Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun: Chapters 27–36

The row of half-finished buildings looms over us as the afternoon sun blazes above.

A jigsaw of scaffolding covers the concrete walls and the glass in the windows is missing, leaving only empty holes of darkness yawning back at us.

“Stand down!” Zahrah commands suddenly. The man gives her a belligerent look but drops his hand.

A short set of steps leads me to the edge of the long grass enclosing the buildings and I stop, trying to get my bearings.

“Where were you?” I splutter through labored breaths.

His grip slips as another strike ricochets overhead.

My hair chases the sound of my cry, clamping around his uninjured arm and halting his fall. I jerk from the sudden impact, bracing myself against the ladder. Like a winch, it winds him in toward me, and I pull him onto the rung above.

His hands reappear and I reach up to grasp them, but a searing pain punches along every nerve in my body.

The room itself is stark white and bare, and the wall in front of me is covered with tons of graphs and other data.

“It’s fine. The burns were only superficial and the medibots took care of it easily.”

“I wouldn’t have let you near that mission if I’d known about the severity of your sickness.”

My eyes swing to Adanna and she stares back at me defiantly.

“I was concerned from the beginning that the late onset of your Ike could cause complications, but I never imagined it would be to this extent.”

Her thick ebony hair falls in a curtain of tiny plaits that reaches her waist.

Her thick ebony hair falls in a curtain of tiny plaits that reaches her waist.

The right one shines a golden brown with shimmering flecks of green bleeding into it.

Your father and I are fraternal twins, and our Ike didn’t appear until we were eight years old.

We were trying to find a way to minimize the uncomfortable effects of using Ike.

“Our research suggested that Ike usually manifests early because young children are remarkably resilient and better able to cope with the stress it puts the body under. It’s why we all experience some measure of discomfort from using our Ike. We always had concerns that a later manifestation would prove too much for the body to handle and cause too much damage at a cellular level.”

He created a dual key system to ensure no one could gain unauthorized access to our lab.

It looks old, and there’s no handle or lock, just two small, oddly shaped grooves, several centimeters apart.

I touch her face through the grimy glass, biting back the sob that wants to escape.

The hologram begins to flicker suddenly as if there’s a glitch, and my father’s last words become garbled.

“It’s probably corrupted or damaged.”

“If Benjamin believed so, then it must be. He’s the foremost expert on Solari after Dr. Dòyìnbó,” she replies, fiddling with the pad.

“That’s enough!” shouts Dr. Naomi, her multicolored eyes swirling with power. Every head in the room turns her way involuntarily, even mine, and I gawp as all movement stops.

“The Councils are clearly after Dr. Naomi and me. Who knows how long that frozen door will hold their minions,” I say quietly.

We soon find a narrow flight of stone steps. According to Niyì, there are 317 of them, and the sound of thrumming frogs and buzzing cicadas keeps us company as we descend toward the caves.

“When I discovered what your father had created, that his serum inadvertently removed Ike, I was livid. It’s an unacceptable threat that jeopardizes my life’s work.”

“When I discovered what your father had created, that his serum inadvertently removed Ike, I was livid. It’s an unacceptable threat that jeopardizes my life’s work.”

“You were scared that someone might use the serum to neutralize your precious army.”

Dr. Dòyìnbó throws her a disgruntled look, and something clicks in my head.

I sent my soldiers to the lab to retrieve the serum’s location from you, but you managed to evade them.

I gasp as it dawns on me what Dr. Dòyìnbó plans to do. His eyes, shining with malice, meet mine.

Niyì’s head lifts then and our eyes meet. I flinch at the devastation in them. For the first time, I see the scared, insecure boy who has been clinging to AOS for too long, desperate to become a Protector and prove his worth.

I lunge forward to try to stop it, but it’s as if I’m moving through treacle.

My Ike has taken over, feeding on my pain, and I’m too weak to stop it, my hair constricting even further around Dr. Dòyìnbó.

I am the bow and my hair is a quiver of arrows, waiting to be released.

It has a lab and I can modify the serum using the data from Benjamin’s digital pad, if Adanna can work her magic on it.

Technically, it’s inside you, but I can use some of your DNA instead and synthesize a new serum.