What the Bells Remember

A Winter Solstice Romantasy

By: Evangeline Frost

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

The bells know what she has forgotten. And they are done staying silent.

Tessa Varek has spent eight years guarding Philadelphia's last functioning carillon, finding refuge in a tower haunted by the mother she lost. She sees sound as color, a secret she has hidden since childhood. When the bells begin screaming themselves awake at midnight, painting her world in shades of blood and bruised purple, she knows something terrible is coming.

Then he walks into her church.

Dmitri Solnik, antiquarian. Guilt-haunted. The last heir of the family whose ritual killed her mother fifteen years ago. He claims their bloodlines are bound together, that the rift between worlds his father tore open is widening with every passing night. That only the two of them, working in perfect harmony, can seal it before Christmas Eve.

She should destroy him for what his family did.

But as shadow creatures stalk the frozen streets and the thing beyond the veil whispers her name with terrible patience, Tessa discovers her rage is more than grief. It is power. The same power her mother sacrificed everything to protect. And the ancient Harmony of Seven demands something impossible: absolute trust between two people who have every reason to hate each other.

With the solstice approaching and hungry entities pressing against the thinning barrier, Tessa must choose. Cling to fifteen years of fury and watch her city freeze, or open her heart to the man whose touch makes her feel both fury and something far more dangerous.

Some harmonies are only found through breaking.