A Bridge of Stars

by Bella Forrest

  To have found somebody who did not worship the ground that Cyrus walked on was more than intriguing. Horatio had just become far more interesting than any meeting Cyrus might have been about to call in his court.

  We hurried after Horatio as he rushed along winding corridors and then through the doorway of an apartment not far from Cyrus'.

  “Mother!” Horatio called, his voice booming through the apartment.

  “Horatio?” A female voice drifted from one of the rooms. Horatio turned into a sitting room, where his mother—a beautiful ebony-skinned woman—was seated on a sofa with a servant behind her, brushing her silky black hair with a bejeweled comb.

  Her honeycomb eyes widened with concern as her son stormed toward her. His chest heaving, he took a deep breath. “It’s true what they’re saying. He will wed Nuriya.”

  Although the news clearly came as a blow to his mother, she did not appear surprised by it.

  “What are you going to do?” Horatio asked.

  She furrowed her brows. “What do you mean?”

  “Are you just going to stand by and say nothing? Father’s gone back on his word.”

  The woman smiled affectionately at her son. Reaching out, she took his hand and held it in hers.

  “Darling, we cannot expect that promises will remain unbroken forever.” She said the words firmly, as though she was speaking partly to comfort herself about the situation rather than solely for her son’s sake. “He carries the destiny of our tribe on his shoulders. Remember that Nuriya was meant to wed Cyrus. Now that he’s found her again, his plans to wed her shouldn’t come as any surprise. You know the value that she could bring him… that she could bring all of us. The marriage can only strengthen our clan, and that’s what we all want, isn’t it?”

  Fire leapt in Horatio’s eyes. “No,” he said in a low voice. “That’s not what I want.”

  His mother’s eyes widened. “What are you saying?”

  “I said that’s not what I want!” he shouted. He brought his fist slamming down against a crystal side table, causing it to shatter.

  “Y-you’re letting your bias toward the Nasiris blind you, my darling,” his mother said. “You never said such things before their arrival. Of course it’s only natural you have an attachment to the clan you spent much of your childhood with… but your father has the greater picture in mind.”

  “A greater picture I want no part of!” Horatio hissed.

  With that, he turned on his heel and shot out of the room, leaving his mother shell-shocked.

  Lucas and I hurried after the jinni, my interest in him now increased tenfold. He made his way up through the palace until he reached the medallion exit. Pushing it open, he burst out into the desert, his chest still heaving, agitation marring his features.

  I wasn’t sure where he was planning to go as he went hurtling in the opposite direction, toward the shore. Perhaps merely to blow off some steam. He stopped at the water’s edge, arms wrapping around his chest, and gazed out over the sparkling waves.

  I looked around to check that nobody had followed him—half expecting his mother to come after him—but no. He was quite alone. We were quite alone…

  Acutely aware of our escaping time, I didn’t stop to consider the consequences of the idea that had just flitted into my brain. I solidified myself behind Horatio and spoke his name.

  He whirled around to face me, almost jumping out of his skin.

  “What—”

  Before he could finish his question, I said, “I’m Aisha’s friend.”

  He was speechless as he gaped at me and then at Lucas, who followed my cue and solidified himself beside me.

  “Who are you, and what are you doing here?”

  “My name isn’t important,” I said. “For I am here on the bidding of Aisha Nasiri. She awaits at the other end of the portal, miles north from here. She wishes to speak with you.”

  His frown grew more severe, although I couldn’t miss the flash of anticipation in his eyes. “What about? I-I banished her…. Why would she want to speak with me?”

  “I’m afraid I do not know,” I said, bowing low. “We are only messengers. Will you come with us to see her ladyship?”

  Horatio stumbled for words for several moments, narrowing his eyes on us and running a hand through his hair. Finally he shrugged and said, “A-all right. Take me to her.”

  Clearly his affection for her was—or had been—as strong as I’d hoped for him to agree to come with two strange fae, on the promise of meeting her on the other side of a portal.

