Page 106 of Echoes From the Void

The mate bonds pulse with growing desperation. Matteo’s predator nature howls through our connection, the sound carrying centuries of protective instinct. Leo’s sunshine tries to burn away the void’s corruption, while Bishop’s Guardian magic searches frantically for ways to stabilize the degrading space. Dorian’s power feels like it’s fracturing, his immortal nature fighting against the void’s hunger.

But the whispers continue, growing stronger. Growing hungry. The void learns from each defense we mount, adapting and evolving with terrible speed.

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The fourth surge doesn’t just test our defenses.

It shatters them.

Everything happens in fragments of eternal seconds. Time loses meaning as reality fractures around us. Our protective sphere splinters like glass hit with sonic force, each broken piece carrying equations of light and shadow that dissolve into hungry nothing. My wolves and Finn’s foxes cry out in harmonies that shouldn’t exist as void-stuff pours between us, separating light from shadow.

Finn’s hand is torn from mine despite our desperate grip. The twin bond stretches tissue-thin, sending spikes of agony through my skull as our very essences begin to separate. My stomach heaves as the void starts to consume the spaces between us, learning to devour the very thing that makes us whole.

“FINN!”

His name tears from my throat as I watch corruption wrap around him like hungry smoke. His light flares in desperate defense—so bright it hurts to look at, even here where lightshouldn’t exist. Our twin bond stretches impossibly as the void pulls him deeper.

The last thing I see is his face—not afraid, but fierce. Determined. The same expression he wore when we first found each other, when we swore nothing would separate us again. His lips form words I can’t hear through the roaring chaos:

I love you, sister.

Then he’s gone.

The silence that follows feels like death.

My wolves throw back their heads and howl—a sound of primal loss that echoes through spaces that haven’t known sound since the beginning of time. The alpha female’s cry carries centuries of pack grief, while her mate’s deeper voice holds notes that make reality itself shudder. Their chorus reaches through the void, searching for any trace of their fox companions.

My shadows explode outward, desperate tendrils searching through that endless dark. Each one carries a piece of my essence, spreading thin as they reach through impossible geometries. The void learns from each probe, its hunger adapting to consume shadow as easily as it took light.

Through the mate bonds, I feel their shared agony. Matteo’s predator nature thrashes against the barriers separating us, his need to protect overwhelming rational thought. Leo’s sunshine dims with grief, while Bishop’s Guardian magic threatens to shatter under the strain. Dorian’s immortal essence reaches through time itself, trying to find paths that don’t end in separation.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Then...

Frankie?

His voice whispers through our bond—distant, distorted, but undeniably alive. The sound sends tremors through my shadow essence, relief warring with terror as I feel how wrong his light has become.

Can you hear me?

“Finn!” I reach through that gossamer connection, trying to trace it back to him. The void writhes around my probing shadows, learning, adapting, hungering. “Where are you? I can’t-”

Follow the echoes,his voice comes again, weaker now. Each word carries harmonic distortions that make my wolves whimper.Remember what Mother taught us... before...

The bond pulses with fragments of memory—not mine, but his. A woman’s voice singing in shadow-speak, her words carrying mathematical precision that defines safe paths through dangerous spaces. Equations of light and darkness carved into nursery walls, each one a map through realities that shouldn’t exist. The space between dimensions where twins can never truly be separated, where balance itself was born.

Above me, reality continues to fracture. Through gaps in the void, I catch glimpses of the world we left: my pack fighting through waves of fleeing shadow beasts, their combined power a beacon in the growing dark. The campus crumbles as corruption spreads, ancient wards failing as the void learns to consume them. The sky itself begins to unravel, equations of reality dissolving into hungry nothing.

Follow...Finn’s voice fades further, carrying notes that shouldn’t exist.Before it’s too late...

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