Phantasma (Wicked Games, #1)

by Kaylie Smith

Death she was familiar with. Living would be the real challenge.

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

“A heart and a key would set me free,” it said. “But you should hope we do not meet again, angel.”

“Be careful

what you reveal out in the open. Even the walls have ears here, angel.”

She had been much too focused on the insidious dangers Phantasma would throw at her, and foolishly overlooked the threat that her fellow contestants posed.

“Call her a name one more time,” he threatened, his tone bored but his eyes alight with mischief. “I dare you.”

Cade gawked at the sight of Blackwell’s tall frame, but his expression quickly soured as he spat, “Incredible, even Demons have whores⁠—” Blackwell grabbed Cade’s wrist and twisted his arm until he screeched in agony. “Incredible,” Blackwell echoed. “The audacity of men worth less than dirt.”

She buried her face into the crook of his throat. “You came.” “You called,” he answered.

“If only,” she whispered. “Besides, if all of my inner demons were destroyed, there wouldn’t be much left of me.”

His eyes narrowed. “Who is the Shadow Voice?”

Yes please, who is this shadow voice? And why, why is he so cruel to her?

Blackwell nodded, the movement oddly tense. “If you’re sure, we’ll start at the end.”

Geez - he’s Gabriel. Isn’t he? But how did they meet? What’s the connection? I hate this fur Ophelia because I feel like she’s about to be on the losing end. She will love Blackwell and it will lead to her betrayal and heartbreak and it’s awful. I hope it’s not true

I never let pain get the better of me, Genevieve’s voice pierced through her panic. I’d much rather let it bring me clarity.

“The Shadow Voice…” she whispered. “It won’t stop unless I do what it says.” “Tell me who the Shadow Voice is,” Blackwell pressed gently.

Tell me who the Shadow Voice is…. Blackwell makes it sound like a person. (Dark Window Vibes)

“Sometimes, I think it’s me. All the bad parts of me. But the things it tells me to do… I know I would never want those things. I hate it.”

“Sometimes I think it’s me. All the bad parts of me” What a loaded, vulnerable confession and truth of hers. I wonder if he knows how precious it is - that would be a vulnerable part of herself she gave willingly. Blackwell - handle her truths with care please

Always in threes.

Threes and fives - always threes and fives! 3,6,9 5,10,20 times

He needed her to get through this competition unscathed. To succeed. With him was the safest place she could be.

This honestly is a shrewd observation. Her safety is secure because he needs her to set him free

She was going to start lifting books in the library after this.

And why did I laugh out loud at this?😂🙃 oh, yeah … because that’s my exercise. Lol 😆 I lift books!!📚

“I think you must have been heaven-sent,” she told him as her head finally cleared. He lifted a brow in amusement. “That’s a new sentiment for me. Here.”

❤️‼️

“You got yourself through that. I’m proud of you.” Her breath hitched. No one had ever said those words to her before. Not Genevieve. Not her mother. Her mother might have told her she’d done something well, but never that she was proud. Tessie Grimm had never been the kind for flowery sentiments.

Wow…I wonder now at the wounded soul - how the lack of affirmations in life from those we love and trust and look up to can lay the deepest wounds to the soul - like depriving a plant of sunlight and water

“You don’t need to fix yourself. You’re not broken. But it’s okay to get outside help if it gets too loud.”

Oh my heart!! ❤️ “You don’t need to fix yourself. You’re not broken.”

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.”

“But letting yourself believe you’ve done something so sinful that you deserve to be in pain is another sentiment altogether. And if you’re upset about what may have happened to the others in that trial… taking care of yourself first is not a sin. You understand that, right?”

“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.”

And it hurts to think that all this time I thought I knew exactly where we stood, and she was somewhere else completely.”

Again so close to caravel and the sisters in that book. I suppose, though, in fairness. We must all Keep parts of ourselves hidden away for whatever reason that may be.

“Right now, I’m here.”

But at some point he won’t be. What secret is he keeping that will soon enough rip her apart and break her heart???

Something about the heaviness of his gaze felt eerily familiar.

The person she’s felt watching her? The voice? This just seems too odd. Too familiar. She realizes it too. Because his gaze is familiar to her, something she knows the weight of

Sinclair’s scarlet eyes narrowed while his grin widened. “Have we met somewhere before?”

Heck!!! What the actual heck?!?! She’s familiar to Him???? That can’t be good

Gabriel White. Her breath hitched as she continued through the rest of the list. And the name she spotted just a few lines below buckled her knees. Tessie Grimm.

And I’m going to vomit!!! Literally just got sick. 🤢 he’s her mother’s lover (please, please, please….not her dad!!!! I will throw this book away!!) oh, this is so bad, so very awful bad. I hate this. It’s terrible!! Do I even want to know the story?? Please do not make Gabriel White actually be Blackwell - I will stop reading! And yet again a lot like Caravel.

The problem with secrets was that they festered and tore open wounds that were starting to scab.

But something about all these secrets made the already dulling, rose-colored lenses shatter entirely.

The only reason she was in Phantasma was because her family didn’t trust her with their secrets, and she hated it.

And Ophelia suspected this was all much more intimate to her family than Gabriel White just being a random player. Something she couldn’t look at too closely at the moment or she worried she’d lose another meal all over the ground.

Me too Ophelia. My lunch is suddenly wanting very much to make an appearance

said, “I am not your angel, but I will be your nightmare.

Okay - I like her spunk and I believe she would carry through on this

I will find a way to haunt you until every single one of your inner demons looks like me. You will never know a moment of peace again.”

“Gabriel White is your father.”

Yep I am going to throw the heck up!!!

“I’m unsure of exactly what happened because halfway through the trials, he had stopped summoning me and I lost track of him entirely. What was abundantly clear by the end, however, was that he lost.”

Thank the heck Blackwell is NOT Gabriel at least it’s a little better

“Your father was a Specter,”

What the actual heck?!?! Can it get any more twisty?? So Necromancer AND Specter - what does that mean for her. Does it mean that Vivi is also at least 1/2 Specter as well? Obviously she is not a Necromancer.