  But I hadn’t expected him to agree quite so easily. And now, as Lucas and I sped with Horatio toward the portal, I found myself wondering what the hell I’d just done.

  Ben

  My gut was churning as we passed through the gate. My first instinct was to take him to Aisha, because she had a history with him. He had helped her before—albeit against her will—and if anybody had a chance of obtaining information from him, it was her, certainly not me or Lucas. Especially while he was in a mood over his father.

  I’d entered the portal first, hoping to have at least a few seconds to warn Aisha of his arrival and what I had just gotten her into. On the other end, I flew out to find everyone sitting among the rocks, looking tense. The dragons had spread their wings to protect the vampires from the sun.

  “Horatio,” I hissed, barely even having the time to register River beneath Jeriad’s wing, my eyes shooting to Aisha. “He is coming, and—”

  I didn’t have time to speak another word as he and Lucas darted out of the tunnel.

  Horatio straightened and gazed around at our group. As he found Aisha, his deep green eyes softened a touch.

  I winced at how shocked Aisha looked. She rose from her resting place beneath a tree, gaping. I hadn’t had a chance to even explain to her what I had said. I just had to pray that things worked out for the best.

  Horatio moved cautiously toward her. “You… uh, wanted me?” he asked.

  Aisha’s eyes darted to me. I widened my eyes and mouthed “Say yes!”

  “Yes,” Aisha said, reverting her attention to Horatio. The most unconvincing “yes” that was ever spoken.

  Horatio raised a brow, looking around again at our group, before fixing on the dragons. “Why are you with these people?”

  Aisha cleared her throat to buy herself some time. “I, uh…” My gut clenched as there was a pause. Then she found her line. “I need my family back,” she said, her voice suddenly strained. And I could see from the tears lining her eyes that this was no act.

  Horatio ran a hand through his dark curls, rolling his eyes in exasperation. “I already told you. Your family is in my father’s clutches. You need to move on.”

  “I’d rather die than live without them,” she said, her tone bolder this time. “If you won’t help me, then at least allow me to try.” She planted her hands on her hips, her teary eyes hardening. A frown formed on her pixie-like face. “It’s my life. Who are you to decide what I can and cannot do? Remove the ban from me and let me try at least.”

  “You’re insane!” he said, raising his hands in exasperation. “You’re young. You still have things to live for. You’ll be better off anywhere than back in The Dunes.”

  “That’s for me to decide,” she said, teeth gritted. “I want to see my family again.”

  Horatio pursed his lips, his jaw tightening. Agitation marred his chiseled features, and even a touch of disappointment. “So… So that’s all you wanted to see me about. Your family.”

  “Yes,” she replied, her gaze steely. “I want to go to them. The Dunes are just as much my home as yours. Being a Drizan doesn’t make you God, you know.”

  A muscle twitched in Horatio’s face and blood rose to his cheeks, as though she’d just slapped him. “I never claimed to be,” he murmured. “I was just… trying to protect you.”

  Aisha’s glare didn’t relent, and I almost felt in that moment that she was being too harsh on him. He clearly
liked her a lot, and I did believe him when he said he’d banished her for her own good.

  I also found myself wondering just how he was so much stronger than Aisha that he could banish her from her own realm. Perhaps the Drizans were simply a superior race to the Nasiris in terms of magical prowess.

  “All right,” Horatio breathed, deflated. Aisha’s glare had worn him down. “I’ll let you back in but… what exactly do you plan to do? Surely you don’t intend to just barge into our palace.”

  “I need to find a way to free my family,” she said. As Horatio began to respond—most likely to repeat his statement that it was not possible—Aisha held up a hand and cut him off. “I don’t care what you say. I don’t believe there’s no way to get them out.”

  Horatio scoffed. “You’ve no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “And you’re a coward!”

  Ouch.

  A deathly silence descended upon the islet, Horatio looking as though he’d just been whacked in the gut.

