A Shade of Vampire 24: A Bridge of Stars by Bella Forrest

The next thing I knew, she’d wrapped her legs around Cyrus' waist and plunged her dagger right through his throat.
    He choked, blood spurting everywhere. Aisha’s sweaty face twisted with rage even as tears welled behind her eyes. “This is for my family.” She jerked the knife lower down his throat, creating a sickeningly wide gash and causing more blood to pool. “For my brothers.” She tore sideways. “My fathers.” She withdrew the knife and made a puncture in the side of his throat. “And my uncles.”
    My stomach lurched as, with a sharp pivot of the blade, she tore Cyrus’ head clean off.
    It all happened so fast, Horatio, Lucas and I just gaped.
    The mighty Cyrus Drizan. Dead. At the hands of Aisha.

Ben
    I t was Lucas who roused us to our senses. “We’ve got to leave,” he breathed. Both his and my flames had died down by now.
    “Wait!” I said, darting toward the pool. “Nuriya!”
    “She’s all right,” Horatio said behind me, his voice shaky. “I-I took her out of there when m-my father’s focus was on you.”
    Thank God . I couldn’t believe that she would have been alive in there after all this time.
    We rushed to the exit and up the stairwell, arriving back in Cyrus’ bedroom.
    “What happened?” I asked, looking around the empty apartment.
    “We arrived as planned,” Aisha said, her chest heaving, eyes still gleaming with menace. “We couldn’t have picked a better night than the night of a royal wedding. Everyone’s blind drunk, even the guards. We hardly even needed the dragons to cause a distraction.”
    “Who else came?” I asked anxiously.
    “Everyone,” Aisha replied. “Though only Lucas, the dragons and I came down to the palace. The rest are waiting up in the desert for us.”
    Good.
    “And where’s Nuriya?” I asked.
    Horatio led us to a cupboard near the exit to Cyrus’ apartment. When he drew it open, Nuriya lay there curled up in a ball. She was trembling, but thankfully conscious. Her face, covered in burns, lit up a little when she saw me and she even cracked a brief smile.
    “I knew you’d come for me,” she said to me.
    Horatio picked her up, and then we all hurried away from the apartment.
    “Now what?” I asked.
    “Now the bond should, uh”—Horatio’s voice cracked. He swallowed hard—“definitely be removed.” I wondered if there was a part of him that grieved his father’s death. Mostly he seemed to be in a state of shock.
    “Which means we have to free the rest,” I said.
    “We already gathered them in anticipation of you killing Cyrus,” Aisha said. “They’re waiting as close to the exit as possible—in one of the entrance halls the dragons didn’t scorch yet. At least… we gathered as many as we could.” Aisha’s tone dropped, then she choked up. “H-he killed…” She gulped. “He killed every man in our family.”
    Damn . I couldn’t blame Aisha for charging at Cyrus the way she had.
    She regained composure, clenching her thick jaw as she vanished us to the desert.
    Indeed, a crowd was waiting there. My family, River and also a group of female jinn. It warmed me to see Safi among them. Thank God we got them out of that mess.
    River leapt at me as I approached. I wrapped my arms around her waist and kissed her neck, breathing in her familiar scent.
    “Are you all right?” my mother asked, as my parents and sister hurried to me.
    “All right.” I nodded. “Where are the dra—”
    “It’s not safe to stay here longer.” I spun to see Jeriad approaching us at a run, our other dragon companions close behind him. “We must leave. Now.”
    I couldn’t have agreed more.
    We returned to the islet in Lake Nasser, and for the first time in hours, I was able to catch a breath. I dove into the lake, taking River with me. Dipping under with her, I relished the cool water against my skin.
    The freed Nasiris remained speechless, shaken and traumatized by their time in the Drizans’ palace. I wasn’t sure what