His eyes went wide as I opened it and dumped the gem into my palm. I turned it over before picking it up between two fingers.

“Is it…?” Auster stared at it.

I didn’t know. I couldn’t tell what it was. It looked like onyx, but there was a translucence to it that didn’t look right. And the vibration it gave off wasn’t familiar. It was a stone I didn’t know. But without ever having seen a piece of midnight for myself, there was only one way to be sure.

“I need the gem lamp,” I said again, pushing through them to the helmsman’s quarters.

I came through the door, setting the stone into the small bronze dish on the low table and West set the lantern on the desk, filling the cabin with light.

“What do you think?” Koy leaned into the wall next to me, drops of seawater glistening as they slid down his face.

“I don’t know,” I admitted.

Hamish came through the door with Paj on his heels, the gem lamp in his hands. He set it down onto the desk carefully, looking up at us through the fogged lenses of his spectacles.

I sat in West’s chair and lit a match, hovering its tip over the oil chamber beneath the glass. But my fingers shook furiously, quenching the flame before it took to the wick. West caught my hand with his, turning my fingers toward the light. They were the faintest shade of blue.

“I’m all right,” I said, answering his unspoken question. Somehow, his touch was still a bit warm.

He took the quilt from his cot and set it over my shoulders as Hamish took another match and lit the lamp with nimble fingers. The glow ignited beneath the glass and I opened my hand to let West pick up the stone. He crouched down onto his heels beside me before setting the small gem onto the mirror.

I sat up, holding my breath as I peered through the eyepiece, and adjusted the lens slowly. Everyone in the cabin fell silent and I squinted as it came into focus. The faintest glow lit in its center, surrounded by opaque edges. I turned the mirror, trying to manipulate the light, and the lump in my throat expanded.

No inclusions. Not one.

“It’s not midnight,” I muttered, biting down hard onto my lip.

Willa set her hands onto the desk, leaning into them to hover over me. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” I answered, defeated. “I don’t know what it is, but it’s not midnight. Some kind of spinel, maybe.”

Koy was hidden in the shadowed corner of the room. “We got through two reefs today.”