Page 42 of Echoes From the Void
“I always knew this day would come,” she says softly, shadows gathering around her like a protective shroud. “I just hoped... I hoped I’d have more time.”
Through our pack bonds, I feel their support—steady and sure despite the distance. But this... this I need to face alone.
“More time for what?” I demand, struggling to keep my voice level. “To tell me about the father I apparently had? The one who died upholding his oath?”
She sighs, moving to an ornate cabinet I’ve never been allowed to open. Ancient wards shimmer as she unlocks it. “Your father was... complicated. A brilliant Guardian, but also a visionary. He saw the flaws in our system long before others did.”
“And you never thought to mention him?” The hurt in my voice surprises even me. A nearby artifact vibrates in response to my turbulent emotions.
“It wasn’t safe,” she says, withdrawing a small wooden box covered in protection runes. “Your father made powerful enemies with his ideas about reforming the Guardians. When he died... I had to protect you.”
Anger surges through me, making my Guardian marks flare. “Biological or?—”
“Biological.” The word falls between us like a stone. She sets the box on her desk with trembling hands. “Your father... was my brother.”
My knees buckle. I collapse into a chair, nausea swimming through me as decades of careful lies unravel. The room seems to spin as I struggle to process her words. “Your... brother?”
“Yes.” She steadies herself against her desk, shoulders bearing the weight of long-held secrets. “Your father was my older brother, Elias Mercer.”
“But... how? Why?” Each question feels inadequate against the magnitude of this betrayal.
Her fingers trace the intricate carvings on the box, protection runes glowing at her touch. “Elias and I were always close, even for twins. We shared everything—including our dreams for a better Guardian system. But where I worked within the system, Elias... he wanted to tear it all down and rebuild.”
The room fills with the hum of contained power as more artifacts respond to our emotional turmoil. Through the packbonds, I feel their growing concern, but I push reassurance back. Not yet. I need to understand first.
“He believed the Guardians had lost their way,” she continues, her voice carrying the weight of old grief. “That we’d become more focused on control than protection. He wanted to return to the old ways, when Guardians and shifters worked together as equals.”
The irony of my recent actions in the Council chamber isn’t lost on me. “What happened?”
She shakes her head, tears gathering in her eyes. “The Council didn’t kill him. But they might as well have. They stripped him of his powers, his position, everything he’d worked for. He was exiled.”
“But you said he died upholding his oath.”
“He did,” she nods, opening the box to reveal a silver pendant thrumming with stored memories. “Just not in the way most think. Your father never stopped being a Guardian at heart. He continued his work in secret, protecting shifters from those who would exploit them.”
“Like Valerie & Blackwood,” I breathe, understanding dawning with horrific clarity.
“Exactly. Your father was investigating their experiments when...” She trails off, shadows gathering around her like a shroud of grief. “When they caught him. What they did to him... it was worse than death.”
The room feels too small suddenly, centuries of Guardian power pressing in like a tomb. “So where do I come in?”
She takes a deep breath. “Elias had fallen in love with a shadow shifter during his exile. When he realized Valerie & Blackwood were closing in, they ran.”
My newly sealed pack bonds pulse with shared pain as I grip the chair arms, anchoring myself. “My mother... my birth mother...”
“Died in childbirth,” she whispers, tears finally falling. “Your father’s last act before they killed him was hiding you in the human system. It took me years to find you.”
I sit in stunned silence, trying to absorb the weight of this revelation. My entire life, my very identity, suddenly feels like a carefully constructed lie. The artifacts around us vibrate with barely contained power, responding to my turmoil. And yet... the pieces fit. The unexplained gaps in my childhood, the whispered conversations that stopped when I entered rooms, the way my mother—aunt—always pushed me to question authority while still working within the system.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I finally manage, my voice barely above a whisper.
She reaches across the desk, her hand hovering near mine but not quite touching. “I wanted to protect you. The enemies your father made... they’re still out there. And I needed you to form your own opinions about the Guardians, about our world, without the weight of his legacy.”
I laugh bitterly. “So instead, you let me believe I was unwanted. A charity case you took in out of the goodness of your heart.”
Pain flashes across her face. “Bishop, no. You were never unwanted. I loved you from the moment Elias placed you in my arms. You were—are—my son in every way that matters.”
“Except biology,” I mutter, unable to keep the hurt from my voice.
