She couldn’t feel her body anymore. All that existed was the growing expanse of numbness radiating out of her and how she wanted it to be bigger, bigger, until it ate up the whole world and there was no more hurt, no more betrayal, no more nothing. She could feel her bees hovering above her, but they were sympathetic, they had always understood her, they might as well be part of her. If she told them to swoop down and sink themselves into Kincaid flesh, to die for her, they would. It was a small comfort, but not enough to stop the light that exhaled and spread over her skin, up her arms and down her legs, wrapping her torso and covering her face until she stood there as a blazing column in a treasonous garden.
“Galilee.” Lucifer’s voice was low and warm. “Pull in your power.”
Sage sneered, still bleeding on the scorched grass. “Listen to your new master, girl.”
Gali stared at her, then met the eyes of the rest of her family as ash nipped at their shoes—her aunts, her cousins, her mother. Shirley was holding her machete like she didn’t know who to point it at. Jesmyn still had distrust all gritty and ugly in her eyes as she looked between Galiand Lucifer. None of them really believed she had chosen him. They still thought she was weak—weak enough to be manipulated by the Devil to turn against her own family, weak enough that they didn’t trust her because they thought he was the more powerful one, because they didn’tseeher. Her grandmother knew things about Gali that she herself didn’t, and so did Celestial, but eventheywanted a story where she was weak, where the Devil could control her.
Gali didn’t turn around to look at Lucifer. She didn’t need to. She could already see him standing there, dark skin glowing from the light pouring off her, those gold-flecked earthen eyes, that coarse black hair curling around his ears. Gali could smell the fear rising off her family just as she could smell the power rising off Lucifer, smoked and spiced and eons old. The Kincaids understoodwhathe was on a visceral level, no matter how harmless he tried to look, no matter how quietly he stood there. It just made him seem more dangerous. Gali knew one of the reasons her family hadn’t yet launched whatever attack they’d planned was because Lucifer in the flesh was far more terrifying than the Devil in theory. That, and they were recoiling from Gali’s power.
“We should’ve sent you back, drowned you in the creek,” Sage continued, her teeth glittering like rubies in the sweltering air. “The Devil sticks his dick in you and you turn against us. You think no one noticed you showed up in his fucking clothes?”
Collette was still staring at Sage with a shocked hurt that stretched beyond Gali’s understanding. “I can’t believe you saying this shit. Galilee isours.”
“Not anymore,” Sage replied. She coughed, and her bitter eyes found Gali’s as she spat her next words out. “Nana Darling’s going to disown you for being Satan’s whore, and you fucking deserve it.”
Collette drew back with a raised knee, about to stomp Sage into the ground, but Gali raised a hand, and her mother stopped, fury and grief warring under her skin. Gali looked over her family, smelling theirdoubts. She was fading in their eyes, becoming not real, a stranger who had fucked the Devil and was out of control. Gali could almost understand it. Things had passed the horizon of all their imaginations, and they were all walking through unmapped land. She took a deep breath and she called back her power, even though it lacerated her to do it. Her light retreated to just under her skin, and for a moment, she wondered if she and Lucifer looked alike, radiant and inhuman. Embers crept off the grass and leaves, fell off the branches and petals of the garden around them, winding their way back to Gali in a churning river of burning pieces. She watched it froth at her feet for a few moments, ignoring the shocked murmurs from her family, then Gali turned and walked over to Lucifer. The low cloud of broken fire followed her like a second swarm, heat trailing around her ankles and ash floating in the air. She felt damn near invincible, like she was boiling with power, but everything stillhurt.
Lucifer watched her hungrily as she approached, and when Gali placed her hand on his chest just like she had the previous night, he let out a soft exhale, and thick blackness crept over the whites of his eyes. Collette gave a small scream behind her, but Gali tuned it out, tipping her head up to the sun that was Lucifer’s face. He raised a hand and caressed her cheek with those gorgeous fingers, his nails gleaming like pearls. Gali leaned into his touch for a brief second before stepping back so that a mere foot of space separated them. Lucifer never stopped looking at her—Gali could feel his gaze burning against her as she turned back to her family. The embers kept bubbling and boiling at her feet, longing to be inhaled by her, but Gali made them wait.
“You may know my secrets before I do,” she said, meeting her grandmother’s eyes. “But you don’t fucking know me.”
