The air in her rooms thickened with the all too familiar mist that accompanied the phantom. Marissa recoiled, even as she knew it was impossible to avoid. It never spoke, never touched her beyond wrapping a single tendril around her pale wrist. That one wisp conveyed its latest instructions. She struggled to fight the demon, but her body obeyed his every command. Every request, no matter how small, was fulfilled. She could deny it nothing.
Tears coursed down her cheeks when the thing finally released her and dissipated. A gentle breeze cleared the room of its stench, like the rot of a thousand decaying bodies. Since that first night on the road from Paderau, the phantom had visited only twice, each time more insistent than the last.
Marissa must let Celia complete the ceremony.
A ruffle of feathers brought her attention to the balcony, and she squinted to see Valterys transforming. He glanced quickly around him and stepped into her bedchamber.
“Is it gone?”
“I don’t like the control it has over me. We must find a way to break the bond or Celia will be successful.”
Valterys placed his hands alongside her temples and pressed gently. Buzzing sounded in her mind, a hive of voices clamoring to be heard above the din. The shouts of the dead.
His Shanti spun around the din, silencing it. The powerful wards he placed on her mind helped to keep the phantom from taking over completely. Valterys thought she could protect herself on her own, but she craved his healing after each visit from the mist creature.
“You’re not wrong,” Valterys said. “This phantom, he is not Kaldaar but an agent of his. Someone who wishes to bring the god back from exile. He is powerful, yes, but not omnipotent.”
“Then he lives and breathes?”
Valterys gave a low chuckle. “I believe he does. He’s been visiting our Celia regularly, giving her immense amounts of pleasure, I’m afraid.”
“It doesn’t touch me except to give instructions.”
“Are you jealous?”
She was. Very much so. “Not at all. Are you?” She suspected Valterys, on occasion, pretended to be the phantom, acting as Celia’s lover.
“How close is Taryn to discovering Celia’s plan?”
Marissa snorted. “Not nearly as far along as she should be. Without my clues helping her, I’m afraid she’d still be down at the cove, swimming with her idiot friends.” Marissa herself wasn’t certain what Celia planned, but each night she would slip into her room and rummage through the scrolls and notes Celia had made. She hated to admit she needed Taryn’s help to stop Celia. She needed Taryn to stop the phantom from taking over her soul.
A small, impatient sigh slipped through his lips. He still held her head between his hands, and a shock went through her mind. “You give her too little credit. Taryn is a bright young woman. She’ll get to the core of Celia’s plans. You need to make sure she lives through the ordeal. Rykoto would be quite vexed to learn of her death. I’ve managed to keep this from our god, but he suspects something and is questioning our loyalty.”
That was a complication she couldn’t afford. Unless she had something better to offer Rykoto. “I’ll go to Celia. She must know who the Master is but is being compelled to forget. If I can distract her, perhaps she’ll unwittingly tell me.”
Valterys released her head. “I’ve tried that. On several occasions. I truly don’t think she knows. If she did, then she would certainly be able to tell the difference between my presence and his.”
True. There was nothing similar in their touch. But then, she’d known Valterys her whole life. Celia had never met him before Taryn’s coronation.
“How fares Zakael? It has been too long since I’ve seen him.”
“He is well, my darling. While I’ve been here dealing with this, he has been at Caer Idris.”
“I hope we can both see him soon.” She brushed her lips across his cheek. “My offer stands, you know.”
He ran a fingernail down her cheek, scratching the tender skin. She moaned into his touch. “I will try to find this mysterious phantom. You see to Celia.”
“Keep in contact.” She tapped his forehead, and he nodded.
With a final kiss to her temple, he stepped onto the balcony and transformed into a levon. She watched until he was a speck in the sky before turning back to her room. Valterys didn’t understand the pain she suffered when she attempted to disobey the phantom’s commands. More than physical, the horrors that went through her mind were enough to cripple someone of lesser power.
She could only imagine the hell Celia was living.
Kaldaar’s agent offered her nothing and demanded complete obedience. Not unlike Zakael the night she’d spent with him and Eiric. Except she’d received plenty that night and the following morning. This agent of Kaldaar’s was selfish, and Marissa never gave without getting something in return.
She rubbed her wrist, thinking, plotting. She could allow Celia to succeed, but then what? Was he, in fact, acting on Kaldaar’s behalf, or his own? And if Celia succeeded in bringing Kaldaar back, how would her own plans alter?
The answers could only mean devastation to her, personally. Celia must fail. For that to happen, Taryn must succeed. With Taryn’s limited abilities with ShantiMari, there was no way she’d survive the phantom.
Marissa smiled to herself, chuckling at the deviousness of her mind. Luring Taryn to her death would be as easy as coaxing a kitten to milk.