Jax felt the first tremor through the living chains before he saw it. The black water below frothed white, bubbles bursting like something massive was rising fast. The leash around his wrist pulsed hotter, almost eager, the new god-corpse echo stirring inside it like it recognized its own kind coming to call.
*Three moves ahead,* he told himself, the old survival instinct snapping back into place. *Bridge is thirty meters. Choir behind us. Whatever's under the water is drawn to the fresh echo I just took. Cross fast or we all go in.*
Sable was already running ahead, silver hair swinging sideways, her stolen nullifier shard glowing faint green at her throat. "That's not the terror you bound," she shouted over her shoulder. "That's the thing that ate the terror's mother. Move!"
Mira ran beside Jax, left shoulder jerking hard with every third step. Lightning crackled weakly across her knuckles, the old flood memory riding her hard. "If it comes up under us the bridge is gone," she panted. "I won't lose another one because I held on too long."
Lira brought up the rear, blood streaming from her nose and ears. Her finger-circling on her thigh had turned frantic. "One future left," she gasped. "In it the sea takes one of us as payment. The leash offers to choose for you if you let it."
The chanting from the Choir rolled across the water behind them, dozens of voices rising in perfect unison.
"The leash remembers."
"The leash chooses."
"The leash becomes us."
The sea exploded upward.
A ridge of spines broke the surface first, taller and blacker than anything they had faced before. Then the head rose: blunt, wide, eyes glowing the same sickly green as the god-corpse they had just robbed. Its mouth opened and Lena's voice poured out, clear and drowning, layered with a hundred others.
"Jax… it's in my lungs now."
The words hit like a physical blow. Through the leash he saw her in real time: water over her nose, head tilted back against the cot, one last desperate bubble escaping her lips. Her eyes were still open, still looking for him.
Jax's hand twitched toward his own throat. The leash tightened affectionately, almost comforting, like it wanted to hold him while it broke him.
He snarled and snapped the leash forward. The god-corpse fragment inside it answered instantly, blue light flaring along the links. The strike slammed into the creature's snout with a sound like cracking stone. The sea thing recoiled, but it didn't retreat. Instead it opened its jaws wider and the stolen voices roared louder, all Lena, all begging.
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 broken links raining into the sea. Her shoulder tic was violent now, the memory of holding her brother making her punch wild. "I held him too long!" she shouted. "I won't watch you drown the same way!"
Sable slid to a stop beside Jax, nullifier shard glowing brighter. "It's drawn to your new echo. Feed it something weak or it'll drag the whole bridge down."
Lira pressed her hand to the chain floor. Blood poured from her face. "The futures are breaking again. The Choir leader is right behind us. He's binding something from the corpse on his side."
The sea creature lunged. Its massive jaws snapped shut around the middle of the bridge. The entire structure jerked violently. Jax lost his footing, 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.
Kael's dry voice pressed in close. *Let me speak once. I can drive it off without costing you more of her face. Or keep pretending you are still the one in control and listen to her die.*
Jax bared his teeth. "I'd rather die calculating." He twisted the leash and fed the weakest new echo: the braided voice from the tower straight into the strike. Dark mist flowed from his links and into the creature's open mouth. The sea creature shuddered, eyes flickering, then sank slowly beneath the waves, satisfied for the moment.
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 another piece of his guilt.
The bridge held.
They reached the far tower just as the first Choir cultists tried to swarm after them from the opposite end. Jax turned at the doorway and lashed the leash one final time. The god-corpse echo roared through the links, shattering the remaining bridge supports. The entire structure collapsed into the black sea, taking half the Choir with it.
Silence fell for a heartbeat.
Then the tower door behind them slammed shut on its own. Firelight from inside spilled across the threshold. Voices murmured, real voices, other Cursed already inside.
Sable leaned against the wall, 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 again. Through the bleed he could still see her, water over her nose, eyes fluttering shut.
Mira collapsed beside him, shoulder still twitching. "We made it. Barely."
Lira wiped blood from her chin, fingers resuming their slow circle. "The futures are shifting again. Something inside this tower already knows we're here. And it wants the same thing the Choir wanted."
The leash pulsed once, warm and patient, as if it already knew what it would ask Jax to feed it next.
He pushed the tower door open and stepped inside.