Phantasma (Wicked Games, #1)

by Kaylie Smith

She knew it was probably in poor taste to be so angry with the dead, but her anger was easier to stomach than the grief that hid beneath her skin. Fury and spite could fuel her, propel her forward, but if she let her grief take over, she wasn’t so sure she’d be able to dig herself out of that pit.

“The dark is for people who are too cowardly to face their actions in the light,”

“Go home,” the stranger advised. “A house of Devils is no place for an angel like you.”

“I apologize if I gave you the impression that I do what I’m told.”

“I don’t believe in coincidences.

Life happens. Even in death. No use worrying about things that haven’t occurred yet.”

“You don’t get it,” she whispered. “No one gets it. They only judge. The girl who has to tap on walls before she leaves a room—or everyone she’s ever talked to will die. The girl who can’t run a simple errand because a dark thought popped into her head that something catastrophic would happen if she left the house that day. Meanwhile, I’m just trying to satisfy the voice long enough to get a break from having to listen to every single sin I’ve ever committed on repeat.”

“I want to know everything. I want to see all the darkest corners of your mind.” He tilted his face up to whisper his next words right into her ear. “I want to taste your sins.”

She had always adored the way he spoke her name. Like a wicked prayer.

“For what it’s worth,” he started, “being normal is incredibly dull. Almost as dull as living vicariously through someone else.

“In a different life, in a fair one, I would’ve kept you until my eternal soul withered away to dust,” he vowed to her.

“In all the darkness, in all the loneliness, you have been my one source of light,” he lamented as she began to come undone. “My soul will go to its grave with your name echoing in my mind.”