Page 94 of Echoes From the Void

Frankie props herself up on an elbow, catching my shift in tone through our bond. “The shadow-pushed collection?”

“Yes.” My frost spreads unconsciously as concern grows. “They’re in a temporally sealed chamber beneath us. With the curse broken...” I sit up, implications hitting hard. “The seals were tied to my curse-bound essence. They might not be stable anymore.”

Through our bond, I feel her quick strategic assessment, shadows coiling with sudden alertness. “How many?”

“Seventeen. All the ones you pushed through shadows that I managed to catch and contain.” I start reaching for my clothes, new urgency pressing. “We should check. Now.”

“Seventeen?” Frankie sits up, her shadows writhing with sudden tension. “Where exactly in this library are they?”

“Sub-basement level.” I gesture vaguely downward while searching for my shirt. “Through the old card catalog room that everyone thinks is storage. I’ve been containing them in a temporally locked chamber.”

“In the library.” Her tone is flat, though her shadows betray her concern. “You’ve been keeping seventeen dangerous criminals in the university library.”

“Where else would I keep them? The student union?” I try for dignity despite being half-dressed, my frost patterns betraying my growing unease. “Besides, the temporal containment merged well with the library’s existing wards. And I had easy access for monitoring.”

“How very... practical of you.” Through our bond, I feel her amusement warring with concern. “Should we get the others?”

I pause in rebuttoning my shirt, considering. The curse’s absence makes thinking clearer, more immediate. “Perhaps just Bishop. If the containment is failing, his Guardian magic might help stabilize it.”

“And if it’s not failing?”

“Then we can all go back to pretending I don’t have a makeshift prison under the classics section.”

Frankie stands, her shadows helping her locate scattered clothing. “Only you would hide a secret detention facility behind the card catalogs.”

“They’re an excellent organizational system that deserved better than digital obsolescence,” I say primly, frost betraying my attempt at scholarly distance. The curse might be gone, but some habits remain.

“Of course that’s what you focus on.” She finishes dressing and reaches for me, her essence automatically twining with mine. “Alright, show me this absolutely-not-concerning secret prison of yours.”

The card catalog room feels different as we descend—colder, wrong somehow. My newly mortal senses prickle with unease even before we reach the hidden door. Without the curse’s protection, I feel the wrongness more acutely.

“Something’s not right,” Frankie murmurs, her shadows stretching ahead of us like dark tentacles. “The air feels...”

“Corrupt,” I finish, frost patterns spreading unconsciously across the walls. The temporal locks I’ve maintained for months hang broken, their complex patterns shattered like ice. Without my curse-bound essence to sustain them, they’ve failed completely.

When the chamber door swings open, the emptiness hits like a physical blow. Where seventeen contained criminals should be, there’s only void-touched darkness eating through the floor. My frost recoils from it instinctively.

“No,” I breathe, watching my patterns crack and splinter as they touch the corruption. “The containment was perfect. I checked it daily.”

Frankie’s shadows probe the corruption, recoiling instantly. Through our bond, I feel her horror. “Dorian, this isn’t just void energy. It’s... hungry.”

She’s right. The darkness writhes with unnatural purpose, consuming everything it touches. My newly mortal senses scream danger as I watch her reach further with her powers, tracking the spread.

“It’s under the whole island,” she says, voice tight. “The void isn’t just pressing in from outside—it’s eating its way up through the ground. And they...” She stops, shadows curling with horror.

I know what she’s sensing. The void didn’t just free our prisoners.

It consumed them.

Used their essence to grow stronger.

“We need to warn the others.” My voice sounds distant even to my own ears, frost spreading in erratic patterns. “If it’s coming up from below...”

“The whole campus is compromised.” Frankie’s already reaching for shadows, preparing to transport us. “Everything we thought was safe...”

“Isn’t.” I take her offered hand, letting her shadows wrap around us. My last glimpse of the chamber shows void corruption spreading up the walls like hungry veins, my frost powerless to stop it.

We emerge in the cafeteria where we left the others. The party’s warmth feels obscene now, knowing what lurks beneath our feet. Through our new bond, I feel Frankie’s emotions crash against mine—horror at the loss, determination to protect, and underneath it all, a terrible certainty.

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