Page 4 of Echoes From the Void
The void churnsbeyond the barriers, a hungry darkness consuming what’s left of campus, but my attention fixes on my mother’s Lexus, winding up the bridge to Shadow Locke. Even from this distance, I can see her driving with the same precise care she uses in surgery—hands at exactly ten and two, speed precisely at the limit. The discipline she drilled into me from childhood, back when she thought control could tame what lurked beneath my skin.
“That’s definitely your mom,” Leo says from his perch on the stone wall beside me. “No one else would make a Lexus look like it’s performing a medical procedure.” His usual playful tone carries an edge of tension. We both know why she’s here—the twins’ deteriorating condition has forced us to call in every healer we can trust.
My shadows ripple beneath the surface, responding to the memory of Finn’s pain, Frankie’s distress. I focus on my breathing, the way Mama taught me during my first violent outburst. Four counts in, hold for seven, release for eight. The technique that kept me calm through Delhi traffic now barely contains the predator inside me.
“She used to make me practice parallel parking for hours,” I say, watching darkness pool between my fingers before forcing it back. “Said if I could handle a car with that kind of precision, maybe I’d learn to control my temper. Back then, we thought rage was my biggest problem.” A bitter laugh escapes. “If only she knew what I was really fighting.”
“Did it work?” Leo shifts closer, his warmth a counterpoint to my shadows.
I glance at my hands, where darkness swirls like ink in water. “What do you think?”
“Dude, you’re going to break your hands if you keep that up,” Leo notes, and I force my fingers to uncurl, not having realized I was clenching them. The familiar itch of violence simmers under my skin, worse now that I’m part of Frankie’s pack. Every shadow feels like a potential threat to my family—both old and new.
“Stop overthinking,” Leo murmurs. “Your shadows get all weird when you do that. Like that time in Mumbai when those guys were harassing your cousin and you nearly?—”
“We agreed never to talk about Mumbai,” I growl, but there’s no heat in it. Not for Leo. Never for Leo.
“You’re extra broody,” Leo says, hopping down from the wall and stretching lazily. “Ever since Frankie let us into her space, your shadows have been doing that thing. You know, like when your mom caught us in your room last summer and you tried to pretend we were studying calculus.”
Heat crawls up my neck. “That’s not?—”
“It absolutely is. Want me to distract her with my legendary charm?”
“Your legendary charm once made Bishop threaten to turn you into a shadow puppet.”
“Yeah, but he was smiling when he said it.”
“He really wasn’t.”
The car stops, and Dr. Priya Sharma steps out, every inch the accomplished physician in her elegant salwar kameez and white coat. Her dark hair is streaked with more silver than I remember from her last visit, but she moves with the same quiet grace that commanded respect in operating rooms across Delhi. The sight of her sends me back to childhood—the scent of her healing herbs, watching her work miracles in the free clinic she ran after hours, learning control through her endless patience.
Then she sees me, and she’s just Mama, arms opening wide.
“Beta,” she breathes as I fold myself into her embrace. I have to bend nearly double—I forgot how tiny she is. Her familiar scent of cardamom and antiseptic wraps around me, and for a moment I’m a child again, safe knowing that Mama can fix anything. “My sweet boy.”
Then she stiffens. Her healer’s energy, always so warm and gentle, recoils from the shadows coiled inside me. I feel the exact moment she senses what I’ve become—the predator lurking beneath my carefully maintained control. The monster that can tear shadow beasts apart with the same precision she uses to heal.
“You feel...” she starts, then stops, her healer’s senses clearly overwhelmed by the darkness in my aura.
Before either of us can speak, alarms blare across campus. Shadow beast proximity warnings. My body moves on instinct, shifting to shield my mother as I scan for threats. The shadows under my skin writhe with anticipation, eager for violence. For the hunt.
“Matteo,” she breathes, and I hear decades of peaceful teachings in that tone. The same voice that once talked me down from destroying a boy who’d hurt my cousin. “What has happened to you?”
“Mrs. Sharma!” Leo bounds over, radiating the charm that’s gotten us out of trouble since middle school. He deliberatelyplaces himself between us, playing buffer like he has since the day my shadows first manifested in PE class. “I’m Leo, your son’s best friend and hopefully future pack member. Though you probably remember me from that time I broke your favorite vase trying to save Matteo from his terrible cricket form.”
My mother blinks at this whirlwind of energy, momentarily distracted from my transformation. The way Leo can defuse tension with a smile has always amazed me. It’s one of the many reasons I lo—trust him so completely.
“Pack?” She looks between us, her keen eyes noting everything—how we unconsciously orient toward each other, the way Leo’s shoulder brushes mine, the shadows that curl around us both. “You mean like the old stories? The packs that always centered around a matriarch, with her chosen protectors?”
Another alarm sounds, closer this time. I growl—actually growl—and my mother’s eyes widen. The sound is pure predator, nothing of her gentle son remaining.
“We need to get to the medical wing,” I say, forcing my voice level. Leo’s hand brushes against my lower back as he moves to my side—a casual touch that sends heat through my veins despite the situation. “It’s not safe out here. The void is consuming the campus.”
“Since when is my son concerned with safety?” She allows me to guide her toward the building, but her healer’s eyes miss nothing—including the way Leo and I move in perfect sync, years of shared history evident in every step. “You were always the one running into traffic to save stray dogs, climbing trees to rescue birds. And dragging poor Leo into every adventure.”
“That was different.”
“Was it?” Her gaze flicks between us. “You two are... closer than before. Like your father and I after our arranged marriage turned to love.”
