The Midnight Star

“And who goes on this journey?” Magiano says, leaning forward as if to protect me. Lucent responds to his gesture with one of her own, turning herself toward Raffaele.

“Every Elite in the world aligns with the gods in some way,” Raffaele replies, folding his hands behind him. Orange candlelight flickers against his robes. “The group of Elites who go with us must comprise all twelve of the gods. Missing even one alignment will not give us the combination of energy needed to reach beyond the mortal world—the touch of immortality could overwhelm us. It would be fatal.”

The gemstones. The way Raffaele tested each of us. The memory flashes back to me—how he circled me slowly, watching my energy light up nightstone and amber, diamond and roseite and veritium. What had he found with my sister? He must have tested her by now too. He’d also tested Sergio long ago, when he was still a member of the Daggers. Who will go with us?

Raffaele looks at me. His eyes, jewel toned and bright, honey gold and emerald green, seem to see straight through me. “I remember yours quite vividly, Adelina,” he says. “Fear and fury. Ambition. Passion. Wisdom. Five of the twelve.” He nods at me. “Your sister also aligns with fear.”

Fear. I am not at all surprised. Fear is indeed something Violetta and I have shared since we were children.

“In addition to that, she aligns with joy and empathy—with happiness and sensitivity.”

Joy. Sensitivity. I think of Violetta’s childish twirls, her ringing laughter, the way she used to carefully braid my hair. She is all of these things; I don’t doubt Raffaele for a second. My heart aches as I think of her. Violetta is resting now in her own quarters on the ship. She still hasn’t said a word to me.

“What are yours?” Sergio asks Raffaele, unable to keep his dislike out of his voice. “You’ve never mentioned them.”

Raffaele gives him a slight bow of his head. “Wisdom,” he replies. “And beauty.” Of course. Sergio grunts, unwilling to acknowledge Raffaele’s words as he continues. “Including Lucent’s alignment to time, we comprise nine of the twelve gods. Sergio, your alignments already overlap these, as do Michel’s. So we need to find others with the three remaining alignments, to death, war, and greed.” He pauses to look at Magiano. “I would like to give you the same test that I gave the Daggers.”

Magiano crosses his arms, suddenly indignant, but then he relents at a glance from me. Raffaele gestures to him. He reluctantly rises from the table and goes to stand in the middle of the floor. “I suppose you won’t believe me if I just guessed my alignments for you,” Magiano mutters.

Raffaele retrieves a satchel containing a series of raw, unpolished gemstones, just as he’d once done with me. He quietly places all twelve of the stones in a circle around Magiano. Magiano stands still, his body stiff. I can sense a note of fear over him, a cloud of wariness at Raffaele’s intentions, but he doesn’t move. When Raffaele finishes, he walks around Magiano once, seeing which of the stones respond to his energy. After a while, three of the stones start to glow.

Diamond, a pale white. Prase quartz, a subtle green. And sapphire, a blue as deep as the ocean.

Raffaele starts to call on each of the gemstones in relation to Magiano, the way he had called forth memories from my past when he tested me. Was this why Magiano had such a penchant for sapphires, why he attempted to steal an entire treasury’s worth of them in the past, why he wanted the Night King’s pendant so badly?

Magiano shudders slightly as Raffaele accesses the first of his memories. I wonder what Raffaele sees, and for a moment, I wish I could see this glimpse into Magiano’s past too. Magiano reacts to each of Raffaele’s tests, but stays calm throughout the exercise. They finally reach the last stone, the pale green prase quartz.

Suddenly, Magiano jerks away and steps out of the circle. He is shaking all over—the tiny note of fear hovering over him has exploded into a shower of sparks, enough to stir my own power. Raffaele withdraws his hand.

“Get away from me,” Magiano snaps at him.

I’ve never seen him so upset. He brushes past me without a glance, pushes past the table, and goes to stand before the porthole overlooking the midnight ocean. I frown, and my heart seizes for him. His reaction reminds me so much of when Raffaele finally called on fear and fury in me, unleashing a storm of energy and ugly memories. What had he unearthed in Magiano?

“Careful, Messenger,” I say, narrowing my eyes at Raffaele. “Our alliance is not so solid that I wouldn’t kill you for harming him.”

In the silence that follows, Raffaele sighs and folds his arms again. He returns my look. “I cannot control how he responds to his alignments. Magiano aligns with joy and ambition. And greed. He needs to come with us, if he’s willing.” He doesn’t mention anything more about the test, or Magiano’s reaction to it.

I let out a short breath, relieved that I will have Magiano with me on this trip. I start to ask what Raffaele must have seen, then stop short. I’ll approach Magiano about this later. Joy, ambition, greed. Ten of the twelve now.

“We need an alignment to Moritas and to Tristius,” Raffaele replies. “To death, for the mortality of mankind, and to war, for the eternal savagery of the heart.”

War and death. I know immediately that we won’t find these traits in the Elites among us, if they don’t already exist in me.

“Queen Maeve,” Lucent says in a quiet voice, glancing sideways at Raffaele. “She will align with Moritas.”