“And then she dies.”
“I understand,” Lucifer bit out. He’d chosen this. It was something he had to keep reminding himself, especially when Levi got cold and curt like this, a love that cut and cut and kept cutting.
Belial stepped forward and grabbed the back of Lucifer’s neck, forcing their foreheads together. Her gaze was pitying. “For what it’s worth,” she told him, “I take no pleasure in this now that I know youwantto burn.”
Lucifer closed his eyes and exhaled. “Thank you,” he replied. His grace period was already trickling away, a draining desert of sand.
It was time to hunt Galilee Kincaid.
5.
Galilee
Gali stayed in bed for as long as she could the morning after the party. She was being haunted, and she didn’t appreciate it in the least, especially when the ghost was a memory of a shockingly beautiful man with an impossible name and an impossible tongue. She’d tossed and turned all night, twisting in her sleep as her body burned with the echo of his touch, the cold licking streak of his voice, tempered by the rejection of when he’d walked away. Gali wanted him to come back. She wanted to hunt him down and slap him for leaving like it had beeneasy. She wanted to claim their unfinished bargain just so she could feel his body pressed to hers again.
When he’d left her in the hallway, Gali had returned to the main gala. She’d tried to mingle, but she was terribly out of her league, and without Oriak? or Bonbon to ground her, the whole party had felt like she was trapped in an unpleasant dream. A gorgeous older woman in a light blue dress had passed her a drink in a delicate flute, but Gali was barely present enough to appreciate the gesture. There was no way she could return down those hallways to find her friends, but standing there sipping champagne and looking pretty was equally impossible when minutesago there had been smoke curling off the floor and her thigh over his shoulder, his mouth working to get her off.
He’d said his name wasLucifer.
Gali had stood in the middle of the gala and tried to convince herself that it was just a name. Not real, because it couldn’t be. He couldn’t be that, because if he was... she’d nearly dropped her glass just thinking about it, and that was when she’d asked one of the staff for a car to take her home. The uniformed woman had taken one look at Gali and put an arm around her, guiding her out of the party. Gali had been grateful for the support, since all the blood in her body had felt like it had pulled away from her extremities, retreating to support her organs, like she was a beat away from passing out. The drive back to her apartment had been a blur, and she’d stripped out of her clothes and jewels in a numb haze, standing under a hot shower as she scrubbed off the makeup. She’d tried to scrub off his scent too, but even now it clung to her the next day, smoke and burning musk. She’d left voice notes for Oriak? and Bonbon, then she’d turned off her phone. All her dreams had been dark and stitched things: the woods and her feet slipping on smooth stones in a cold creek bed, a mouth on her neck and a forked tongue flickering against her skin.
He couldn’t be who he said he was, because that would make him the Devil himself and that would mean Gali had done something she could not undo, something with repercussions she absolutely was not ready to process. He was just the head of security... whose eyes had bled black and who had called up a wall of darkness. Gali slammed a pillow over her face. Sheknewwho the Devil was because she was a Kincaid and she had beenwarned. She knew to hang a mirror by the door. She knew what happened at crossroads and the seduction in an offer, the way it could give you the world and cost you your soul. She knew about temptation and skies above. Nana Darling had even told her stories about how beautiful the Devil would be, for he was God’s favorite. No one had warned her he would be so beautiful thatshewould be the one to tempthim.
Gali growled into the pillow. She’d made adealwith him, for fuck’ssake. With Lucifer, the Prince of goddamn Darkness. She had spread her legs for the Devil himself, and not only had she loved it, but worst of all, she couldn’t stop thinking about how she still wanted him. The desire crawled under her skin, prickly and hungry. If she wasn’t damned already, then this beast of want was going to damn her irrevocably. It stung and paced through her, irritated and angry, and Lucifer had been in her dreams, a shadow melting in and out of the dark. She had run through the forest, branches tearing at her skin as Kincaid ghosts whispered warnings, but when she’d stumbled and fallen in a clearing full of dead leaves, the man with radiance morphing in his eyes had come upon her and Gali had opened for him again. She’d welcomed the weight of his body as he covered her with victory gleaming in his teeth. The ache in her had howled as she reached for him, nearly sobbing in anticipation of him sliding into her... and then she had woken up. Over and over, the dream always stopped, always denied her. In the end, Gali had woken up and slid her hand between her legs, stroking herself until she came, and it still hadn’t been close to enough. If she saw him again—whenshe saw him again—she was going to kill him for doing this to her.
Her phone rang, and she frowned, confused. She’d definitely turned it off before falling asleep. Gali reached out and turned it over to look at the screen, then sat up sharply in bed, accepting the video call.
“Celestial,” she said, her voice harsh. Her cousin never called and certainly not over video. “What’s wrong?”
Celestial narrowed her eyes, which were always too old for her face. “Why the hell’s your phone off?”
Gali ignored her question. Celestial had pushed the call through anyway, which was... a little concerning. Gali hadn’t known she could do that, but Kincaid women had all kinds of secrets.
“Is Nana Darling okay? Did something happen with the girls?”
Her cousin scoffed and tugged on one of her short, beaded plaits. “Nothing happened with Zélie or Leah, and Nana Darling is fine. She’s not gonnastayfine, though, which is why I’m calling you.”
Gali’s heart thudded. If Nana Darling was ever hurt, their family would simply... shatter. “What’s going on?”
Celestial leaned back in her chair, and her hooded eyes took on a wicked gleam that set off alarm bells in Gali’s head. After the childhood they’d shared and the number of times Celestial had nearly gotten them killed—literally, not metaphorically—Gali knew enough to be wary of her cousin when she wore that look. When Celestial was eight, she’d slowly poisoned the entire family because she wanted them to build up an immunity, and her mother, Peony, had to explain that although it was a reasonable plan, poisoning family without their consent was not acceptable. People had to explain things like that to Celestial—she was both chaos and Kincaid loyalty, slamming together in a dangerous mix.
“What have you done?” Gali asked, one hand clenching into a fist.
Celestial’s face dropped into exaggerated hurt and outrage. “Me?I haven’t done nothing, cousin.” Her mouth tugged into a sharp smile. “You, on the other hand, Gali, you’ve beenbad.”
Gali flinched. There was no way her cousin could have found out, but then again, this was Celestial. Judging by the widening grin on her face, Gali conceded that Celestial knew much more than she had any right to. Gali tried to keep her face calm. “What you talking about?”
Celestial cackled out loud. “You terrible at bluffing, Gali. The wind brought me a rumor last night, you know, all the way across the land on whispering branches.”
Well,fuck. Gali snorted. “I really wish the wind would stop snitching to you.”
Her cousin shrugged, and the strap of her dress fell off her dark shoulder. “Not like you were gonna call and ask for my help.” There was a real note of hurt in her voice, and Gali sobered up.
“I hadn’t gotten that far, Celestial,” she said softly. “But I’ve missed you a whole lot. Believe me.”
It was true. Being around Oriak? and Bonbon was wonderful, but it also wasn’t entirely real, not when she couldn’t tell them the truth aboutwhat had happened at the party. They lived in a different world, and they didn’t know where she came from. Celestial understood, just like Zélie and Leah would, because she was a Kincaid too. She’d been baptized like the rest of them by barefoot matriarchs in all white, under bulging full moons that made their grandmother’s hair gleam silver while her memories walked around them.
Celestial studied Gali, then nodded once. “Tell me what happened.”
