Levi didn’t seem to care about Lucifer’s rage. “Why?” he taunted some more, his voice silken. “Worried he’ll kill her?”
It was like lancing an abscess, the slash of Levi’s words: the wound it broke open in Lucifer’s face, shattering his mask, and the gush of feeling that flooded his eyes as he looked at Gali.
“Yes, Levi.” His voice was suddenly old and heavy with loneliness and a sorrow Gali didn’t quite understand. “I am afraid he’ll kill her.”
Levi fell silent, stricken by Lucifer’s answer. Before he could speak again, Lucifer turned away from them, black wings bursting out of his back. He took flight in a smooth, soundless rise, and then he was gone, and Gali was alone in the garden with the prince who wanted her dead.
She kept her eyes fiery white. “So,” she said, “who’s his brother?”
Levi sighed and threw himself on a garden bench, his long legs sprawling out in front of him as he lifted his scabbard over his thighs. His body was lazy and elegant, suddenly loose-limbed, much to Gali’s surprise. He’d been so coiled with menace since she met him in the parlor, seeing him relax seemed unnatural. Maybe he was doing it to unsettle her.
“The Archangel Michael,” Levi said, and Gali blinked in amazement that he’d actually answered without insulting her first.
“His brother’s the ArchangelMichael,” she echoed slowly, as the words sank in. “That’s who showed up to the house?”
Levi hung his head back, and his bone-white locs pooled on the bench. “Yes,” he answered. “They don’t quite get along.”
Memories of holy books were springing up in Gali’s head. “Isn’t Michael, like, a cop?”
Levi barked out a laugh, and the sound was rich and ethereal, bubbling in the air around them. Gali almost froze in shock. She hadn’t even known hecouldlaugh.
“You know what, Michael isabsolutelya cop.” Leviathan grinned wickedly at her. “You should pop up there and tell him that.”
Gali gave him a dripping sweet smile. “Aw, don’t pass it off to someone else. You know you’d be devastated if you didn’t get to kill me yourself.”
To her surprise, Leviathan dragged his yellow eyes all over her, from her tangled hair to her body under Lucifer’s tunic, all the way down to her bare feet coated in dark ash. It was uncomfortably reminiscent of how Lucifer had looked at her the first time they met in the mansion, and Gali tried not to squirm. The tip of Levi’s tongue flicked out, red and forked, caressing the pink corner of his mouth.
“You know, I think Iwouldbe devastated,” he said, his voice sliding into a harsh breath. “Isn’t that something, Galilee Kincaid?”
He’d never used her name before, and he made it sound... filthy. Something dark stirred in Gali’s belly, and her blood slammed a little harder against the walls of her veins. Leviathan was dangerous in a way that Lucifer, oddly enough, was not. Leviathan wanted herdead. He wanted the edge of his sword to kiss her throat, and he wanted to stand there as her blood pumped away over him. Even now, he was stroking the leather of his scabbard as he watched her face.
Gali fought the urge to take a step back. She wouldn’t show weakness, not now. Not when she knew a little more about who she was, and certainly not as a Kincaid with power burning through her corneas.
“What’s your sword’s name?” she asked instead, and Levi tilted his head to one side, very slowly, his eyes smooth as a snake’s.
“What makes you think it has one?”
Gali shrugged. “Doesn’t every sword?”
“You’ve been reading too many books, little human.”
She bared her teeth, and light rolled off her tongue, making her voice electric. “Don’t call me that,” she warned him.
Levi brought his hands together in gentle mocking applause. “Oh, look. The Devil’s pet learned a new trick.”
Wow, he was annoying. Gali tried a different tack. “I’m pretty sure Lucifer told you not to kill me—”
“Yet,” Levi interjected, his fingers long and repetitive on the scabbard across his thighs. “I’m not allowed to kill youyet. Lucifer’s trying to convince us of scenarios in which your power might not be a threat. He’s full of schemes and pretty pictures, that one.”
Levi’s words were heavy with suggestion, but Gali barely paid him any mind. She didn’tneedLucifer to protect her anymore, not with the cold power raging so close to her surface now, just a call away.
“My point is, he didn’t say nothing about me killingyou.” Gali smiled widely. “I mean, you’d probably just scurry off back to Hell, and he could come find what’s left of you later. I don’t think he’d betoomad at me, do you?”
Leviathan leaned forward, his locs falling over his dappled face as his bones sharpened with a feral eagerness. “Why don’t you come and try, little one? We can see if your head grows back after I rip it off.”
They stared at each other for a stretched moment, then Gali rolled her eyes and folded her arms. “Whatever. It’s getting cold.” She didn’t actually want to fight. There was a part of her that had curled up in on itself after the showdown with her family, like it was curving to protect a great wound.
Levi gave her a look and gestured to the burned garden around them. “Make heat if you need it.”
