Harmony

The Resonance Chamber was a ruin. The walls were cracked. The floor was covered in shards.

In the center of the devastation, Vesper lay curled on his side, engulfed in a storm of black smoke. He was thrashing, his skin grey and cracking like dry earth.

Kaelith stood in the doorway, watching him die with a satisfied smirk.

June stepped out of the portal.

"Get away from him," June said.

Kaelith spun around. "You? How?"

June didn't answer. She walked past the Fae noblewoman as if *she* were the ghost.

June walked into the storm of shadows. The magic cut at her skin, stinging like hail, but she didn't stop. She reached Vesper.

She fell to her knees in the debris. She grabbed his face. His skin was freezing.

"Vesper," she said.

His eyes opened. They were voids. He growled, a monster's sound.

June didn't need a cello. She leaned her forehead against his.

She sang.

She sang a lullaby her mother used to hum. It was simple. Imperfect. Human.

* Hummmmm.*

The sound traveled through her skull into his. It bypassed his ears and went straight to the bond.

The effect was instantaneous.

The black smoke stuttered. The grey cracks on his skin glowed gold.

Vesper gasped, a huge intake of air. The blackness receded from his eyes, leaving the violet iris. He saw her.

"June?" he rasped. "You came back?"

"You can't fire me," June said, tears dripping onto his face. "I'm the soloist now."

Vesper let out a sob and pulled her down onto his chest. As they touched, the Dissonance shattered completely. Not just pushed back, but broken. The bond cemented, grounding his chaotic magic into her steady, unbreakable earth.

The storm died. The room went silent.

Kaelith, seeing the High Lord rise with his power fully controlled and his eyes burning with vengeance, turned and fled.

Vesper sat up, pulling June into his lap. He buried his face in her neck, breathing her in.

"You have no instrument," he whispered.

"I am the instrument," June corrected.

**Epilogue**

The Court of Whispers had a new Queen.

She was short. She had round cheeks and messy hair. And the High Lord worshipped the ground she walked on.

Vesper had his best crystal-singers craft a new cello for her—one made of spun starlight and diamond. It was the most beautiful object in the realms.

June sat on the dais, tuning the magnificent instrument. Vesper sat at her feet, resting his head against her knee, his eyes closed in perfect peace.

"Play," he whispered.

"The Bach?" she asked.

"No," Vesper smiled, pressing a kiss to her hand. "Just hum my name."

June smiled, the Invisible Girl no longer. She began to play, and the music filled the cavern, bright and textured and unmistakably, wonderfully real.