Jax felt the shift like a second heartbeat against his wrist. The new shadows inside it stirred, hungry and familiar. He kept walking. The narrow chain-bridge stretched ahead, suspended over the black sea, each link slick with brine and etched with the same faint screaming faces that now marked his own leash. Behind them the platform trembled harder. The growl from below rolled up like distant thunder.
*Calculate the drop,* he thought, forcing the cold math back into place. *Bridge is thirty meters long, two wide. One wrong step and we're in the water with whatever's rising. Use the new strength or die testing it.* The affection in the leash's grip made his skin crawl. It wasn't Kael this time. It was the echoes themselves, learning to pretend they cared.
Mira matched his pace on the left, her left shoulder dipping every third step. The bruise on her ankle from the finger-eels had turned a nasty purple. "That growl isn't the terror you bound," she said, voice low. "It's something that ate the terror's cousins. I can feel it in the air."
Lira stayed half a step behind, fingers tracing tight compulsive circles on her thigh. Fresh blood dripped steadily from her nose, but she didn't bother wiping it anymore.
"One future left from the tower," she whispered. "In it the thing in the sea takes one of us as payment for letting the other two reach the next isle. The leash offers to choose for you."
The bridge swayed under their boots. Below, the black water parted. A ridge of spines broke the surface first, taller than the ones on the terror Jax had leashed earlier. Then the head rose; blunt and wide, eyes glowing the same sickly green as the moonlight, but with too many pupils clustered together like a swarm of watching faces. The creature didn't roar. It simply opened its mouth and the sea itself screamed with a hundred stolen voices.
All of them sounded like Lena.
"You left me again."
"The water's past my chest."
"Jax… please."
Jax's grip on the leash spasmed. The cold math fractured. For one terrifying second he saw her clearly through the bleed; Lena in the underlevels, real time, black water lapping at her collarbones, her thin chest rising in shallow, desperate gasps. The three vials he'd killed Rico for lay broken on the floor beside her cot. She was whispering his name, the same way the sea was whispering it now.
The vision wasn't the leash twisting memory. It was the bleed itself, widened by the shard he had claimed. The Expanse was looking straight into Cascade Spire and showing him exactly how little time he had left.
Mira grabbed his arm, lightning jumping between them. The shock burned, clearing his head. "Whatever you're seeing, it's real enough to kill you if you freeze. Move now!"
Lira touched the bridge chain under their feet. A section unraveled into dust, but she staggered hard, the circle on her thigh slowing to almost nothing. "The sea thing is drawn to the new echoes on you. It wants the voices you just took. If you feed it one of them, it might let us pass. If you don't…"
The creature lunged forward. Its massive jaws snapped shut around the far end of the bridge. The entire structure jerked violently. Jax lost his footing for half a second, boots sliding on the slick links. The leash reacted on its own, wrapping a support chain and yanking him upright. The affection in its grip felt almost protective now, like it didn't want to lose its favorite toy yet.
*Let me speak,* Kael whispered, closer than ever. *One word from me and the thing backs off. Or keep pretending you're still in control and watch her drown while you fight it.*
Jax bared his teeth. "I'd rather die calculating than let you drive." He snapped the leash forward, feeding the fresh tower echoes into the strike. Blue light flared along the links. The sea creature recoiled as the blast hit its snout, but it didn't retreat. Instead it opened its mouth wider and the stolen voices poured out louder… Lena's voice layered with dozens of others, all begging, all accusing.
Mira vaulted a swaying section of bridge and drove both fists into the creature's lower jaw. Lightning exploded inside its mouth. The smell of scorched meat rolled up, but the thing only thrashed harder. Its spines scraped the bridge supports, sending sparks and broken links raining into the sea. Her shoulder tic was violent now, the old memory of holding her brother making her movements jagged and desperate. "I won't lose another one because I held on too long!" she shouted.
Lira reached the middle of the bridge and pressed both hands to the chain floor. Blood poured from her nose and mouth. The entire section under them started to unravel, buying them a few extra meters of clear path. "Zero futures left if we stay on the bridge," she gasped. "One future if you feed it something it wants. Choose fast."
Jax felt the leash pulse with dark satisfaction. The new power from the tower shard was already changing it, making the echoes bolder, the voices clearer, the affection more dangerous. He could end this right now by giving the creature one of the fresh shadows. But giving it up meant weakening the leash, slowing his return to Lena. Keeping it meant fighting something that could swallow the entire bridge.
*Three moves ahead,* he forced himself to think while the creature's jaws snapped shut inches from Mira's legs. *Feed it the weakest echo. Keep the terror and the finger-eels. Use the strength to reach the next isle. Find a faster way home.* The calculation felt slippery, like the leash was nudging the numbers again.
He had chosen.
The leash whipped out and released one of the newer tower shadows: the braided voice that had spoken with Lena's tone in the chamber. The dark mist flowed from his links and straight into the creature's open mouth. The sea thing shuddered, eyes flickering, then sank slowly beneath the waves, satisfied for the moment. The bridge stopped shaking.
Power left Jax in a cold rush. The leash felt lighter, but the absence of that single echo left a hollow ache in his chest, like he had given away a piece of his own guilt.
Mira staggered back to him, breathing hard. "You fed it something. I saw the mist. What did it cost you?"
"Time," Jax said flatly. "And one less voice trying to sound like her." He didn't tell them the real price; the vision of Lena had sharpened. Through the bleed he could still see her, water now at her shoulders, coughing weakly. The three vials were useless on the floor. She was still whispering his name.
Lira pushed herself up, face pale. "The future stabilized. We reach the next isle. But the bleed is spreading faster now. Things with too many fingers are already crawling out of the drains near her level."
The far end of the bridge connected to a small chained isle; a cluster of half-sunken towers linked by more living chains. Faint lights flickered in some of the windows. Not algae. Actual fires. Other Cursed had already claimed it.
Jax started walking again, the leash coiled tight around his wrist. The cold math settled back in, sharper after the loss. *The creature bought us passage. The new isle means potential allies or threats. Either way, stronger shadows or information. Get both. Get home.*
Mira fell in beside him, shoulder still twitching. "If that thing comes back, I'm not letting you feed it anything else. Not if it sounds like someone you care about."
Lira took the rear, fingers resuming their slow circle on her thigh. "Something on that isle already knows we're coming. I saw a one-eyed man watching the bridge. He's waiting."
The green moonlight dimmed further as they stepped onto the chained isle. The first tower door stood open, firelight spilling out. Inside, voices murmured… real voices, not the leash's tricks.
Jax felt the leash pulse once, warm again, almost affectionate.
It already knew what it would ask him to feed it next.
He walked toward the light anyway…