Page 39 of Echoes From the Void

Bishop’s newly sealed bond pulses through me, giving me strength, but the memory takes hold anyway.

I stumble, but the pack bonds catch me—stronger now since claiming Bishop and Leo. Through them, I feel their fury at what was done to us, their protective instincts roaring. Tori’s shadows reach for Finn instinctively as he steadies himself against our shared pain.

“Frankie.” Finn’s voice pulls me back, his hand finding mine. “Look.”

Our wolves and foxes have merged, creating creatures that shouldn’t exist—ethereal beings with wolf-like power and fox-like grace. Their forms shift between shadow and light, leaving trails of starlight and darkness. Shadow wolves with foxfire eyes, light foxes with shadow-tipped tails. Like us, they’re neither one thing nor the other, but something entirely new.

“The old asylum,” I breathe as another memory surfaces. “That’s where she is. That’s where she took us first. Locke Manor.”

Through our twin bond, I feel Finn’s memories align with mine. The long hallway stretches before us in shared memory, shadows writhing unnaturally against sterile walls.

Valerie stands at the top of the steps, her smile radiant with terrible purpose.

“Frankie, are you listening to me?” Her voice cuts through the years, sharp as a blade.

I remember trying to memorize everything on those rare trips outside my cell. But this time was different. This time she wanted to show me something.

“What’s down there?” My voice echoes with past fear.

Valerie’s smile widens, predatory and proud. “That, my dear, is where the real work begins. Where we’ll unlock your true potential.”

The memory shifts—a heavy metal door etched with pulsing blue symbols. The scent of antiseptic barely masking something worse. Valerie’s hand on my shoulder, deceptively gentle.

“Come,” she commands. “It’s time you met the others.”

“Where are we?” Keep her talking. Always keep her talking.

“Locke Manor, silly goose.” Her girlish giggle bounces off cold walls as she skips down the hall, each step precise despite her apparent whimsy.

Fear crawls up my spine now just as it did then. When Valerie was excited, terror was the only sane response.

The memory fades, but the emotions linger—fear, anxiety, horror. Through our twin bond, I feel Finn trembling with similar memories. One of his foxes breaks away to curl around Tori’s feet, seeking comfort. Her shadows automatically wrap around it, protective and sure.

“Are you sure?” Bishop moves closer, Guardian marks blazing. Since our bonding, his protective instincts have only grown stronger.

“I’m positive.” My tongue darts out to wet my lips, muscle memory from days of dehydration. Beside me, Finn moves with growing strength, his movements still careful but steady. Tori’s presence seems to ground him, her shadows unconsciously supporting his light whenever he pushes too hard. He’s not fully recovered, but he’s strong enough to fight. “We can use the memories to track her.”

“Frankie, using these memories to track her—” Bishop pauses, concern pulsing through our bond.

“Will hurt,” I finish. “I know. But she has answers we need.”

“About Mother,” Finn adds softly. A light fox nudges his hand as our twin bond pulses with shared purpose. Through his touch, I feel echoes of other memories—Mother’s hands glowing as she worked complex shadow magic, Blackwood watching through observation windows, Valerie’s voice echoing: “The perfect vessels... light and shadow bound in mortal form...”

“No.” Matteo’s voice carries pure alpha energy despite being my beta, his fangs flashing. “It’s too dangerous. The trauma could?—”

“Could show us exactly what we need to know,” I cut him off. “Teo, I love that you want to protect us. But some battles we have to choose.”

“She’s right,” Dr. Sharma says from her monitoring station. Her knowing eyes track between Finn and Tori before settling on me. “Sometimes healing requires facing the wound’s source. And sometimes... new bonds can make us stronger for the fight.”

Leo steps forward, his sunshine presence wrapping around us all. “Then we face it together. Pack and family.” His grin turns mischievous. “And maybe future pack?”

“Leo,” I warn, but I can’t help noticing how Finn’s light brightens at the suggestion, or how Tori’s shadows reach unconsciously toward him.

The wolves and foxes howl—all of them, shadow and light and something in between. But another howl answers—corrupted and wrong, yet carrying traces of something human. The shadow beasts outside recognize us, like remembering what they once were. In their voices, I hear an echo of our father’s distant roar, but also the cries of other children from Valerie’s labs.

“Got it,” Dorian announces, though his eyes linger on the way Tori’s shadows seem drawn to Finn’s light. “The resonance pattern in their merged power—it’s creating a beacon. Like a supernatural GPS pointing straight to?—”

“The asylum’s sub-basement,” Finn finishes grimly. “Where she kept the failed experiments.”

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