Jax didn't answer. His mind was still half back in the alley with Lena coughing blood and Rico's body cooling on the grating. If this was the price for those three vials, he'd burn the whole damn Expanse to get home before she stopped breathing.
A low scrape echoed ahead. Something pale and long-limbed dropped from the ceiling—human-shaped but wrong, joints bending backward, teeth too many. It landed between them and Mira.
She moved first. Lightning cracked from her palm and slammed the thing into the wall. Stone shattered. The creature screamed, half its side charred black, but it kept coming.
Jax whipped the chain. It lashed out, wrapped the monster's ankle, and yanked. The thing hit the floor hard. He pulled tight, feeling the links bite into something that wasn't quite flesh. Pain shot up his arm like the chain was feeding on him.
*Give me a taste,* Kael purred. *Just a little. Or I let it eat your face.*
"Fuck you," Jax snarled out loud.
Mira stomped down with a boot wrapped in white electricity. The creature's skull caved. Black ichor sprayed across Jax's boots.
Lira tilted her head. "More coming. Six. They smell the new blood."
Jax wiped his mouth. The chain felt heavier, warmer, like it had liked the kill. His ribs still ached from Rico even if the wound was gone. "Then we don't wait for them. Run or fight?"
Mira's eyes met his. For the first time she looked almost human—tired, pissed, alive. "Both. You take point with that chain. I'll light the way."
They ran.
Behind them the floor split open with a wet rip.
The corridor narrowed into a chamber full of broken pillars and knee-deep water that stank of brine and copper. Jax's boots splashed loud. Every echo felt like an invitation.
Kael laughed low in his skull. *You're bleeding again. Inside this time. I can fix that. For a price.*
"Save it," Jax muttered.
Lira stopped dead. "Wait."
A shard of black glass pulsed faint blue over a cracked altar. It looked like the kind of thing that could buy a week of meds back home.
Mira reached for it first. Lightning jumped wild. The water around them boiled.
Three more of the pale things rose, slower this time, wearing the faces of the six who'd died before them. One had Mira's height and build. Another wore Lira's blindfold, eyes empty holes.
"Echoes," Lira said, voice cracking. "They took their shapes. They want ours now."
The Mira-echo smiled with too many teeth and lunged. Real Mira met it head-on, storm cracking between them. The clash lit the whole chamber white.
Jax snapped the chain at the Lira-echo closing on the blind girl. Links wrapped its throat. He pulled and felt Kael surge forward like a dog on a leash.
*Let me ride,* Kael hissed. *One breath. I'll tear it apart.*
Jax's vision blurred. He tasted rust that wasn't his. For half a second he saw Lena coughing blood in the underlevels, eyes wide with the same fear he felt now. He yanked harder instead. The echo choked, shattered into black mist.
The shard dropped into the water.
Lira snatched it fast, pressed it to her forehead. Her blindfold fluttered. "It shows the exit. But the price is one of us stays behind. Forever."
Mira staggered back from her own dead copy, knuckles bleeding. She looked at Jax like she was measuring how much she trusted him.
He felt the chain tighten around his wrist on its own.
Kael whispered, almost gentle. *Choose quick, meat. Or I choose for you.*
The water started rising.
The water rose fast, climbing their chests.
They ran again, Lira guiding with the glowing shard. The corridor sloped down hard. Water hit their waists, then chests. Every breath burned.
Jax's lungs screamed. The chain dragged heavier with every echo it had fed on. Kael had gone quiet, but Jax felt him coiled, waiting.
Mira glanced back, her lightning sputtering weaker. "Gate's two turns ahead. We hit it together."
Lira's voice floated soft over the splash. "The shard didn't say together. It said one pays."
Jax barked a short, bitter laugh. "Yeah. Sounds about right."
They burst into the final chamber. The gate stood there—a carved stone circle pulsing the same blue. Beyond it the water looked clearer, almost clean.
The last echo caught them at the threshold. Bigger. It wore Jax's face exactly, but the eyes belonged to Kael—cold, amused, ancient.
It spoke with his own voice. "You don't get to go home, Harlan. Not after Rico. Not after leaving her to choke."
The words punched harder than the claws that followed. Jax's chest caved. Lena's name in that mouth made something inside him snap.
He swung the chain wild. It connected. The echo laughed and wrapped back, dragging him under.
Mira cursed and grabbed his collar. Lightning surged one final time. Lira slammed the shard into the gate. Stone cracked open with a sound like breaking bone.
The echo's grip slipped just enough.
Jax broke the surface gasping, half-dragged through by Mira's arm. Lira came last, blindfold torn, milky eyes wide at something only she could see.
They spilled onto a cracked plaza under the same sick green moonlight. The temple doors sealed shut behind them with a final groan.
Jax lay on his back, chest heaving. The chain lay loose in his hand for the first time. It felt different now. Stronger. Hungrier.
Kael spoke, clear and close as a blade at his throat.
*First payment's done, meat. You fed me one of your own faces. Next time I want more than a taste. And you will give it.*
Mira dropped beside him, breathing hard, staring at the sealed temple like it might spit out more ghosts any second. "We made it. Barely."
Lira knelt, hands shaking. "No. We only bought time. The shard showed the next stretch already waiting. And something's coming through from the other side. Something that already knows your name, Jax."
The plaza trembled once, distant, like the whole Expanse was stirring awake.
Jax sat up slow, ribs aching with phantom pain. He could still feel those useless meds clenched in his real fist back home.
"Fine," he said, voice raw. "Then we move faster."
But the chain around his wrist had already started tightening again, warm and patient.