Across from her, Gali’s face contorted with emotion. “That ain’t quite true, is it, Nana Darling?”
Collette hissed in a breath. “Don’t you call your grandmother a liar, Galilee Kincaid.”
Gali clenched her fists, just like she had when she was a child at thebig house. “Do I callyoua liar then, Ma? Do I calleveryonea liar?” Her eyes swung back to Darling, hurt and accusing. “How you go from calling me evil to telling me I’m still one of you?”
Darling had raised every child in the big house with those words, over and over, a mantra of belonging she’d hoped would sink past their bones and into their marrow. She’d thought it would be enough to ward off the other things about Galilee, but clearly, she’d been wrong, because this precious child was sitting with them in a garden owned by Hell, with the Devil himself at her shoulder. Darling avoided looking too closely at him. His beauty was blinding, luminescent, and that’s why she’d had to remind herself and her granddaughter out loud that he was evil, that he was the enemy. God knows it was hard enough to remember when you saw his face or the way he stared at Galilee like she was salvation itself. Darling didn’t trust it worth a damn. He was too old, and Galilee was too bright. Who wouldn’t want to collect her, use her to illuminate their existence? But then Galilee would grow old and die, and the Devil would move on, and this child who Darling had carried out of the woods would have spent her life being nothing but a lantern to the King of Hell. No, Darling could not approve of this road, no matter what Galilee wanted with that terrible want of hers.
Celestial put her hand on Darling’s knee, startling her back to the present. Galilee was glaring at her expectantly with her new and inhuman eyes.
“We took you in a creek deal,” Darling said, and the force of memory slammed into her like a careening truck. “I could show you as I tell you, if you like.”
It was a peace offering—Galilee had always loved Darling’s memoryscapes. Even now, the tension on the girl’s face eased up. She turned quickly to whisper to the Devil, and Collette took the chance to lean over.
“You sure, Nana Darling? In front ofhim?”
Darling shrugged. “It makes no difference at this point.” She’d beenready to call down every force she could summon when she’d thought Galilee was being coerced or manipulated, but her granddaughter hadchosenthis, and Darling knew how stubborn the child was. The Devil wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon, no matter what Darling thought of him, and she wasn’t willing to go up against her granddaughter just yet.
Galilee turned back and nodded at her grandmother. “Please show me, Nana Darling.” She was always polite when she was nervous. Darling wished she could stitch the girl in front of her to the one she’d raised. Maybe in time, maybe when there was enough truth between them to make into thread.
Darling closed her eyes and let the memory explode out of her, a nimbus of light and time fracturing into the garden around them. She heard everyone gasp, and when she opened her eyes, they were in both the garden now and the woods twenty-five years ago. A younger Darling was wading by the bank of a creek while a toddler played in the water, deeper than would have appeared safe.
“I was gathering roots,” she said, watching herself work. “Celestial was with me.”
Gali glanced at the toddler, then at her cousin in surprise. “That was you?”
Celestial nodded, her eyes wandering over the memoryscape. “Looks just like I remember,” she said. “You can almost smell the leaves and the water.”
Darling watched as the Devil leaned forward, his gold-flecked eyes bright with curiosity. “What a gift you have, old woman,” he said.
The fine hairs at the back of Darling’s neck prickled at his voice, the way the burning cold in it reminded her of Galilee’s power.
He looked at the toddler in the memoryscape. “You weren’t afraid she would drown?”
“Celestial was born in the creeks,” Darling replied. “She damn near breathes in water.”
The Devil gave Galilee an amused look. “Your family makes a lotmore sense the more I learn about them,” he said, his voice low and teasing, as if they were the only ones in the garden. It unnerved Darling more than she was willing to show. She retreated to her memoryscape, to the lines of stress bracketing her younger self’s mouth.
“Collette was trying to have a child,” she said out loud, and Galilee looked over in surprise.
“Trying.” The girl repeated the word slowly, and Collette reached for Darling’s hand before facing Galilee.
“It wouldn’t take. I kept miscarrying, and after a while...” Collette’s voice trailed off into a choked sob, and Darling squeezed her hand.
“Take your time, child.”
Collette nodded and took a few deep, controlled breaths before continuing. “After a while, I just couldn’t do it anymore, couldn’t keep trying. We sent my lover away, and I lay in bed feeling like the world was lying on top of me.”
The Devil fixed his eyes on Darling, and even though his gaze was warm, it chilled her to the bone. “Do you always send your men away?”
The ghost of a memory twisted a dull blade in Darling’s soul, but she forced an answer out through her lips anyway. “Always. No men can live on Kincaid land, only visit.”
“And if one of you swelled with a child who would become a man?”
Darling did not lower her eyes. “Then that child would not be born,” she stated flatly.
Silence fell in the garden as the Devil considered her words, but Darling had no intention of giving him any further information. Kincaid bargains were Kincaid business.
To her surprise, the Devil turned to Collette instead. “I am sorry for your losses,” he said.
