Page 61 of Echoes From the Void
“Am I? The prophecy speaks of twins. Light and shadow merged. A perfect bridge.” He gestures at the files surrounding us, each one a testament to his methodical cruelty. “Every child I selected, every subject I sent to the labs—it was all to understand the process. To perfect it. To find the right combination.”
“By torturing children,” Finn’s voice carries years of laboratory pain. His light reaches for my shadows, seeking balance against old trauma.
“By advancing evolution.” Marcus flips through his clipboard, unbothered by the pack’s growing rage. “Take Subject 23—remarkable shadow affinity, but couldn’t handle the light infusion. Subject 45 showed promise with light manipulation, but the shadows consumed her. Each failure brought us closer to understanding.”
His clinical detachment makes my wolves bristle. All those kids, reduced to numbers and data points. Lab rats for his twisted interpretation of prophecy. Through our bonds, I feel the pack’s unified purpose crystallizing.
“The prophecy isn’t about forced evolution,” Bishop says, Guardian marks pulsing with centuries of true knowledge. “It’s about natural balance.”
“Balance?” Marcus laughs. “Nature is failing. The realms are collapsing. We need to force evolution, to create perfect hybrids who can bridge the divide. And now...” His gaze slides between me and Finn, making our twin bond flare with protective instinct. “Now we have the original twins. Imagine what we could learn from studying you both. How many realms we could save with your sacrifice.”
“Prophecy.” Matteo’s voice cuts through Marcus’s zealous rambling. Cold. Final. The pack bonds thrum with deadly intent. “You keep using that word. Like it justifies everything.”
Before Marcus can respond, Matteo moves. Not with shadow or magic, but with pure predatory grace. One moment he’s across the room, the next his hand is around Marcus’s throat. Through our bond, I feel his perfect control—the healer choosing to end a source of pain.
“The blood reveals everything,” Matteo says softly. “Every child. Every experiment. Every moment you played savior while selling kids to labs.”
A quick twist. A sharp crack.
Marcus crumples, his clipboard clattering against the basement floor. His perfectly pressed suit wrinkles as he falls. In death, he looks smaller. Just a man who thought he could play god with children’s lives.
“Well,” Leo breaks the silence, his shadows finally lightening, “that was anticlimactic.”
Through our various bonds, I feel their grim satisfaction. No dramatic showdown. No grand battle. Just swift justice for a bureaucrat who forgot that monsters aren’t always the ones in cages.
“We need to—” Bishop starts.
“Burn it,” Finn says quietly, his light pulsing with certainty. “All of it.”
The pack bonds resonate with unanimous agreement. No grand speeches about justice or vengeance. Just the quiet work of erasing a monster’s legacy, file by file.
The prophecy can wait. The dying realms can wait.
Tonight, we burn the evidence of one man’s twisted vision. Tomorrow, we figure out how to save the kids he left behind.
But for now, watching the files turn to ash, feeling the pack’s unity and my twin’s understanding, I feel something close to peace.
Sometimes justice is quiet.
Sometimes it just sounds like a clipboard falling in a dark basement.
Sometimes that’s enough.
Chapter 21
Frankie
“The pack house?”Leo suggests as we all stand exhausted in Shadow Locke’s parking lot. Through our various bonds, I feel their collective need for sanctuary, for a moment of peace. “I mean, we did technically pay for the whole semester...”
“God yes,” I breathe, then catch Finn shifting awkwardly beside me. Through our twin bond, I feel his hesitation, his glance toward where Tori waits by her car. His light pulses with uncertainty that makes my shadows want to soothe. “What?”
“I just... maybe...” He flushes deep red. “Could Tori come? For movies or whatever? Just... not ready to be alone after everything...”
“Oh my god,” Leo stage-whispers to Matteo, his shadows dancing with delight. “Baby shadow twin has a crush.”
Matteo tries and fails to hide his smile. “Like you were any smoother when you first met Frankie.”
“I was perfectly smooth!”
