ease, but the look she gives me as she hands me my cup makes me wonder if anyone besides Lucilline saw me in the ruined dress, if the kitchen gossip has already started—and more than that, just how many of Starfrost Manor’s secrets Adefina holds.

I reach out and take one of the still-warm cookies, its scent a reminder of the kitchen’s safety that I’ve traded for silk gowns and dangerous games. Just a week ago, I never would have thought I could miss the kitchen.

But the warmth of the kitchen feels like a distant dream now, replaced by the dangerous heat of golden sparks in ice-blue eyes. None of the comfort my friends bring can reach the cold place inside where I've buried all my new truths, all my dangerous wants.

As she hands me my tea, Adefina glances at me again, and I wonder if she sees the marks Ivrael’s ice left beneath my skin,sees my destruction being written in frost across the walls of this silken prison.

Heat from the teacup seeps into my bones, but it can't thaw the memories of his touch or the frost patterns he left on my soul.

I’m beginning to fear his mark on me is indelible, seared into me with his burning cold.

And even if Izzy and I manage to make it back home, I will never truly escape him.

CHAPTER 20

IVRAEL

Icannot bring myself to see Lara again.

Not yet. I can’t trust myself around her, and I can’t risk the magical consequences.

Even if my own desire for her didn’t undermine my control, the approach of the double full moon would.

The magical shifts they bring with them pulse beneath my skin like an unwelcome tide, each wave of celestial power drawing closer, tightening around my chest until breathing feels like drowning.

I can track the double full moon’s inexorable advance in the way my own magic waxes and wanes, how frost forms unbidden beneath my feet with each surge of anxiety. The moons’ combined gravity pulls at something deep within me, threatening to expose everything I’ve fought to keep hidden.

The morning after the latest debacle in the gallery, I wake to find ice crystals scattered across my chambers, delicate fractals that speak of my failing control. The pressure builds in my blood, in my bones, a constant reminder that time runs short.

Six days.

No amount of careful planning can halt the moons’ approach, their combined light ready to strip away every careful facade I’ve constructed. Soon, all my careful plans will be tested against forces I can’t control, powers woven into the very fabric of our world.

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