The Shattered Bridge

The door to the chamber burst open.

It wasn't a servant. It was Lady Kaelith. She was indeed beautiful—a statue of ice and glass, her eyes burning with cold fury. Behind her stood two guards June didn't recognize.

"So this is the pet," Kaelith sneered. "The muddy little creature keeping the High Lord from his duties."

Vesper stepped in front of June, shadows swirling from his skin. "Get out, Kaelith. Or I will shatter you."

"You are weak, Vesper," Kaelith laughed. "You are dependent on a toy."

She flicked her hand. A bolt of green magic shot past Vesper.

It didn't hit June. It hit the cello.

* CRACK.*

The sound was sickening. Like a bone breaking.

June screamed. The neck of the cello snapped clean off the body. The strings whipped back, lashing the air. The wood splintered.

The anchor was gone.

The reaction was instantaneous.

Vesper fell to his knees, clutching his head. "NO!"

The Dissonance roared back, amplified a thousand times by the sudden absence of harmony. Vesper screamed, a sound that shattered the amethyst vases in the room. His magic exploded outward—uncontrolled, chaotic shadow.

It threw Kaelith and her guards out of the room. It slammed June against the wall.

"Vesper!" June cried, crawling toward him. "Vesper, listen to me!"

He couldn't hear her. His eyes were rolling back, turning entirely black. The shadows were turning into blades, slicing into the stone, slicing into the air. He was a hurricane of destruction.

He looked at June. For a second, there was recognition. Then, terror.

"Run," he choked out. "June... run. I cannot... hold it."

He saw the blood on her arm where the magic had thrown her.

"I am killing you," he gasped.

"No, I'm staying!" June yelled.

"I will not destroy you!" Vesper roared.

He gathered the last shred of his sanity. He grabbed the fabric of reality and *tore*.

A portal opened in the center of the room—a swirling vortex of grey and subway tile.

"Vesper, no!"

He used his magic, not to hurt her, but to shove her. A wall of wind hit June, pushing her backward into the vortex.

"Go back to your silent world," Vesper screamed, tears of liquid light streaming down his face. "Live, June. Live."

Then the portal swallowed her.