The boy looked just like me, but his eyes held no warmth. He stood at the open door of the vault, resting his hand on a black blade that gave off a faint, pale light.You missed, sister, the boy said. His voice was identical to mine, smooth and calm, making the hair on my arms stand up.Amina pulled her glowing spear out of the brick wall with a sharp tug. Stone dust fell to the floor as she turned to face the boy. She did not look surprised to see him. She did not look surprised at all. Her face stayed hard and cold, like stone.I did not miss, Amina said, her voice sharp as glass. I wanted him to move. I wanted him to see what is coming for him.I pressed my back harder against the wall, breathing fast. My hands shook, but I forced myself to look between the two of them. Nothing made sense. A girl with a magical spear had crashed through my ceiling, and now a boy who looked like my twin brother was standing in my secret basement.Who are you? I said, my voice cracking slightly. Both

The ground vanished.There was no sound of stone cracking, no warning rumble from the earth. One second my boots were standing on the damp brick of the tunnel, and the next second my stomach hit my throat as I fell backward into empty air.Amina! I shouted, reaching out into the dark.Gravity pulled me down fast. The air rushed past my ears, cold and wet, smelling heavily of old mud and stagnant water. Above me, the light from Amina's glowing spear became a tiny blue dot shrinking into the distance.Before I could brace myself for the impact, my back slammed into a wall of rushing water.The shock knocked every ounce of air out of my lungs. The current caught me instantly, a fierce, heavy torrent of water that tossed me around like a piece of paper. I kicked and flailed in the dark, my mouth opening by accident and swallowing a mouthful of bitter, foul-tasting water. I choked and coughed, my limbs growing heavy.I am going to drown here, my mind screamed. In a dark pipe beneath Lagos.

The thick glass cracked under my hands with a sharp, booming sound.Spiderweb lines of white fracture shot across the transparent wall in every direction. The automated voice on the speaker stopped talking immediately. The steady mechanical hum in the room cut out, replaced by a loud, blaring alarm bell that flashed red overhead."Warning. Containment breach in sector nine," a synthetic female voice announced through the speakers. "Initiating total lockdown."I did not care about their warnings or their alarms. I gripped the edges of the growing cracks and pulled with all the strength burning inside my muscles. The black blood surged through my veins, hot and heavy, making my hands feel as hard as iron.Crash.The entire front glass wall shattered outward, bursting into a thousand glittering pieces that rained down onto the metal floor outside. A wave of cold air rushed into the cell.I stepped through the broken frame, shaking the loose shards of glass off my arms. The hallway outsid

The blast wave threw me backward into the dark.I did not feel the hard concrete when I landed. The fire inside my veins was too hot, too bright, burning away the pain and leaving only a strange, cold clarity behind. The dark ink had spread past my arms and neck, covering half my face in thick, winding patterns that pulsed with every beat of my heart.When I pushed myself up from the rubble, the automated turrets across the shaft were silent. They were not just broken. They were melted down into twisted lumps of slag, dripping slowly onto the floor.Amina stood a few feet away, brushing dust off her tactical jacket. Her glowing spear flickered once, then burned brighter, casting long blue shadows against the ruined walls. She looked at me, her eyes assessing, calculating every inch of the change in my skin."I knew the vessel container was strong," Amina said, her voice completely steady despite the smoking wreckage around us. "I did not know it could blow through high-grade defense t

A dozen enforcers blocked the service balcony in a fraction of a second, their weapons raised and ready to fire.Blue light flashed from the barrels of their stun rifles, casting a sharp glare against the concrete walls. Before the first energy bolt could leave the chamber, Zara moved. She did not hesitate or wait for instructions. She pulled a round silver disc from her heavy leather coat and threw it hard onto the floor between the approaching guards.The disc hit the ground and burst into a blinding flash of orange light.A sharp shockwave swept across the balcony. The enforcers stumbled backward, their weapons sparking and dying out instantly as the signal jammer fried their electronics."Move!" Zara ordered, drawing her pistol and stepping past the disoriented guards.Amina did not waste a second. She jumped over the railing of the service balcony, spinning her glowing spear in a wide arc before landing cleanly on the grand lobby floor far below. The heavy blue light of her weapo