Blood on the Marina

The Glass Floor Breaks

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 weapon cut through the air, drawing shouts of panic from the high-ranking executives gathered around the center of the room.

Tari laughed out loud, leaping over the railing right behind her with his black blade drawn and ready.

I stood on the balcony for one heartbeat, looking down through the glass atrium.

Down in the center of the brilliant lobby, Yetunde stood frozen. The silver-haired man beside her dropped his calm expression, his hands tightening around the glowing crystal core as the alarms wailed overhead. He lifted the crystal high, and the air in the room grew heavy, pulling a sharp, cold pressure against my chest.

"Kelechi! Do not just stand there!" Zara shouted from the stairs below. "The resonance core is charging! If he activates it, every drop of magic in your blood will be pulled out through your skin!"

I clenched my fists. The black ink beneath my skin boiled up instantly, burning hot and thick, wrapping around my arms and racing up to my neck. The heavy ache in my chest vanished, replaced by a fierce, wild energy that screamed for release.

I vaulted over the balcony railing, dropping straight down toward the lobby floor.

Wind rushed past my ears. I landed hard on the polished marble floor, the impact cracking the stone beneath my boots. Glass plates scattered in all directions.

The silver-haired man stepped back, his face twisted in fear, but he pointed the glowing crystal directly at my chest.

"Stop him!" the man ordered.

The crystal flared with a blinding white light. A heavy beam of pure energy shot out from the core, striking me dead in the center of my chest.

The force of it stopped me instantly. My boots skidded backward across the marble floor, leaving deep gouges in the stone. The cold light tried to sink under my skin, biting hard into my veins as it attempted to rip the dark ink out of my body. Pain flared through my ribs, sharp and burning.

Get up, my mind commanded.

I planted my right foot, gritted my teeth, and took one step forward. Then another.

The silver-haired man's eyes went wide with disbelief. "That is impossible! The core can hold a god! Why is it not working on him?"

"Because he is not a tool you get to control," a voice said coldly beside me.

Zara appeared out of nowhere, lunging forward with her heavy pistol raised, firing two precise shots that shattered the crystal core in the man's hands.

The crystal exploded into a million glowing fragments that rained down like stars over the lobby floor. The heavy pressure crushing my chest vanished instantly.

Without the core, the silver-haired man stumbled backward, dropping to his knees.

I did not look at him. My eyes locked onto Yetunde.

She stood near the base of the grand staircase, her hands empty, her executive jacket looking stiff and wrong on her shoulders. For a second, the girl who used to share fried plantains with me in the dark streets of Lagos tried to meet my gaze. But she looked away first, her jaw tightening as she stepped back toward the shadow of the exit.

"You chose your side," I said, my voice cutting through the ringing alarms.

Yetunde stopped walking, keeping her back to me. "You do not understand, Kelechi. If I did not work with them, you would have died in that basement ten years ago. I kept you alive."

"By turning me into a cage?" I stepped closer, the black ink pulsing brightly along my jawline. "That is not saving someone. That is keeping a pet."

Before Yetunde could answer, the massive glass dome ceiling at the top of the Marina Pavilion cracked with a deafening roar.

Everyone in the lobby froze, looking up.

Thick black smoke poured through the cracks in the glass. Heavy mechanical machinery ground against stone from above, and the floor beneath our feet began to vibrate violently, as if an earthquake was tearing Lagos apart from the inside out.

"What is that?" Tari shouted, lowering his black blade and steadying himself on the shaking floor.

Zara looked up at the ceiling, her face draining of all color. "It is not the Council," she whispered, her voice tight with real fear for the first time. "The containment seal... it did not just break in the basement. The vault under the Lagos lagoon has opened."

Before anyone could take another breath, the entire floor of the lobby shattered downward into absolute darkness.