The storm swallowed him whole.One moment Jace was shackled in the collapsing hall, the next he was hurled through a maelstrom of fire and steel. Blades spun like hurricanes, their edges screaming through the void, glowing red with molten heat. The air was thick with sparks and ash, each one slicing his skin like razors.His back slammed against invisible ground, the impact knocking the breath from his lungs. He rolled instinctively as a burning sword speared into the space where he had landed, carving a trench of fire.Figures emerged from the storm.There were dozens of them, maybe hundreds, tall, armored warriors, their faces hidden beneath helmets of molten iron. Each one carried a blade that dripped fire, the heat so intense the air rippled. Chains trailed from their armor, dragging behind them like the tails of comets.Their eyes, what little Jace could glimpse through the cracks of their helmets, glowed the same crimson as the Ledger. They moved in unison, a tide of death advan

The fall never ended, Blackness swallowed Jace whole, his body weightless, spinning in endless freefall. The roar of the storm above vanished, replaced by silence so thick it crushed his ears. Yet within that silence, one sound beat steady, the clinking of chains.They weren’t around his wrists anymore. They floated, orbiting him like living serpents of fire, each link glowing faintly in the dark. Then a voice ripped the void apart.“We are the debt. We are the bind. Choose your master.”Jace crashed hard, The ground was smooth stone, glowing faintly with crimson cracks that pulsed like a beating heart. The void had formed a coliseum.Walls of black iron rose around him, and above, a ceiling of fire bled molten sparks down into the pit.Across the arena, his double landed with feline grace. He straightened, brushing soot from his jacket as if the fall hadn’t touched him at all. His eyes burned with molten red, chains coiling lazily at his side like tamed vipers.“Looks like the real g

The ruins of the auction hall still hissed with smoke. Gold melted in rivulets across shattered marble, gilding the devastation in rivers of false beauty.The air was heavy with blood, iron, and something else, something older, deeper, a scent that clung to Jace’s lungs and refused to leave.He stood amidst the wreckage, body trembling from the half-crown’s fire still seared into his skull. Every heartbeat was a hammer strike, pounding the chains fused into his veins.And then, Adrian stepped out of the smoke, Not a ghost. Not a trick. Not a fragment of debt. Flesh. Blood. Real.Jace froze. His brother, the same brother he had seen crushed, burned, dead, stood before him, his clothes pristine, his eyes colder than the grave.“Adrian…” The name slipped from Jace’s throat like poison. “You’re supposed to be dead.”Adrian smirked, tilting his head. “Supposed to be. But you should know by now, little brother, suppositions mean nothing in this world.”The half-crown pulsed on Jace’s head,

The cavern shuddered like the heartbeat of some ancient beast. Dust rained down from the jagged ceiling, stones cracking under the pressure of thousands of barbed chains converging at once. Their screech filled the darkness, a sound of hunger and judgment.Jace stood at the cavern’s center, chest heaving, blood soaking his shirt, chains flickering like a dying flame. His knees trembled, but his eyes did not waver from Adrian, who sat enthroned in the black iron monstrosity, its barbs glowing like a crown of fire around his head.Adrian’s laughter reverberated off the obsidian walls. His voice was deeper now, layered, almost inhuman. “Do you feel it, brother? The weight of a thousand debts, all older than kingdoms, older than crowns. This is their womb… and it has chosen me.”The storm of chains shrieked as they descended.Jace gritted his teeth, raising his arms. His white-hot chains burst outward, wrapping into a desperate shield. The first wave of barbed iron slammed into it with an

The air on the platform felt wrong. It wasn’t just heavy, it was alive. Each breath Jace pulled into his lungs carried the stench of burning stone, of blood, and of something else he couldn’t name. It pressed on his chest like a weight, daring him to collapse.The creatures circling the edge of the platform hissed in unison, their claws scraping against stone, their glowing red eyes transfixed on him and… the other him.The double, The copy.No, something worse.This thing wore his skin, his scars, his chains, but what radiated from it was not human. It was hunger. Pure, perfected hunger.“Still standing?” the double said, his voice low and resonant, echoing unnaturally in the chamber. The grin he wore wasn’t just cruel, it was familiar. Too familiar.Jace had seen that grin before, in the faces of those who thought him weak, helpless, disposable. Only now, he was staring at it in the mirror of himself. Jace didn’t waste words.With a snap of his wrists, his chains lashed out like thun