Page 37 of Echoes From the Void (Shadow Locke Shifters #3)

Chapter 36

Frankie

The void doesn’t feel like darkness.

That’s the first thing I realize as Finn and I descend into that impossible space. Darkness implies absence—of light, of warmth, of substance. But this... this feels like presence . Like hunger given form. Like the space between heartbeats stretched into infinity. My wolves bristle beneath my skin, their instincts screaming that we were never meant to exist here.

Through our twin bond, I feel Finn’s heart racing in perfect synchronization with mine. His fear tastes like copper on my tongue, sharp and metallic against the void’s ancient hunger.

Our merged power creates a sphere of protection around us, my shadows and Finn’s light weaving into patterns we somehow remember from before birth. Ancient sigils of protection that our mother must have sung to us in the womb, that our father’s essence carved into our very bones. Each symbol pulses with memory— safe-protect-shield-love —in our mother’s voice, soft and sure as starlight.

The mate bonds stretch thin behind us, four distinct songs of power straining to maintain connection through impossible space. Matteo’s feels like steel cable wrapped in velvet, Leo’s like summer lightning, Bishop’s like ancient books bound in leather, Dorian’s like frost patterns on glass. Each one trembles as the void tests their strength.

“It’s beautiful,” Finn whispers, his voice already distorting in this place where sound shouldn’t exist. His hand tightens in mine as we watch our powers dance. “Like we’re remembering something we never knew we forgot.”

A flash of memory hits me—not mine, but his. A nursery painted with equations of light and dark. A woman’s voice singing protection spells in shadow-speak while her belly swells with twin life. The first time our powers touched, still safe in the womb, light and shadow playing tag through amniotic fluid.

But beneath that beauty, something writhes. The void pulses with wrong rhythms, arrhythmic hunger that makes my shadows twist uneasily. Through our twin bond, I feel Finn’s light flicker in response. My stomach lurches as reality warps around us, the very fabric of space learning to hunger.

“Something’s not right,” he says, and this time the distortion in his voice carries edge of fear. “The resonance patterns—they’re all wrong. Like-”

“Like it’s learning from us,” I finish. Around our sphere of protection, the void’s darkness ripples with impossible colors. Colors that shouldn’t exist, that hurt to look at. Colors that make my wolves howl in warning. The sound echoes through my bones, making my teeth ache with frequencies that were never meant to exist in our reality.

Finn’s foxes materialize in response, their forms wavering as they try to maintain substance in this place between places. One particularly brave kit—the russet one with the scarred ear that always makes my fiercest wolf gentle—presses against my leg, its light pulsing with determination that makes my heart ache.

Shadow-wolf and light-fox touch noses briefly, ancient enemies finding peace in their chosen family. The wolf whines softly, licking the fox’s ear while their powers twine together, creating something new, something that should have had years to develop naturally.

We should have had this from the beginning. Should have grown up together, our powers complementing each other naturally. Should have had years of fox kits playing with wolf pups, of light and shadow in perfect balance.

Instead, we have these final moments.

The void surges suddenly, testing our defenses. Our combined power holds, but I feel the strain in my marrow, in the spaces between cells where shadow essence lives. Feel how this place hungers for what we are, what we represent. Balance. Connection. Hope.

Through the mate bonds, I feel their desperate attempts to reach us. Matteo’s predator nature claws at reality itself, trying to forge a path. Leo’s sunshine burns against the dark, searching for any crack to slip through. Bishop’s Guardian magic maps the very architecture of the void, seeking weaknesses. Dorian’s ancient power freezes space itself, trying to give us more time.

“Frankie.” Finn’s voice carries centuries of meaning in those two syllables. His light reaches for my shadows with desperate intensity as vertigo hits us both, the void’s hunger sending waves of nausea through our twin bond. “Do you feel it? The way it’s-”

The second surge hits harder than the first. Our protective sphere wavers, ancient sigils flickering like candles in wind. Wind that shouldn’t exist here, in this place beyond physical laws. My head spins as reality distorts, pressure building behind my eyes until sparks dance in my vision.

CONSUME-LEARN-BECOME

The void’s voice feels like shattered glass in my mind, each syllable carrying corrupt harmonics that set my teeth on edge. The language is older than shadow-speak, older than the first division of light and dark. It tastes like entropy and sounds like heat death and feels like the space between atoms learning to hunger.

“Hold on,” I growl, pushing more power into our defenses. My wolves circle tighter, forming a second layer of protection. The alpha female—the one who’s been with me since that first terrible night with my foster father—presses against my leg, lending me strength. Finn’s foxes add their light to the barrier, but I can feel them weakening. Feel how this place drains everything we are.