  Aisha—unrelenting as an angered bull—charged forward until she was barely two feet away from Horatio. Although she was half his height, her eyes appeared fiery enough to burn holes through Horatio’s. “You don’t agree with the things that your father’s doing. I know it. Yet you’ve let yourself become… this.” With two flicks of her hand, she gestured up and down Horatio’s imposing form, looking him over with great disdain. “You’re no longer anything like my old friend. You’ve just become your father’s shadow.” She paused, her nostrils flaring, then for good measure, added, “Your father’s pawn.” With that she folded her arms over her chest and pursed her lips, her brows knotting in a frown.

  Good luck to the man who winds up with this jinni…

  Horatio’s fists clenched into balls. His breathing became labored, his face so wounded and insulted, his pain was almost tangible.

  Aisha’s words had hit a raw nerve. Perhaps he realized that he had been a coward. For not standing up to his father, or at least leaving his father’s palace. No matter how much he complained to his mother or raged in front of his father, by staying in the palace and being an onlooker, he was essentially a part of his father’s atrocities.

  The hurt in Horatio’s eyes gave way to resentment. His face darkened in a scowl.

  “Even if you’re right,” he breathed, “it doesn’t change anything.”

  “Why not?” Aisha shot back. Her tone hadn’t gotten any less severe.

  “I cannot go against my father,” he said. “My siblings and I only have so much sway. The only thing I could conceivably do is leave, but… he would find me. You do not know me, Aisha—”

  “Clearly not,” she interjected.

  “I have considered these things many times over.”

  “Then why didn’t you attempt any of them?”

  “Because it would kill me,” he said. “I know my father better than anyone. His leniency, even with his children, only stretches so far and… escaping… my sister Yalisha already tried it.”

  Recognition sparked in Aisha’s eyes. “Yalisha?” she said in a hushed tone. Another childhood friend of hers, I supposed.

  Horatio swallowed hard. “He killed her for it.”

  Whoa.

  That silenced the girl.

  “We are the children of royalty. Escape would bring humiliation to my father; for how is a king who cannot command obedience from his children ever to be respected by his citizens?”

  Aisha found her voice again. “Well… if you don’t escape, at least you could help us. I know you don’t want my family trapped in there. You don’t even have to do anything. Just throw me a bone. Your father would never know.”

  Horatio swallowed hard. Aisha, suddenly gentle—timid, even—reached out a hand and touched his arm. Horatio’s cheeks flushed.

  “Is it true that the only way to my family’s freedom… and yours… is to kill your father?” she asked quietly.

  Horatio frowned. “Who told you that?”

  Aisha cast a furtive look my way before shrugging. “It’s a logical assumption,” she replied, to my relief. I didn’t know how Horatio would react if he knew Lucas and I had been creeping around his home spying.

  “Your relatives are bonded to my father, but… I don’t think killing him is the only way to free them,” he said, running his tongue over his lower lip. “But if I ever revealed it to you… his secret… he would not hesitate to murder me with his bare hands.”

  “I would not want to put you in danger,” Aisha said. “But how would he ever know that you told us?”

  “Because there are only very few who know. I found out quite by accident. If you acted on the information that I gave you, it wouldn’t take him long to suspect me.”

  Aisha withdrew her hand from his arm, crestfallen.

  Horatio, on the other hand, looked conflicted, in spite of his words—as though he were fighting a battle within himself.

  He heaved a sigh. “But,” he went on, “perhaps I’ve been a coward long enough.” He cleared his throat, gazing down at Aisha. “Maybe… Maybe you’re right. Maybe it’s time for me to take a stand… regardless of the consequences. If I don’t do it now, when will I ever?”

  Aisha’s eyes brightened. “So you’ll tell us? What this mysterious weakness is?”

  Thoughtfully, he shook his head. “Rather than telling you, I think it’s best that you see it for yourselves…”

  Ben

  “I think it’s best that you see it for yourselves…”

  I was burning to ask what “it” meant. But I would have to be patient a little longer.

