The Black Echo Novels & Stories

Ghost POV Echo isn’t in the main room, so I head for his room. Of course, I hear the noises before I even knock. He’s busy, someone’s moaning his name, but this can’t fucking wait. I knock anyway. A groan answers me. “Whoever it is, you better be dying.” The door swings open. Echo’s standing there, completely naked, eyes dark with irritation. “What now? I swear down, I’m done with your fucking bullshit.”

It was shaped like a human heart, and it was beating at a frequency that was causing the Earth’s tectonic plates to shift. The Engineering of the Reconciliation The "Echo" was the physical manifestation of the Vanderwall Guilt and the Vance Rage. It was the energy that had been "Forbidden" from the Metamorphosis—the dark matter of the family’s soul. "We can't 'Tune' it, Sarah," Jojo warned as the North Sea platforms began to collapse into the rising tides. "It’s too dense. If it reaches the primary Atuabo node, it will 'Overload' the Eleventh Frequency with seventy years of trauma. It’s a Grief-Bomb."

"Why are we here? Mommy will be worried." ​The figure turned. Its face was Liam’s—perfectly rendered, down to the scar on his brow. But the eyes... the eyes were two pits of flat, oily yellow. ​"Don't worry, little Alpha," the Echo said. The voice was a perfect replica of Liam’s rich baritone, but it didn't vibrate in the air. It sounded like it was being projected directly into the brain. "Mommy is coming. We're all going to be together in the dark."

And behind us, closer now, far too close, I heard Rurik's voice rise into a full-throated howl of pure fury, close enough that I understood, with the last clear thought I had before the darkness took me whole, that he was no longer chasing a runaway bride. He was hunting. And somewhere behind him, unseen, moving through the black trees with a patience none of the others carried, so was someone else someone whose voice I did not recognise, calling my name across the dark in a tone that sounded, impossibly, almost glad, as if my running had been exactly what they were waiting all this time for me to do.

She looked around and activated the mic, “All clear.” “Two agents are on their way,” she heard the boss say. Vicky cleared her throat and opened the door to be welcomed by the sound of the medical devices connected to the patient’s body. She pressed her lips when she saw Black Tiger lying on the bed. His naked torso was covered with scars and bruises. Bandages were around his chest, where he was shot. Vicky felt sad even though she and the mysterious agent have never shared a conversation. Black Tiger is someone calm, almost invisible, but his presence is very strong among them. He doesn’t need words to prove to the agents that he’s the best of all of them.

Between levels of existence. Ameline's echo shrieked, kicked, fought. Threw more power at Alison who absorbed it, too. Pushed her firmly toward the blackness waiting. A blackness I knew, had dove into to save Charlotte's life, to try to save Liam's, to retrieve Sebastian. But Alison had tools I didn't, was, herself, an echo. Master of ghosts. "Curse you, Sydlynn Hayle," Ameline's echo shrieked at me as she clung to the edges of the rift. "Curse you forever!" And, with a wet, tearing sound, pulled free, sucked into the black as she screamed.

I kneeled in front of him and gently took his hands in mine. "Only for a moment, but I'm right here with you. Use the mate bond to ease the pain and you'll be fine." I reassured. He nodded and took a deep breath. "Here goes." He sighed. "I, Elijah Black, Omega of the Midnight Pack, hereby cut all ties with the Midnight Pack and will become a Rogue." His face immediately contorted in pain and he put his hands on his head, groaning. I pressed my forehead against his and hoped that my presence might ease the pain a bit.

She felt the sour burn as her stomach emptied its contents into the small space and her stomach lurched the muscles spasming. “Hello?” Ivy croaked out in a faint young voice that wasn’t hers either. Just as quickly as she was drawn into the darkness and cold she snapped back to where she was next to her dad on the cement. He held her looking over her his eyes filled with worry. “Ivy? What happened are you okay?”

“You think this is over? You’ve only broken the lock. The thing beneath the Black Moon stirs, child. And it remembers your name.” Kaelira’s blood ran cold. “No,” she whispered. “The Echo was the last of it. I destroyed it.” “You destroyed its shell,” Varyn said. “But its heart — the true Black Moon — was never in this world to begin with. It’s waiting. And it’s calling you home.” Zevran stepped forward. “Then we’ll burn your god a second time.” Varyn’s expression softened, almost pitying. “You can’t fight the storm, boy. You can only drown in it.”

Aria swallowed something brittle. Then helped her stand. “Let’s go.” ~~~~~~~~~~ ROME — BLACK SUN FACILITY // FINAL SCENE Massive. Silent. Built from black glass and silence. The gates opened like a mouth. Waiting to receive someone or something. And Echo walked in. No guards held him. No restraints bound him. He chose to enter. He passed through security walls that scanned DNA and myth. He walked through corridors where his own face greeted him on monitors. And in the core of BLACK SUN, as the AI blinked awake again, Echo smiled—