Living With Ghosts — Kari Sperring

A DARK FANTASY OF HAUNTS, INTRIGUES, STREET FIGHTS, ELEMENTAL POWERS, POLITICAL RIVALRIES, AND SHAPESHIFTERS

Gracielis, the failed assassin priest turned courtesan and spy, wants to deny his strange abilities, yet he cannot ignore the ghostly presence that shadows him or the sorceress who rules him. Thiercelin wants his wife's love but all her time and energy are devoted to the preservation of Merafi and its ruler. Valdarrien, slain in a duel, wants to find his lost love and to live again. And the loyal soldier Joyain just wants a quiet life.

But in the ancient city of Merafi, you don't always get what you want.

For centuries, Merafi's safety and prosperity have relied on a pact sealed in blood between its first king and the land's elemental forces. The city should be immune to the powers inherited by Gracielis and his race, and opaque to ghosts and mystical creatures. But now a sorceress and a prince have broken the pact. The city's river is raging, its floodwaters bearing plague, supernatural violence, and destruction. Fantastical creatures walk the night. The dead -- some of them -- are trying to return. The rational, irreligious Merafiens no longer believe in elemental powers and are blind to their sudden danger.

Trapped by the vows binding him to the sorceress, Gracielis fears for those he has come to love....

Desperate to prove himself to his wife, Thiercelin takes ever greater risks....

In the nighttime streets, Joyain fights deadly mist wraiths... And as death and disaster spread, the magic protecting Merafi weakens -- and Valdarrien's ghost grows ever stronger....