Through our bond, I feel Finn’s growing terror as his light starts to gutter. His foxes whimper, their forms becoming translucent as the void learns to consume their essence. The brave kit with the scarred ear tries to stand strong, but I can see void-stuff starting to seep through its fur, corrupting light into hungry dark.

The third surge brings whispers, each one carrying harmonics that shouldn’t exist.

VESSELS-PERFECT-WAITING

BALANCE-INCARNATE-CONSUMING

HUNGER-ETERNAL-LEARNING

The void’s voice twists through dimensions that have no names, each word a violation of physics itself. My bones vibrate with frequencies that make my shadow essence writhe. Beside me, Finn’s light stutters like a dying star, his body trembling as the void’s power seeps into our very atoms.

“No,” he snarls with uncharacteristic fury, his scholarly gentleness burned away by protective rage. “You don’t get to use her words. Her corruption.”

Through our bond, I catch fragments of his captivity—Valerie’s voice using similar cadences as she experimented on him, trying to unlock the secrets of our twin nature. The memory makes my wolves bare their teeth, shadow-fangs gleaming with protective fury.

The mate bonds pulse with growing desperation. Matteo’s predator nature howls through our connection, the sound carrying centuries of protective instinct. Leo’s sunshine tries to burn away the void’s corruption, while Bishop’s Guardian magic searches frantically for ways to stabilize the degrading space. Dorian’s power feels like it’s fracturing, his immortal nature fighting against the void’s hunger.

But the whispers continue, growing stronger. Growing hungry. The void learns from each defense we mount, adapting and evolving with terrible speed.

VESSELS-EMPTY-WAITING

BALANCE-brOKEN-CONSUMING

HUNGER-ETERNAL-BECOMING

The fourth surge doesn’t just test our defenses.

It shatters them.

Everything happens in fragments of eternal seconds. Time loses meaning as reality fractures around us. Our protective sphere splinters like glass hit with sonic force, each broken piece carrying equations of light and shadow that dissolve into hungry nothing. My wolves and Finn’s foxes cry out in harmonies that shouldn’t exist as void-stuff pours between us, separating light from shadow.

Finn’s hand is torn from mine despite our desperate grip. The twin bond stretches tissue-thin, sending spikes of agony through my skull as our very essences begin to separate. My stomach heaves as the void starts to consume the spaces between us, learning to devour the very thing that makes us whole.

“FINN!”

His name tears from my throat as I watch corruption wrap around him like hungry smoke. His light flares in desperate defense—so bright it hurts to look at, even here where light shouldn’t exist. Our twin bond stretches impossibly as the void pulls him deeper.

The last thing I see is his face—not afraid, but fierce. Determined. The same expression he wore when we first found each other, when we swore nothing would separate us again. His lips form words I can’t hear through the roaring chaos:

I love you, sister.

Then he’s gone.

The silence that follows feels like death.

My wolves throw back their heads and howl—a sound of primal loss that echoes through spaces that haven’t known sound since the beginning of time. The alpha female’s cry carries centuries of pack grief, while her mate’s deeper voice holds notes that make reality itself shudder. Their chorus reaches through the void, searching for any trace of their fox companions.

My shadows explode outward, desperate tendrils searching through that endless dark. Each one carries a piece of my essence, spreading thin as they reach through impossible geometries. The void learns from each probe, its hunger adapting to consume shadow as easily as it took light.

Through the mate bonds, I feel their shared agony. Matteo’s predator nature thrashes against the barriers separating us, his need to protect overwhelming rational thought. Leo’s sunshine dims with grief, while Bishop’s Guardian magic threatens to shatter under the strain. Dorian’s immortal essence reaches through time itself, trying to find paths that don’t end in separation.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Then...

Frankie?

His voice whispers through our bond—distant, distorted, but undeniably alive. The sound sends tremors through my shadow essence, relief warring with terror as I feel how wrong his light has become.

Can you hear me?

“Finn!” I reach through that gossamer connection, trying to trace it back to him. The void writhes around my probing shadows, learning, adapting, hungering. “Where are you? I can’t-”

Follow the echoes, his voice comes again, weaker now. Each word carries harmonic distortions that make my wolves whimper. Remember what Mother taught us... before...

The bond pulses with fragments of memory—not mine, but his. A woman’s voice singing in shadow-speak, her words carrying mathematical precision that defines safe paths through dangerous spaces. Equations of light and darkness carved into nursery walls, each one a map through realities that shouldn’t exist. The space between dimensions where twins can never truly be separated, where balance itself was born.

