Phantom of the Waste

Seraphine has spent her life kneeling before a god that sees everything. As one of the chosen priestesses of the Engine, she was taught that obedience is salvation, and doubt is death. Unfortunately, when she disobeys to water to give to those in need, Seraphine learns the truth far too late: Even devotion does not make her untouchable.

Cast into the desert as punishment, she is offered as a living sacrifice to the creature that stalks the sands. Vael. A being of fang and scale. Half man. Half serpent. The Phantom of the Waste, who slaughters humans without mercy.

Except her.

He leaves her alive, and she follows him into the endless dunes, where the world splits open beneath her feet. Hidden cities. Buried truths. A history her god erased.

His touch burns like venom in her veins. And soon she learns the monster she was taught to fear may be the only one who has ever told her the truth.