The heat roared, and Gali had to take a breath. There was so much blazing power at her fingertips, leashed so tightly, but there was something she had to do first, while she was just herself. It resonated behindher sternum, in the place where she knew things without proof of their knowing, just the weight of their truth knocking against her bone.
She didn’t look behind her.
“Lucifer,” she said.“Kneel.”
Nana Darling’s face went gray, and even Celestial flinched. Gali didn’tneedto look behind her. She could hear the soft crackle of embers and denim as the King of Hell fell to his knees at her command. She could see the sheen of terror pass from face to face as her family looked upon her and her lover. Oriak? and Bonbon were still holding each other, their eyes huge and their jaws slack with surprise. That was fine.
It was time now. There would be no more lies, no more stories to keep her worlds apart. Gali slid the leash off and let the burning river take her. It punctured her body, a churning flood of live coals and flaming embers that washed over her skin and sank within. There was no numbness anymore, just a sea of pain and rage and sheer razing power. There was a creek reversing its flow at the touch of her hand, an oak that had stood for hundreds of years crumbling into ash that gathered inside her cheek; there was a baying in the dark groves and fresh red blood on the leaves. Gali felt the fire creep through her body and spike up her neck, wrapping sharp tendrils into her eyes. Her vision blurred, and the light under her skin flared once, a star breaking open, a blinding vision. Everyone flung their arms up to protect their faces as the garden became a sea of piercing brightness. When it cleared, Gali could feel all the light locked under her eyelids, and she knew exactly how her eyes looked now—irises drained of all color, just white light from corner to corner.
Everything was almost too sharp in her sight, and her mother was weeping. Gali took a precise step backward so she was standing next to Lucifer. She could feel power beating out from her, pulses against the air. There was no stinging in her bones, no ache, and no want, because she was full, so full of light and heat and force. Gali didn’t look down as she reached out, sliding her hand through Lucifer’s hair and pullinghis head back. She let her power dance along the path, igniting through her fingers and leaping into his skull. She didn’t flinch when the Devil screamed, a short, guttural sound, as she bent his throat open to the sky.
“My name is Galilee Kincaid,” she said, fixing her eyes on her grandmother as the grass bent away from the worlds in her breath, as the King of Hell panted for air, kneeling at her feet. “And now you’re gonna tell me what thefuckI am.”
There was absolute silence for one heartbeat, then two.
Nana Darling swallowed hard and nodded. “Stand down,” she ordered. “All Kincaids, fall back.”
Gali watched as the women who’d raised her and loved her finally lowered their weapons. Celestial was watching her with curiosity, and Collette gave Gali a small smile, but everyone else’s fear was even louder now. Bonbon and Oriak? looked shaken, their eyes still huge in their heads. It didn’t matter. Gali couldn’t keep hiding and her family couldn’t either. If fear was what it took to get the truth, then so be it.
“We’ll give you both a minute,” Collette said, before herding the Kincaid women several paces back. Oriak? and Bonbon fell in line with them, and they all gathered in a loose huddle, putting away their weapons and talking in a low, anxious hum. Celestial put her hand to their grandmother’s elbow and led her away, and then it was just Galilee standing in burned grass, her hand still fisted in Lucifer’s hair.
She let out a shaky breath and spun around, releasing his hair and dropping into a crouch before him. “Lucifer...”
He cupped her face in his hands and smiled at her. “It’s okay, Galilee. I’m unhurt.”
Gali was trembling. How could he be okay? How deeply had she burned him by not leashing her power? “I hurt you,” she whispered. “Don’t lie to me. You screamed.”
Tears filled her eyes, and Lucifer’s face swam in and out of focus, that beautiful hooked nose, his thick eyebrows, his hooded eyes. Gali fell forward onto her knees and felt him wrap his arms around her, pulling heragainst his body as she choked back a sob. There was no time to cry. Gali tried to tug away, and when Lucifer didn’t budge, she tried to dampen her power so it wouldn’t sear through him again.
“Stop that,” the Devil ordered. “Neverturn down your volume around me.”
Gali clutched at his shirt. “Youscreamed, Luci.”
A warm chuckle brushed against her ear. “Galilee, I nearly came,” he whispered, his voice light with amusement. Gali choked and broke into a cough, her eyes tearing up as Lucifer patted her back.
“Don’t play with me,” she scolded, still keeping her face tucked close to his neck. “It’s not gonna make me feel better.”
