“Oh?”
One of the irritating things about Lucifer shifting the dynamic of the princes was that the intimacy was contagious now that it wassafe. Leviathan fought to keep his lip from curling with disgust. Belial leaned in slightly.
“Youhateher now, Levi. That’s not the same thing as indifference. That’s not cold.” Behind her accusations, her eyes were worried. “You’re heating up, and youdon’theat up. Not you. Not for some bitch Luci’s fucking.”
Leviathan knew for sure that he hadn’t flinched at the last words, but Belial’s face lit up with revelation just from hearing herself say the words out loud.
“Sweet Hell, Levi, isthatit?” She cocked her head to one side and frowned. “I thought you were over him,” she said, more gently.
An unreasonable surge of rage rose up in Leviathan and he shoved it back down, his jaw grinding. “I have nothing to say about this,” he bit out, “other than the girl dies.”
Belial watched him for a few moments, then sighed. “Leviathan, Luci felt things with you, you know?”
It was a completely unexpected thing for her to say.
It was a completelyunwelcomething for her to say. They had never overtly discussed his relationship with Lucifer, but this sounded very much like Luci had talked to Belial about it at some point. Leviathan refused to show any curiosity, any reaction in fact—certainly not the stab of pain that went through his chest. Belial didn’t seem to care.
“I know he said he hadn’t felt anything in however long until Galilee, but that’s because he hasn’t hadyouin all that time. You do know that, right?”
He was absolutely not going to answer.Fuckthis. Fuck Belial, and fuck Lucifer for ever telling her whatever he’d told her, whateverliesof what Leviathan had meant to him. They weren’t worth the strips of curling skin lying betrayed on the floor.
“The girl dies” was all he could manage to say out loud.
Belial loosened up and scoffed, letting the fraught moment slip past. “I got no problem with that. I’m just saying, after you kill his new lover, maybe you should think about fucking your man again, that’s all.”
Leviathan gave her an incredulous stare, and Belial laughed out loud.
“He’s always been yours, Levi. Waiting around for whenever you’re ready to take him back.”
“He—” Leviathan’s voice snagged in his throat.
Belial’s laughter faded. “I know what he did.”
He found his voice at that and filled it with contempt. “You think I shouldforgivehim?”
“Fuck no!” Belial looked disgusted at the thought. “But someone’s gotta say this, Levi. Luci fucked you over and you didn’t doshitabout it.”
Frustration boiled up in Leviathan. She was talking as if he’d made conscious choices about how to treat Lucifer in the wake of things, but Leviathan had simply been surviving the blow his lover had dealt him. It wasn’t as if he could find justice—a laughable concept, considering that they belonged to and in Hell. Some would say they deserved anything and everything that happened to them in there.
“What would you have me do?” he bit out.
Belial leaned in, her eyes sharp with amusement. “Isn’t it obvious?” she whispered. “You do what we weremadeto do, whatshouldbe done in Hell.”
Her smile glinted unpleasantly.
“Youpunishhim.”
17.
Darling
Darling Kincaid did not believe in regrets.
She’d lived a long life, longer than most, like all the Kincaid women before her, and she’d made all her choices with open eyes. They were the best choices she could have made in those moments—of that she was sure—and so it was pointless to wish she had made different ones. If she could go back, she would do everything exactly as she had done it the first time. Still, no amount of confidence in her decisions could protect her from the consequences of them, and that was a truth that Darling knew all too well.
As she looked at the granddaughter sitting before her with blazing white eyes, she felt the familiar weight of consequence heavy on the back of her neck. Darling sighed and lifted her chin.
“You are a Kincaid,” she said, her voice surprisingly strong even to her own ears. “You are ours.”