Above me, reality continues to fracture. Through gaps in the void, I catch glimpses of the world we left: my pack fighting through waves of fleeing shadow beasts, their combined power a beacon in the growing dark. The campus crumbles as corruption spreads, ancient wards failing as the void learns to consume them. The sky itself begins to unravel, equations of reality dissolving into hungry nothing.

Follow... Finn’s voice fades further, carrying notes that shouldn’t exist. Before it’s too late...

A roar shakes the foundations of reality itself. The sound carries frequencies older than time, harmonics that make my shadow essence sing in recognition. Through the chaos above, I see it—the Eredar. Our father. Its massive form diving toward this impossible space, ancient power radiating from every line of its body.

The sight sends another memory cascading through our twin bond—this one so old it must have been from the womb. The sensation of our father’s essence wrapping around us, protecting us from forces that sought to corrupt us even then. The perfect balance of light and shadow that we were meant to inherit, before separation tainted everything.

I have seconds to choose.

Follow Finn into whatever depths have claimed him, or stay here where at least one of us might survive. The void pulses around me, its hunger learning to parse choice itself, to consume the very moment of decision.

Sister... His voice grows fainter with each echo, carrying harmonics of corruption that make my wolves pace restlessly. I’m scared...

Through our fraying bond, I feel it—the void learning to consume his light, to twist it into something hungry and wrong. His foxes’ essences flicker like dying stars, their light corrupting into frequencies that hurt to perceive.

The choice isn’t really a choice at all.

I let my shadows rise, reaching not up toward safety, but down into that endless dark. My wolves gather around me, their forms shifting as they adapt to this place between places. The alpha female presses against my leg one final time, her loyalty unwavering even as her form begins to change, becoming something better suited to void-space.

Through our mate bonds, I send one final pulse of love to my sleeping mates. Each connection carries different sensations—Matteo’s primal strength, Leo’s endless warmth, Bishop’s steadfast protection, Dorian’s timeless devotion. Four distinct songs of power that have become part of my soul.

I’m sorry, I whisper through our connection, feeling their desperate response. I have to find him. Have to make this right.

The void writhes around me, corruption testing my defenses. But something has changed. The hunger feels... different. Less alien. Like the darkness recognizes something of itself in my shadows. Like it remembers when all existence was one thing, before the separation of light and dark.

Sister... Finn’s voice comes again, carrying memories of a childhood we should have shared. Of twin powers growing together instead of apart. Of balance freely chosen instead of prophecy forced. Of wolf pups and fox kits playing in the spaces between realities.

Above me, I feel my pack’s desperate approach. Feel Matteo’s predator nature howling for me, the sound carrying centuries of protective instinct. Leo’s sunshine tries to burn through the void, while Bishop’s Guardian magic searches for paths that shouldn’t exist. Dorian’s frost patterns attempt to stabilize corrupted space, his immortal power fighting against entropy itself.

I love them so much it hurts.

But I love my twin too.

The Eredar crashes through reality itself, its massive form dissolving and reforming as it enters the void. Ancient eyes meet mine—eyes that carry millennia of knowledge, of power, of understanding what it means to belong to both shadow and light. Eyes that never held the mindless hunger I was taught to fear.

Our father.

Not a monster.

Not a beast.

Just a parent trying to protect its children.

Its power reaches for mine—not corrupted, but primal. Raw. The original shadow essence from which all others came. I feel my own shadows respond, recognizing the source of what we are. The void itself seems to pause, learning to process this new power that is neither light nor dark, but something older than both.

Together ? The question forms in my mind, carried on waves of power older than time. The Eredar’s essence wraps around me like living armor, protecting as it did before our birth.

My wolves bow to their king as I make my choice.

Down.

Into echoes.

Into void.

Into whatever spaces exist between light and shadow, between reality and entropy, between twin souls that should never have been separated.

Together , its voice rumbles through spaces that haven’t known sound since the first shadow fell. As we always should have been.

My final thought is of balance—of twin powers and chosen mates, of wolves and foxes, of a father’s love strong enough to break reality itself. The void learns from each memory, each emotion, becoming something new as it consumes our descent.

Then everything dissolves into echoes.

Into void.

Into destiny finally, properly chosen.

I’m coming, brother , I send through our bond as reality fades around us. Hold on. Just hold on.

The darkness swallows us whole.

But somewhere in that endless night, a light pulses in response.

Waiting.

Hoping.

Echoing.

Forever.