Chapter 20 · Inside the Last Bell

"Get the hell away from her!"

Leo’s voice didn’t just echo—it ripped through the vault like a blade. I froze, boots skidding on the cold obsidian floor. Behind me, Dax’s grip tightened on my wrist. Hard. Desperate. Like he was trying to anchor me before the world dissolved.

"Mara, don't listen to it," Dax hissed. His voice was ragged, stripped of that polished Judge authority. "It's a ghost. A glitch. It's not him."

I wrenched my arm back. The friction of his sleeve against my skin felt like a burn. "He just called my name, Dax! He sounded real!"

"Nothing in here is real!" Dax stepped forward, his boots booming against the stone. "The Bell is fracturing. It’s pulling echoes of people who died a dozen different ways. If you follow that voice, you're walking into a meat grinder."

Above us, the Last Bell hung like a dead god. A massive, rusted bronze sphere etched with runes that bled a sickly gold. It wasn't ringing. It was shuddering. Every few seconds, a metallic groan vibrated right through my teeth.

"Lia!"

The voice came again, closer now, drifting from the shadow of the gears. "Lia, run!