The leash uncoiled fully, glowing with every shadow Jax had fed it so far, and he stepped straight into the writhing wall as the tower itself seemed to roar in response.
The braided chains slammed into him like a living tide. Links wrapped his arms, his chest, his throat, cold metal biting deep enough to draw blood. The pain was sharp, but the voices were worse. Dozens of them crashed over him at once, all speaking in Lena's hoarse, water-choked tone.
"You left me again."
"The water's at my chest now."
"Why did you choose the coins instead of me?"
Jax's vision blurred. The cold math in his head fractured for the second time. He saw her clearly—Lena in the underlevels, black water rising past her ribs, one thin hand reaching toward the alley entrance where he should have been. His own hand, years younger, turning away because Rico's pay looked better. The guilt wasn't a vision anymore. It felt like memory made real, the leash dragging it out of him and feeding it back stronger.
He snarled and yanked the leash harder, forcing the terror echo and the finger-eels into the strike. Blue light flared along the links. The braided wall screamed, chains snapping and dissolving into black mist that flowed straight into his own leash. Power surged, thick and addictive, but every new shadow brought another layer of her voice.
Mira was right beside him, lightning cracking wildly. Her left shoulder jerked hard with that old tic as she drove her fist into a thick braid trying to wrap Jax's neck. "Fight it, damn you!" she shouted, voice cracking. "That's not her talking. It's using you!"
Lira pressed close behind, one hand on Jax's back while the other traced desperate circles on her thigh. Blood ran freely from her nose and now her ears. "Two futures left," she gasped. "In the bad one the voices win. You let the leash speak through you to break the wall… and you don't come back as Jax."
The wall thickened, chains braiding tighter, forming a tunnel of writhing black links that tried to swallow them whole. The green light at the far end flickered like it might snuff out any second. Jax could feel the leash growing heavier, warmer, almost pleased. Kael's presence pushed closer than ever, dry and patient.
*Let me speak for you,* Kael whispered. *Just once. I can break this wall without costing you more of her face. Or keep fighting alone and watch her drown in real time.*
Jax laughed once, the same ugly sound from the alley where he'd killed Rico. "You think I'll trade her voice for yours?" He twisted the leash again, feeding every fresh echo into the strike. The power hit like a hammer. More chains shattered, their screams turning into Lena's final desperate cries. The guilt was a living thing now, clawing at his ribs, making his hands shake.
Mira grabbed his chained wrist, lightning jumping between them. The shock burned, but it cleared his head for a second. Her shoulder tic was worse, the old flood memory making her movements jagged. "I lost my brother because I held on too long," she said through gritted teeth. "Don't make me lose you the same way. Push through!"
Lira touched the wall with her free hand. Another braid unraveled into dust, but she dropped to her knees, coughing blood. "One future left," she whispered. "We break the wall… or the leash chooses who pays the price to let the other two live."
The green exit light was only ten meters away now, but the chains had formed a final barrier—thick, pulsing, almost alive. The voices rose to a scream, all Lena, all begging, all accusing. Jax felt his free hand rising toward his own throat, the leash trying to wrap itself there instead of his wrist.
*Calculate,* he forced himself to think, the cold math his only anchor. *Three moves ahead. Break the barrier. Get clear of the Trial. Use the new strength to find a faster way back to her. Don't let the guilt win.* He pictured Lena's face—not the drowning one the leash kept showing him, but the small smile she used to give when he brought back clean water. That memory was his, not the tower's. He clung to it like a weapon.
With a roar that tore at his throat, Jax drove the leash forward one final time. Every shadow he had bound—terror, finger-eels, the braided voices themselves—answered at once. Blue light exploded along the links, bright enough to blind. The wall of chains shattered with a sound like breaking bone, fragments dissolving into mist that rushed into his leash. The power surge was overwhelming, visions slamming into him faster than he could push them away.
Lena coughing blood.
Lena reaching for him as the water rose.
Him walking away again and again.
He staggered through the collapsing barrier, Mira and Lira right behind. The green light swallowed them whole.
They spilled out onto a wide, cracked platform suspended above an endless black sea. The tower was gone. The First Trial was over. Sick green moonlight filtered down through polluted water far above, illuminating a vast drowned landscape of leaning spires and broken bridges stretching in every direction. The air tasted of rust and salt and something older.
Jax dropped to one knee, chest heaving. The leash felt different now—heavier, thicker, the links darker and etched with faint screaming faces that hadn't been there before. Lena's voice had gone quiet, but he could still feel it waiting inside the chains, patient and hungry.
Mira collapsed beside him, breathing hard, her lightning finally sputtering out. The bruise on her ankle from the finger-eels was dark and hand-shaped. Her shoulder still twitched every few seconds. "We made it," she said, voice rough. "Barely. But that voice… it sounded exactly like someone you lost, didn't it?"
Lira sat a few paces away, wiping blood from her face with a shaking hand. Her finger-circling had slowed to almost nothing. "One future survived," she whispered. "We're out of the Trial. But the bleed is worse now. I saw Cascade Spire for a second—things with too many fingers crawling out of the drains near Lena's level."
Jax pushed himself up slowly. The new power hummed in the leash, tempting and dangerous. He could feel Kael watching, silent but satisfied. *The shard bought strength,* he thought, forcing the cold math back into place. *But every shadow makes the voices louder. Every shadow makes me more like the thing that could fail her forever.*
He looked at the two women. Mira's eyes were hard but worried. Lira's milky gaze held too many futures that had already died. They had dragged him through when they could have cut him loose. That bought them something. Not trust. Not yet. But something.
"The Trial is done," Jax said, voice flat. "Now we find a way to push the bleed back or find a faster path home. No more games."
Mira stood, flexing her burned hand. "If that voice comes back, I meant what I said. I'll burn the leash off you myself."
Lira nodded once, slow. "The next layer of the Expanse is already waking. Something big noticed the new echoes on you. It's coming."
The platform trembled faintly. Far below, the black sea rippled. Not the terror they had leashed earlier. Something larger. Hungrier. Drawn by the fresh power leaking off Jax's chain.
Jax coiled the leash tighter around his wrist until the links bit skin. The small pain helped clear the lingering echo of Lena's voice. *Three moves ahead. Survive the next threat. Use the strength. Get home before the water reaches her neck.*
He started walking toward the edge of the platform where a narrow chain-bridge led deeper into the drowned ruins.
"Come on," he said. "Whatever's coming, we meet it on our terms."
Behind them, the sea began to churn. A low, resonant growl rolled across the water, and the green moonlight dimmed as something massive stirred beneath the surface.
Jax didn't look back. But the leash around his wrist tightened on its own, warm and almost affectionate, as if it already knew what he would have to feed it next.