CHAPTER 128: THE ECHO BOND

Elder Iris POV

The white light hit me like a slap, but I was ready for it.

While everyone else stood there frozen in shock, I grabbed my walking stick and slammed it into the ground. Ancient wolf magic poured out of me, forming a bubble of protection around our group just as the dimensional tears exploded.

"Stay close!" I yelled, feeling my old bones creak from the effort. "Don’t let the light touch you!"

The fake Lily thing laughed as reality cracked around us. Through the chaos, I could see the real Lily stuck somewhere between worlds, flickering like a dying star. Caleb was reaching for her, his face twisted with pain and despair.

That’s when I saw it. The thing that made my heart skip with hope.

A silver thread, so thin most people would miss it, stretched from Caleb’s chest to where Lily was disappearing. Even though the dimensional magic was tearing everything apart, that thread stayed unbroken.

"Impossible," I whispered, then louder: "Caleb! Can you feel her?"

"She’s gone!" he cried, still reaching into empty air. "I can’t touch her!"

"Not with your hands," I called back. "With your heart! Feel for the echo!"

The boy looked at me like I’d lost my mind, but I’d seen this once before. Seventy years ago, when my own mate was pulled into a magical storm that should have erased him completely. Everyone said he was dead, but I could still feel the echo of our link.

An echo link. The psychic shadow of true love that lives deeper than magic, deeper than supernatural power. It’s the one thing dark magic can’t destroy because it doesn’t rely on spells or skills. It just is.

"What are you talking about?" Caleb yelled over the sound of reality tearing apart.

"The dimensional magic broke your mate bond," I explained quickly, "but it can’t break what you two built with your own hearts. Close your eyes and feel for her!"

The fake Lily turned toward me, her crystal bracelet shining brighter. "Shut up, old woman. This story ends here."

"Does it?" I asked, and smiled at her with all my teeth. "Did you really think I’d come to this fight unprepared?"

I pulled something from my pocket that made the imposter’s eyes widen. A small diamond pendant, the exact opposite of her dark bracelet. Where hers was black and cold, mine was clear and warm.

"A Soul Anchor," I announced. "Made from the frozen tears of every wolf who ever lost their mate. It remembers what love feels like."

The fake Lily growled and raised her hand to attack me, but Caleb suddenly gasped.

"I can feel her," he whispered. Then louder: "Iris, I can feel her!"

"Good boy," I said proudly. "Now pull her back."

"How?"

"The same way you’d call her for dinner," I told him. "Love doesn’t need magic. It just needs to be real."

Through the spatial chaos, I watched Caleb close his eyes and reach out with more than his hands. He reached out with everything he was, everything he felt for Lily. Not the supernatural mate tie that the magic had broken, but the human choice to love her that no power could touch.

The silver thread between them began to glow.

"That’s not possible!" the fake shrieked. "I destroyed their connection!"

"You destroyed their magic," I amended. "But you can’t destroy choice. You can’t destroy the choice to love someone no matter what."

Lily’s form started to harden. Slowly, like watching a picture develop, she became real again. Her eyes opened and met Caleb’s across the dimensional tear.

"I’m here," she said, her voice barely a whisper but somehow getting through all the noise.

"I’ve got you," Caleb answered, and this time when he reached for her, his hand found hers.

The fake Lily screamed in rage. "No! This isn’t how it’s supposed to go!"

That’s when I realized something that made my blood run cold. I’d been so focused on helping Caleb and Lily that I’d missed the most important point of all.

"You’re not from a failed timeline," I said to the imposter. "You’re from the dimension where the Void Walkers come from."

Her face twisted into something that definitely wasn’t human. "Very good, old wolf. Though it’s too late for that information to help you."

"What are you?" Aiden ordered, finally shaking off the confusion magic.

"I am what your precious Lily becomes in every timeline where you succeed," the thing said. "When she grows powerful enough to threaten my realm, I come back and make sure she never reaches that point."

The truth hit me like a physical blow. "You’re Future Lily. The real one. But you’ve been tainted by the void."

"Corrupted?" She laughed bitterly. "Evolved. I learned that caring about others is weakness. That love is just another chain holding you back from real power."

"That’s not true," Lily said, her form now solid enough to speak clearly. "Love made me strong enough to fight you."

"Love made you weak enough to sacrifice yourself!" Future Lily shot back. "In my scenario, I watched everyone I cared about die because I wasn’t powerful enough to save them. So I stopped caring. I picked power over love."

I felt sick as I understood. This wasn’t just an enemy trying to destroy our history. This was Lily, hundreds of years in the future, so broken by loss that she’d become the very thing she once fought against.

"You don’t have to be this," present Lily said softly. "You can choose differently."

"I chose already," Future Lily replied. "And now I’m going to make sure you never get the chance to fail like I did."

She raised both hands, and I felt reality start to collapse. Not just the dimensional tears, but everything. The ground, the air, the very space we stood in.

"She’s unmaking this entire reality," I gasped. "If we don’t stop her—"

"Everyone and everything in this dimension dies," Future Lily finished. "Better that than watching you all suffer like I did."

But as she spoke, I noticed something. The Soul Anchor ring in my hand was getting warmer. And I remembered something my grandma had told me long ago about artifacts made from crystallized tears.

"They remember," I whispered.

"What?" Caleb asked.

"The ring. It remembers every love that ever was. Including hers."

I held up the crystal, and it began to glow with soft silver light. Future Lily stumbled backward as if I’d hit her.

"No," she said, her voice suddenly unsure. "I don’t feel that anymore. I can’t."

"But you do," I said kindly. "Somewhere inside all that void corruption, you still remember what it felt like to love them."

The pendant’s light grew brighter, and I saw tears beginning to form in Future Lily’s eyes. Real tears, not the bitter anger she’d been showing us.

"I forgot," she whispered. "I made myself forget because it hurt too much."

"Then remember," I pushed. "Remember why you fought in the first place."

For a moment, it looked like it might work. Future Lily’s form began to flicker, the void rot fighting against her original self.

But then she screamed and clutched her head, and when she looked up again, her eyes were pure black.

"Too late," she snarled in a voice that definitely wasn’t hers anymore. "The void has her completely now. And it’s coming for all of you."

Behind her, a massive form began to emerge from the dimensional tears. Something so big and dark that I couldn’t see where it ended.

"Run," I mumbled, then shouted: "Everyone run! The Void King is here!"