He didn’t take his eyes off her. “I’m here with my princes, Galilee. We’re protecting something important. They don’t trust you because you’re not human and you’re more powerful than you should be, and it’s a bit too much of a coincidence to have you show up just now. I’m trying to figure out how to keep you safe, but I need you to answer my questions. I need you to tell me the truth.”
The room felt like it was tipping off-center, tipping into a wrong world,one full of secrets and lies and Celestial’s pitying eyes weighed with too much knowledge and Gali waking up screaming with light searing out of her hands. She wrapped an arm over her stomach. “I’m just Galilee Kincaid,” she said, keeping her voice leashed and flat, as hard as the blade of an ax. “I don’t know nothing else.”
“You were just joking about not being human,” Lucifer countered. “Just now, when we were in the sky.”
“I was playing along with the shityouwere saying!”
He shook his head. “You know you’re different, Galilee. Don’t lie to me.”
Gali’s fingers dug into the bunched folds of the robe. “Of course I’m different. I’m a fucking Kincaid.” The fear felt ancient, but Gali would be damned a thousand times more before she let the Devil touch it. “We’re all different, we’re all touched.”
Lucifer was watching her carefully. “Your whole family is like you?”
Gali paused. “Not... not entirely like me.”
She hated how this felt, like the floor was dissolving under her, all because he was touching on the one thing she’d spent years avoiding, the thing even Celestial slid away from, the gaps in who Gali was, the blank spaces. A creek was roaring in the darkness, punctuated by the sound of running feet as blood ran down small, soft cheeks. Gali had spent her whole life believing in her family with all her might, trusting them entirely, and yet there was a void where a linchpin ought to be. If Celestial was telling the truth—which she always did—then it meant that Nana Darling and Collette hadkeptthis linchpin away from Gali, had made her incomplete, unwhole, and confused and incapable of answering this very basic question the Devil was asking her.Who are you, Galilee Kincaid?
“I’m different,” she admitted. “I know I am. But I don’t know why and I don’twantto know why, so please stop asking me about this!”
Her voice broke even as it lashed out, and quicker than her eyes could follow, Lucifer was kneeling by her, coarse black curls tumbling over his face. He didn’t touch her, and Gali could tell he was being careful, butshe was glad for his closeness. His face was luminous, and old flaking secrets fell aside as she gazed into the radiance of his eyes. Gali brushed away a curl that had fallen over his eyebrow and watched as he shivered at her touch, his lashes fluttering.
“Galilee,” he said, and his voice was softer, more hesitant than she’d heard it before. “When you touch me...”
Gali couldn’t resist stroking her fingers over the sharp edge of his cheekbone, just to see him shiver again, the black bleeding softly into his eyes this time.
“What happens when I touch you?” She was grateful for the change of subject, and the topic of their hands on each other’s skin was a direction she’d happily follow for now.
“I burn.” He was looking at her like a supplicant, like she was the sun, and it made Gali feel a little drunk. He was the Devil, and he was looking at her like she was God. “When you touch me, I burn all the way to the bone, Galilee. It sears through my flesh; it boils my blood and singes my marrow.”
She smiled at him, amused. “You poetic, huh?”
Lucifer blinked. “No, actually, I’m being quite precise. Your touch incinerates me, Galilee. It’s how my princes and I know you’re a threat—there’s no way anyone should be able to do that.”
Gali snatched her hand away from him as the blood drained from her face. “I’m hurting you?” She combed through the last day, and a wave of nausea washed over her. “Every time I touched you, I’ve beenhurtingyou?” When he hesitated, Gali felt her stomach sink and turn over. “Oh, God... I’ve been torturing you this whole time.”
Lucifer rolled his eyes. “Don’t start the dirty talk if you say you’re not in the mood.”
“This isn’tfunny!”
She sprang up to her feet and stepped away from him, putting space between them as she shoved her hands deep into the pockets of the robe, where they wouldn’t be tempted to reach out to him and that glowingskin, that lush mouth. Amid all the emotions raging up in her, Gali felt a spike of sadness pierce through. She’d never be able to touch Lucifer again. She’d never feel him hold her or kiss her again, and she’d never be able to take his clothes off piece by piece like she’d dreamed about. That sucked, but only marginally less than realizing she wastoxicto him.
Gali almost laughed. Of course something would go horribly wrong, and of course it would be her fault. Maybe she didn’t want to find out who she was because the answer would just be a fucking curse.
“I’m so sorry, Lucifer,” she said. “You shoulda told me. I would never have touched you if I’d known. I don’t want to hurt you.”
Even as she said the words, sourness filled up underneath her tongue.Hehadn’t shown this much reluctance to hurtingher—in fact, he’d left it firmly on the table. But that didn’t matter, because Gali wasn’t him, and she was proud of who she was, someone who didn’t want to put pain into anyone’s eyes, even if those eyes were demon black and belonged to, well, the King of Hell. She wasn’t going to be all resentful because the Devil hadn’t balked at hurting her—he was the Devil, after all.Shewas Galilee Kincaid.
Lucifer stood up slowly, faint confusion across his face. “You’re upset at the thought of hurting me.”
Gali glared at him, still feeling slightly sick. “Yeah, asshole. That’s a normal reaction when someone tells you that you been burning them alive.”
He paused, and a small smile tugged at his mouth. “Not among my circle, no. Most entities I know would be delighted to know they could do that to me.” He took slow, casual steps toward her. “Power over the Devil is no small thing, Galilee.”
She didn’t even have to think before replying. “That’s not the kind of power I want over you.”
Lucifer’s smile widened. “And what kind of power would you like to have over me, Galilee?”
He was getting too close, so she took a step back and then another.“Does it burn when you touch me?” she asked, flailing for details. “Or only when I touch you?”
