The Midnight Star

Magiano guides us over to the side of the ship. He waves furiously at one of our passing baliras. “Ours!” he shouts at the soldier riding it.

The balira turns in our direction. It flies lower as it nears the ship, then dives to the surface of the water with an enormous splash. The wave rocks us. Magiano climbs on top of the nest’s railing, steadies himself, and I follow him. As the balira swims right up next to the ship, we jump over the edge and onto its back. The original rider gets off, diving into the water and climbing up along the side of the hull.

Magiano pulls me to him on the balira’s back. It is slick with rain, and I’m grateful for the strappings that give us secure footholds against its flesh. The balira stirs restlessly in the water. It turns sharply, then surges forward in preparation to fly.

As it does, a wave of ocean water soaks my legs. I suck in my breath.

Sergio had mentioned earlier that something in the water seemed to be making the baliras sick. Now I know what he means. The ocean feels wrong. There is a poisonous presence here, a darkness that seems at once familiar and sickening. I shiver at the feeling and frown, trying to pinpoint what it is. I have sensed this darkness before in my nightmares. I know it. The whispers in my head stir, excited.

My thoughts scatter as the tether between Enzo and me suddenly pulls taut. I gasp. At the same time, Magiano yanks back on the balira’s harness and launches us into the sky. He veers us sharply to the right, one of his arms locked tightly around my waist. I’m about to cry out when a burst of fire hits the space where we had been just a moment ago.

Enzo appears in the sky a short distance from us. His dark hair whips back from the wind and rain, soaked through, and I’m reminded instantly of the last battle between us, when I’d stared into the void of his eyes. My heart aches, even as I find myself hating him. I gasp again as his power pushes hard against mine, digging its claws in. The whispers snap at the threads as they threaten to turn me into a puppet.

Then Magiano strikes back at Enzo. He mimics the Reaper’s energy, and I see strings of sparks flash from Magiano’s hands and whip toward Enzo, bursting into lines of fire on impact. Enzo’s balira jerks its head away from the flames, taking him farther from us, and the pressure against my energy lightens. I breathe again. Then I lash out at him.

Enzo cannot kill you without killing himself. He only wants to defeat you. I keep this thought close to me, and it gives me strength.

I pull us sharply around to face him. At the same time, I grasp our tether and flood it with my darkness, my threads hooking into his heart, drowning his energy. He shudders visibly, his eyes squeezing shut—he tugs hard on his own balira’s reins, and the creature veers away from me. He begins to dive. His energy shoves against mine, hot and scorching, the fire burning at my blackness. I flinch. We fly lower and lower, until Enzo skims across the water. Rain beats down on my face, and I wipe desperately at my eye to clear my sight.

Through the tether, Enzo’s energy rushes at me. The edges of my vision turn hazy, dimming for a moment, and a flash of shadowy silhouettes creep forward. No. I cannot afford to succumb to my illusions right now. Amid the chaos, I can sense Enzo’s voice as if he were speaking directly to me.

You don’t belong here, Adelina. Turn back.

His words send a surge of anger through me, and I push us to go faster. We are very close to the shore now, and several of our ships have broken through the Tamouran defense. The thought of victory dances in my mind. I belong wherever I want. And I will take Tamoura, just as I took Kenettra from you.

But Enzo’s fire scorches my insides, wrapping around my own heart, closing it in a fist of his threads. Another layer of sweat breaks out all over me as my vision blurs even more. I can see myself reaching out and beginning to weave something in the air. No. I cannot let him control me.

You are mine, Adelina, Enzo growls. Turn your powers against your own fleet.

I cannot stop him. My hands lift, ready to do his bidding. Then I feel the world rip through me, and I toss my head back in agony. A cloak of invisibility snaps over the Tamouran fleet, hiding them from my own. At the same time, I cast a veil of imaginary pain and hurl it at my own riders in the air.

They shriek. I look on helplessly, unable to breathe through my surge of power, as my riders fall from their baliras. I struggle for air. The world becomes hazy. I force myself to focus on the tether. It is as if Enzo’s own hands were tight around my heart, squeezing and squeezing until I am ready to burst. I have to break his hold.

A clear voice calls out above us. “Adelina! Stop!” Even before I can lift my head and see him, I know that it is Raffaele.

But he is not alone. In front of him on the balira’s back is a small, delicate figure lying limply against the giant creature’s hide. It’s Violetta, her hair a dark streak of silk in the wind. Raffaele’s arms are wrapped securely around her.

She is here. With them.

For a moment, everything around me disappears. All I can do is look on as Raffaele turns in my direction and opens his mouth to say something.

Something streaks past my vision. A white cloak. One of my Inquisitors. I have time only to glance to my side before I see one of my own soldiers on a balira, barreling toward us with a club raised. I don’t have time to think—or even throw my arms up in defense. No one does. The Inquisitor swings his club and it catches me hard on the shoulder, the force lifting me clear off my balira. The whispers in my head shriek. The world closes in, growing darker and darker, until I see nothing and hear only Magiano’s shouts coming from somewhere far away.