Page 36 of Collar Me Crazy (Hollow Oak Mates #8)
SONYA
T he first thing Sonya noticed as they crested the hill overlooking Hollow Oak was the silence. No church bells calling people to Thanksgiving service, no children's laughter from the square, no warm glow of magical lights welcoming the holiday morning.
Instead, the town lay shrouded in unnatural darkness despite the sunrise, shadows pooling in every corner like spilled ink.
"We're too late," Ryker said from his truck's radio, their vehicles traveling in convoy down the mountain road.
"No." Sonya pressed harder on the accelerator, their partially repaired bond vibrating with urgency. "We're exactly when we need to be."
But as they reached the outskirts of town, the true scope of the disaster became clear.
Massive tears in reality zigzagged across the landscape, each one bleeding shadow creatures into their world.
The protective wards that had guarded Hollow Oak for generations lay in ruins, their carved stones cracked and lifeless.
"The Veil isn't just damaged," Sonya breathed into her radio. "It's shredded."
Through the largest tear, positioned directly over the town square, something vast and hungry pressed against the barriers between worlds.
Not fully manifesting yet, but close enough that its presence warped reality around it.
Buildings twisted at impossible angles, gravity flowing in wrong directions, time itself stuttering like a broken clock.
"Where is everyone?" Ryker's voice carried static from magical interference.
Sonya extended her seer abilities, searching for the familiar signatures of their friends and community. What she found made her blood run cold.
"They're trapped," she said. "All of them, caught in some kind of stasis field near the square. The Void has them, but it's not feeding yet."
"Why not?"
"Because it's waiting for us." She pulled into the town limits, noting how her car's engine began to stutter in the chaotic magical field. "It wants the eighth bond, Ryker. Completed or corrupted, it doesn't care which."
They abandoned their vehicles at the edge of the business district, the magical interference too intense for electronics to function.
Shadow creatures moved through the streets like black smoke, but they didn't attack—they herded, driving Sonya and Ryker deeper into town toward whatever trap the Void had prepared.
"This feels wrong," Ryker said, his hand finding hers as they walked. "Too easy."
"Because it is easy. We're walking exactly where it wants us to go." Sonya squeezed his fingers, drawing strength from their reconnection. "But we don't have a choice. The others are counting on us."
The town square opened before them like a scene from a nightmare.
The seven mated couples stood frozen in a perfect circle, their bodies locked in place by threads of shadow that pulsed with malevolent energy.
Their eyes were open, aware, filled with terror as they watched the massive tear above them continue to widen.
And through that tear, the Void's true form was beginning to manifest.
Not a creature, but an absence given shape. A hungry nothing that devoured light, sound, hope itself. Where it touched reality, things simply ceased to exist, leaving wounds in the fabric of existence that bled darkness into their world.
"The seer arrives," a voice said from everywhere and nowhere, carrying the weight of eons. "And brings her mate to witness the end of all things."
"Let them go," Sonya called toward the manifestation. "Your fight is with us, not them."
"My fight is with existence itself. They are merely the first course." The Void's attention turned toward her like a searchlight, and she felt her mind invaded by alien hunger. "But you, little seer, you shall serve a different purpose."
Shadow tendrils erupted from the ground around them, moving faster than thought. Ryker shifted instantly, his massive wolf form batting away the attacks with supernatural speed, but there were too many. For every tendril he destroyed, three more took its place.
"Sonya, run!" he snarled, positioning himself between her and the advancing shadows.
"I'm not leaving you again!"
But even as she spoke, she realized the tendrils weren't trying to capture them both. They were separating them, driving Ryker back while creating a corridor that led directly toward the Void's manifestation. A trap designed specifically for her.
"Your mate cannot help you here," the entity said with satisfaction. "In the realm between worlds, flesh means nothing. But consciousness, memory, the ability to see across possibilities, that has value beyond measure."
The shadows surged forward in a coordinated assault.
Ryker's wolf fought with desperate fury, his claws tearing through supernatural flesh while his howls of rage echoed across the square.
But the shadow creatures weren't trying to kill him, they were containing him, keeping him occupied while other tendrils reached for Sonya.
"Use our bond!" she called to him. "Channel through our connection!"
"Trying!" His mental voice was strained with effort as he battled creatures that reformed faster than he could destroy them.
A shadow tendril wrapped around Sonya's ankle, burning like ice against her skin. She tried to pull away, but more shadows joined the first, climbing her body like living ropes. Where they touched, her strength drained away, leaving her weak and disoriented.
"Stop fighting," the Void commanded, its voice echoing inside her skull. "Your resistance only delays the inevitable."
"The hell it does." Sonya reached for her seer abilities, trying to project a vision that might disrupt the entity's concentration. But the moment she opened her mind, the Void's consciousness slammed into hers like a battering ram.
Pain beyond description flooded her senses as the entity forced its way into her thoughts, tearing through her memories and abilities with casual brutality. She felt it cataloging her visions, studying her connections to the other couples, learning everything it needed to destroy them all.
"Such clarity," the Void murmured with pleasure. "Such perfect sight across possibility and time. You will show me the location of every supernatural sanctuary, every hidden community, every place where light dares to shine in the darkness."
"Never." The word came out as a gasp as shadows lifted her from the ground, carrying her toward the massive tear in reality.
"You will," the entity said with certainty. "When I am finished breaking your mind, you will beg to serve my purposes."
Ryker's howl of fury split the air as he saw her being carried away. His wolf form blazed with power as he tried to fight through the shadow creatures, but they pressed him back with relentless efficiency.
"Ryker!" she called, but the shadows muffled her voice, stealing the sound before it could reach him.
The last thing she saw before the darkness claimed her was his green eyes, wild with desperation and love, as the Void dragged her consciousness into the space between worlds.
Where no one could follow, and no one could save her.
Where the entity would have all the time it needed to break her mind and use her gift to destroy everything she'd ever cared about.
But as the Void's realm closed around her, she held tight to one truth: Ryker would come for her. Somehow, someway, he would find a way to reach her.
He had to.
Because the alternative was the end of everything.