Page 75 of Dark Bonds

Tall and regal, with a feminine grace that belies its otherworldly nature, the being towers over us. Its eyes are twin voids that seem to swallow all light and hope. My breath catches in my throat, lodging there like a shard of ice as realization dawns. I’m standing before Nyx herself—the primordial goddess of night, and the mother of all shadow shifters.

Her gaze pierces through me, stripping away all pretense and baring the very essence of my being. All my fears, doubts, and hidden strengths are exposed before her cosmic scrutiny. I feel naked and vulnerable before the vastness of eternity.

When Nyx speaks, her voice is soft yet all-encompassing, a whisper that resonates through the very fabric of reality. “Child of shadow and light,” she intones, each word heavy with the weight of eons, “you tread a path fraught with peril.”

I swallow hard, finding my voice despite the terror that threatens to choke me. “I... I never meant to summon you. Any of you. I was merely trying to defend myself.”

Nyx tilts her head, the gesture eerily human. “Your intentions don’t change what you’ve done, child. You can walk between worlds. It’s a rare gift, but it’s dangerous. It could make you powerful, or it could destroy you.”

I nod, words failing me in the face of such cosmic truth. Around us, the shadow creatures continue their ballet, their movements weaving complex patterns in the air that hurt the eyes.

Nyx turns her unfathomable gaze to Amanda and Chloe, who shrink back as if trying to disappear into themselves. “And you,” she says, her voice hardening to obsidian sharpness, “who would threaten one under my aegis. Do you truly comprehend the forces you so carelessly toy with?”

Amanda and Chloe shake their heads, abject terror evident in every line of their bodies.

“The true strength of a pack,” Nyx continues, her words echoing with primordial wisdom, “lies not in domination, but in harmony, in recognizing and embracing the unique strengths of each member. This is a lesson you would do well to inscribe upon your souls.”

With those words, she begins to fade, her form dissolving like smoke in the wind. The shadow realm follows suit, melting away like a fevered nightmare in the light of dawn. In the span of a heartbeat, we find ourselves standing once more in the familiar surroundings of the campus quad, the January sun a pale disk in a colorless sky.

For a long moment, none of us speak. We stand frozen, our minds struggling to process the cosmic horror we just witnessed.

Finally, Amanda breaks the suffocating silence. “This isn’t over,” she says, but her voice lacks its earlier venom. She grabs Chloe’s arm and practically drags her away, both casting fearful glances back at me as if I might summon unearthly horrors at any moment.

As they disappear around a corner, the strength leaves my body. I sink to my knees, exhausted and overwhelmed as the weight of this new reality crushes down upon me. What have I done? And more importantly, what does it mean for my future?

I can still see the fear in Amanda and Chloe’s eyes, a stark contrast to their earlier bravado. Will they back off now, or will this drive them to more desperate measures? As for me, the enormity of what just happened begins to sink in. I touched something ancient and terrifying, something I barely understand. The power thrums through my veins, both exhilarating and terrifying.

I need to talk to someone—Bishop, Leo, Matteo, even Dorian. I need answers, and I need them now. First, I need to pull myself together and figure out how to navigate this new reality without accidentally summoning eldritch horrors every time I feel threatened.

One thing is certain—the world as I knew it has irrevocably changed. This new power feels too heavy, like I just picked up a burden I wasn’t sure I could carry. I survived Valerie and endured the shield incident, but this is something else entirely, something bigger, more terrifying, and infinitely more dangerous.

She called me child of shadow and light…

Who the actual fuck am I?

Chapter 24

Frankie

My heart’sgoing a million miles an hour, and my hands are shaking so badly I can barely pick up my stuff. It’s like my body’s screaming at me to run, but my brain’s stuck in some kind of terrified loop. The urge to escape, to put as much distance between myself and the remnants of that otherworldly encounter, is overwhelming.

Frankie from two years ago would run, and my legs itch to do just that, but I don’t.

Instead, I dart to my dorm room, my feet barely touching the ground. My thoughts spiral like a maelstrom, each memory of the shadow realm a jagged shard cutting through my sanity. The familiar corridors of the dorm twist and warp in my vision as reality itself seems to bend under the weight of what I experienced. Am I losing my mind, or has the world truly changed?

An ache beats at the sides of my temples, sharp then dull.

I burst through my door, hurling my things inside with reckless abandon. They scatter across the floor, a physical manifestation of my chaotic thoughts.

The promise I made to Tori about lunch flits through my mind. Lunch feels like a distant dream now, as foreign as the realm I just witnessed.

What I need is... God, I don’t even know. Understanding? Comfort? Oblivion?

My heart’s going a mile a minute, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to puke. What the hell just happened? One minute, I’m facing down the mean girls, and the next, I’m in some cosmic horror show. In broad daylight. On campus.

I’m in over my head.

My eyes dart to the clock on the wall, its hands seeming to mock me as they point to nearly eleven. Bishop is teaching, Dorian is with Professor Blackwood, and Tori’s in class. The people I’d normally turn to are out of reach.

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