Page 58 of Echoes From the Void

I force myself up, legs shaking so badly I have to lean against the wall. The barking gets louder. Valerie’spets, trained to hunt down escapees. To bring us back for “correction.”

Really live.

In the perfect darkness, I start moving again. Each step feels impossible, my atrophied muscles screaming in protest. But I keep going.

Because Dr. Chen died to give me this chance.

Because Valerie will never stop hunting me.

Because sometimes living is the hardest choice of all.

The barking echoes closer. The darkness presses in. But I keep moving.

One step.

Another.

Another.

For Dr. Chen, who chose to help instead of hurt.

For the girl I was before the asylum.

For the woman I might become if I survive this tunnel.

The dogs are getting closer, but so is freedom. And sometimes survival isn’t just about living—it’s about defiance. About choosing to move forward even when everything tries to hold you back.

I walk through the darkness.

Away from Valerie.

Away from the ballroom.

Away from five years of carefully measured torture.

Because Dr. Chen was right.

Living—really living—is all any of us can do.

Even if we have to bleed for it.

Even if others have to die for it.

Even if we have to walk through darkness to find it.

One step at a time.

Chapter 20

Frankie

Blood magic pulsesagainst Bishop’s tactical maps, each coordinate burning like a dying star. I’ve spent three hours staring at these patterns, watching Matteo extract information from the rescued child’s corrupted blood. Through our newly sealed pack bonds, I feel his struggle to be gentle with the extraction despite his rage. Three hours of piecing together a horror I should have seen years ago.

“Here.” My finger trembles as I touch a familiar location, making my shadows writhe and coil. The void’s presence pulses against Shadow Locke’s barriers, making reality shimmer at the edges of my vision. “The strongest trail leads to Morrow Bay Shelter.”

Through our twin bond, I feel Finn’s attention shift from where he’s helping Matteo’s mother tend to the child—another victim of Valerie’s experiments, barely ten years old and already showing signs of corrupted essence. His horror bleeds into mine as memories surface—his clinical cage in Blackwood’s lab, my supposed sanctuary at the shelter.

Different cages, same monsters.

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