  In the end, not only did Aisha manage to persuade Horatio to lift her ban, he agreed to take us back down to the palace and show us what he was talking about. He said we should get the opportunity to see it today—in less than an hour—for Cyrus was due for his daily visit to one of Horatio’s stepmothers. I had no idea what we would witness, but I was just thanking my lucky stars that we finally appeared to be making some progress. Though if our “progress” continued at this slow pace, we were sure to miss our deadline. I had to hope that after this, every progression we made would be far swifter, otherwise all would be in vain. I didn’t want to consider the consequences.

  I took a moment to kiss River and let my family and the others wish me luck. There was hardly any point in them being here in the first place, but of course I understood why they remained. After having lost me for so long, they wanted to stay as close to me as possible.

  I decided that it was best for Lucas to stay behind this time, since Aisha and me accompanying Horatio was enough. The three of us left the islet and returned through the portal. Aisha breathed out in relief as she floated over the black dunes. As hostile as this environment was for her, it was her home after all. We zoomed across the sand and as we neared the palace entrance, Horatio called us to a stop. His eyes roamed Aisha. “You can’t come like this, obviously.”

  “What do you propose?”

  “Turn into something. Something small enough for me to carry in my pocket.”

  “I guess a mouse, again, would make sense,” she muttered.

  The next thing I knew, Aisha had vanished and on the ground beneath us was a small, brown mouse. Horatio stooped down and picked her up, placing her gently into his pocket. Then grimly, he turned to me.

  “It’s also time that you thin yourself. As you may know, jinn cannot see invisible fae just as fae cannot see invisible jinn. I will remain physical, of course, so just make sure not to lose sight of me.”

  I nodded.

  I thinned myself and followed Horatio across the final stretch of sand before the medallion entrance. He opened it and we drifted down the bejeweled staircase into the entrance hall adorned with diamond chandeliers. He began drawing us deeper into the palace, along a route that I’d passed a few times by now. He headed toward his mother’s apartment, stopping outside a door a dozen feet before it. Looking up and down the hallway to check that nobody was around, he pressed
his ear against the door. Then he murmured beneath his breath, “They’re both inside. I suggest you go now, in case he decides to leave early.”

  Aisha’s mouse head was peering out of Horatio’s pocket, as though she wanted to come too. But she would have to stay, safe in the folds of his robe.

  “Okay,” I breathed. “I’m going in.”

  I sank through the door and arrived outside the chamber from which emanated voices: those of Cyrus and a woman. Passing through this door too, I entered a lavish bedchamber. Another strikingly beautiful, tan-skinned jinni, her head bedecked with a tiara, her body sparkling with gems, sat on the edge of the four-poster bed while Cyrus stalked up and down the room. They were deep in conversation.

  “Can you really be sure that she will be the one?” the queen asked Cyrus.

  “I believe it from the very core of me,” Cyrus replied. He stopped his prowling and sat down next to her on the bed, slipping an arm around her small waist. “Besides, if not her, then who?”

  The queen shrugged. “I suppose, since there have been so many false starts along the way, I find it hard to have faith anymore.”

  Cyrus' large hand reached up to her face and stroked her forehead, moving up into the roots of her hair. “Yes, there have been,” he replied softly. “And it is regrettable. If I’d had Nuriya from the start, I’m sure none of their lives would’ve been lost.”

  Whose lives?

  “Even if my gut feeling turns out to be inaccurate,” he went on, “what have I to lose? You have never expressed your fondness for Nuriya anyway, have you, my love?”

  The queen stiffened. “I can’t say that I have,” she murmured, pursing her lips. “And I honestly don’t see what attraction you have to her either.”

  Cyrus chuckled. He caught her chin and tilted her face upward, kissing her lips. “Attraction is a strange thing,” he said, as he drew away. “But you should well understand the real reason I am drawn to her.”

  She nodded curtly, then as Cyrus continued lavishing affection on her—pulling her closer to him and showering kisses down her neck—she loosened a little. She reached for his hands and held them, creating a distance between them so she could look him in the eye. “I do agree with you, Cyrus, despite my reservations. If there’s any way that she could be the one to give you the heirs you need, you must try it. As you say, the only loss would be Nuriya’s life, which isn’t even a loss at all.”