Page 31 of The Alien’s Cruel Starfrost Domain (Empire of Frost and Flame #1)

CHAPTER 31

IVRAEL

A pulse of magic cuts through the night, so strong it makes my teeth ache, and I take a second step backward.

Lara’s skin seems to glow from within, iridescent with newly awakened power. The ancient blood finally stirring in her veins.

She’s magnificent like this, raw power made flesh, everything I hoped she would become. Everything I need her to be, for what comes next.

And furious.

Her eyes swirl with her power, silver-white sparks leaping and dancing in her topaz irises, and the magic inside her calls to something in my blood, something ancient and hungry.

I think she might not even realize that she holds the power.

And I want her more than I ever have before, despite what I have to do.

It’s not what I intended—not initially. When I set out to buy Lara Evans, I wanted more than anything to save my people, my land, my domain .

To save my entire planet.

I’d been glad that was going to require only the sacrifice of two young women. Just two. That’s all.

I have become a monster. Assuming, of course, I wasn’t one all along.

“Let me make sure I have this straight. This was all a test,” she says as she takes a step forward, and the air around her shimmers. “You orchestrated everything just to see if I would survive? To see if I was worthy of whatever sick game you’re playing?”

“Lara—” I begin, but she cuts me off.

“Don’t.” The word cracks like breaking ice. “I should have known. I should have realized when I overheard you plotting with the firelords.”

I half expect Lara to back down, to retreat as she has so many times before. Instead, something dark and ancient flashes in her eyes. The air around her crackles with power. “Tell me, Ivrael. Tell me why you needed to buy a—a what? A bride?—with royal blood.”

Not a bride , I think. A sacrifice .

But I don’t say it aloud.

Uanna’s smile falters. “What are you talking about?”

“Ask him.” Lara’s gaze meets mine, and I see the moment understanding fully dawns. “Ask him why he’s so desperate to get both my sister and me. Ask him what he plans to do with our blood—our heritage.”

“Lara, please.” I take a step toward her, but power ripples out from her in a wave that stops me cold. “Let me explain.”

“Explain what? Why so many people had to die tonight just so you could test your theory about my bloodline?” Her voice breaks. “How many more will die before you’re satisfied you have your answer?”

“As many as necessary to save my world.” The words emerge before I can stop them, harsh with truth I’ve tried to hide. “You don’t understand what’s at stake?—”

“I understand perfectly.” The glow beneath her skin intensifies, and for a moment I glimpse what she could become—what she was always meant to be. “Uanna’s right. You are a monster. And I was a fool to ever think you could be anything else.”

She turns away, and part of me wants to go after her, to explain everything—about the failing magic, about her true heritage, about all the plans I’ve made to save everything we hold dear.

But I see the way power flows around her now, awakened and angry. Perhaps this, too, is necessary. Perhaps her hatred will fuel the transformation she must undergo.

“Well.” Uanna’s voice drips with false sympathy. “That was certainly dramatic. Now, about our arrangement?—”

“There is no arrangement.” I turn to her, letting my own power frost the air between us. “There is only what must be done. Choose your side carefully, Lady Uanna. The game is changing.”

She studies me for a long moment before nodding slowly. “So it is. I look forward to seeing how you play it.” She glances toward where Lara disappeared. “Though I suspect your new queen may prove more difficult to control than you anticipated.”

I don’t bother to respond. Let her think what she will. Let them all think what they will.

The only thing that matters is that Lara’s power has finally awakened. Everything else—the deaths, the destruction, the hatred she now feels for me—is simply the price that must be paid.

I turn back to watch my manor burn, already calculating the next move in this deadly game. Tomorrow I will retrieve her sister. Then nothing will be able to stop what I’ve set in motion.

Not even Lara’s hatred.

Especially not my own heart.

Too bad she’ll have to die for any of this to work. Assuming, of course, she doesn’t kill me first.

If only there were another way.

Unless...

No. I can’t afford to think that way. Her awakening changes everything—and nothing at all.

I should have known better than to let myself feel anything for her .

I’ve never wanted to be wrong about something so badly in my life.

After all, the old magic requires blood—and the crown will demand its sacrifice, one way or another.

T he cold, gray pre-dawn finds what remains of my staff sifting through the ashes of what has been my home for my entire life as I finally admit to myself that saving the world is going to entail sacrificing more than simply two Earth girls. Trasq’s salvation is going to require more destruction than I ever anticipated.

It’s going to require me to destroy what’s left of my soul.

And I am, I also finally admit to myself, willing to allow that to happen.

I accept that I must become cold and hard, the heartless duke I have been pretending to be all this time. As cruel as the domain I rule—and the kingdom I plan to take over.

I walk past one of the housemaids sitting in the snow, sobbing, her knees drawn up to her chest, arms wrapped around her legs with her face buried, forehead resting against her wrists. The warmer part of my nature urges me to stop and console her. But I refuse to give that part of me free rein. Not until I have reached my goal.

