Page 46 of Midnight Star

“Maybe we should try something else,” he says carefully. “Find another way to?—”

“No.” The word surprises me as it leaves my lips. “I was in space, Riven. Actually in space. And I survived. I’m not physically hurt. I’m not dead. I just...” I glance up at the Midnight Star, sizing it up. “I aimed wrong.”

“Sapphire—”

“I can do this,” I say, and this time, I believe it. “I just need to try again.”

The owls shift on their perches, their eyes reflecting the starlight as they watch us. Waiting.

Riven’s mouth opens like he wants to argue, but then he stops, studying me.

“Are you sure?” he asks.

“Yes,” I tell him. “I’m sure.”

“All right.” He gives me a half-smile and cups my face, and right now, I think I’m more confident about this than he is. “Then let’s do this.”

He cradles me against him again, and I inhale deeply, focusing on the Midnight Star.

My magic comes faster this time, flooding my veins with so much power that it feels like I might burst from it.

Again, I let go.

I’m surrounded by blinding, radiant, all-encompassing light. I can’t see, can’t think, can’t?—

I snap back into my body with a gasp, my heart pounding as I re-orient myself.

Riven’s hands are on my face instantly, his eyes scanning me with a mix of worry and relief. “What happened?” he asks after determining I’m okay.

“I missed again,” I say simply. “It was bright.”

He frowns, his jaw tightening. “We can stop?—”

“No.” I cut him off. “I’m trying again.”

“Then try again,” he says, apparently knowing better than to argue with me by this point, and he holds me tighter, as if he can help me find my way.

This time, when I call on my magic, it sears through me like liquid starlight, filling every inch of me until there’s nothing left but the glow overhead.

Again, I let go.

And then, miraculously, I’m there.

On the Midnight Star.

Sapphire

I spin in a slow circle,awestruck by the impossible beauty surrounding me.

I don’t know what I expected. Learning that I needed to project myself to a star happened so quickly that I didn’t have time to think about it. But never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined the sprawling city stretched out before me, its every detail perfect and surreal.

Arranged in circles both big and small, the buildings are crystalline sculptures that rise in elegant, twisting spires, glowing with hues of lavender, gold, and pale blue. And the sparkling pathways connecting the buildings aren’t on the ground. They’re suspended above a starry abyss, shimmering bridges of light that weave gracefully through the city.

At the very heart of it all is the palace.

It’s impossibly grand, rising above everything else, gleaming with a brilliance that defies words. Its spires stretch high into the sky, and its walls radiate silver-white, threaded with veins of liquid gold that pulse softly, as if the entire structure is alive and powered by starlight.

The only thing that outshines the city is what’s above it. Because an entiregalaxyis hovering so low that it takes over the sky, its bright core and surrounding stars casting the city in a soft, otherworldly glow.

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