I repress a harsh laugh because I’m beginning to realize that by the time I am able to let that side of myself out again, there’s a good chance it won’t exist anymore at all.

Whatever my people might think of me if they knew all my secrets, it’s nothing compared to this truth.

I have plotted with my kingdom’s enemies—but in doing so, have I become even worse than the thing I hope to save my people from?

Shaking my head, I move across the trampled courtyard, the snow and ice crunching under my boots, providing a counterpoint to the scent of smoke and charred flesh.

Khrint combs through what’s left of my ballroom, and I move to join him. My valet stares at me for a long moment, his gaze solemn.

It occurs to me to wonder if he had any ties within the household that I didn’t know about—ties, perhaps, to some of those who died in the firelord’s attacks. Those who died not by my hand, but at my command.

And for the first time, I realize I cannot take even my own people into my confidence.

Not fully.

Not any longer.

It will be a death by a thousand cuts, each lie slicing into who I was, carving me, chunk by bloody chunk, into what I must be now.

Into the monster I must become.

“The firelord who attacked,” Khrint begins. “He was—he came to the manor with Lord Vazor, did he not?”

“He did,” I acknowledge.

Khrint’s expression is troubled as he toes aside the charcoal remains of a wooden beam, revealing a blackened, cracked crystal pendeloque that once dangled from a ballroom chandelier. “Did Lord Vazor have anything to do with last night’s attack?”

“I don’t know,” I say, cutting off another piece of my conscience as I do so.

“Did you ?” His voice is low, as serious as his expression. “How much of this is your doing, Your Lordship?” Khrint gestures at the burned-out husk of the manor, his mouth twisting. He finally pulls his gaze upward, searching my face.

“None.” I pause, then add, “I think it might have been Prince Jonyk’s plan all along,” I say, setting in motion the rumors I want to have spreading through the land.

Khrint nods thoughtfully. “That would explain why he and lady Qarine were not here.”

“It would, indeed,” I agree before changing the subject. “We’re leaving for Earth this afternoon. Begin preparing everything we will need. I want to take one other footman—you choose. That part should be easy.”

But then I give him the rest of his instructions, and his face grows even more serious. “Of course, Your Lordship.”

He might not know my plan, but he’s been around long enough to have picked up on some of what I’ve been planning .

“Be ready to go in two quintclicks.”

I leave Khrint to prepare for our departure.

As I walk away from the valet, I catch sight of Lara, her arms wrapped around her middle as if holding herself together. The power she’d shown earlier is no longer visible, but I have to trust it’s still there. She’s still wearing her own clothing, the frayed sweater and ash-stained blue jeans from Earth.

She no longer looks like she belongs to me.

While my other servants—my true servants—might be mourning, wondering if there’s any chance I was involved in decimating Prince Jonyk’s court by having my own home immolated, Lara gives me a hard stare as if to remind me she knows I’m behind it. I hold her gaze for a long, tense moment, until finally she gives in and glances away.

I find myself watching Lara as she turns away from me, and I realize I can’t continue as I am. Even my desire for her must be cut away. Or at least suppressed, since I am certain that’s the one part of me that cannot be removed—not until I enter the Eternal Dream.

Because I’m beginning to believe that even her death won’t be enough to make me stop wishing I could have her—not until I blow away into dust will that desire diminish. And even then, I will remain a part of this planet, taking into it my need for her, saturating it with an ache to possess her, until it seeps into the bones of the planet itself, permeating it with a need that can never be fulfilled.

I shake off my fanciful imaginings and turn to head back into that part of the manor that remains undamaged.

I arrange for workers from the village to come and clear away the burned remains of the ballroom. Once that’s done, I send out messages to the carpenters and handymen who regularly perform necessary maintenance on the manor in order to let them know what will need to be done to repair my home.

Then I tour the damage myself. Smoke and ash fill my lungs as I stand in the ruined ballroom, memories of last night’s destruction still burning behind my eyes.

I can still see the shorter male Icecaix who’d dared to touch Lara, his bulbous eyes widening in terror as the firelord thundered toward him. His death was too quick—crushed beneath scaled claws—but at least I had the satisfaction of watching him fall. His companion hadn’t fared much better, her transparent gown offering no protection as she burned.

As I prepare for the journey to Earth, my mind keeps straying to Lara.

No more signs of her true nature emerging. Perhaps having her sister nearby will change that. Once they’re together, maybe then their powers will finally fully manifest.

They have to. Everything depends on it.

Hybrids.

There were probably more of them than anyone knew—after all, we’d been traveling to Earth, one of the few other inhabited planets that we knew of, for millennia of their years. But we didn’t know where any of the others were.

At least, none like these two.

“Your Lordship?” Khrint’s voice pulls me from my thoughts. “The travel arrangements are complete.”

“Good,” I murmur.

Soon we’ll return to Earth, to collect Izzy Evans. Then everything can proceed as planned.

Even if that means destroying the last remnants of my soul in the process.