Gali shrugged, not bothering to respond. The light in her didn’t actually warm her up. Even as the garden had burned, she’d felt none of that heat, but she sure as hell wasn’t going to tell Leviathan any of that. Allaround them, cicadas had started shrieking, and the moon was already in the sky, bloated and almost full. Fatigue was heavy on her shoulders, and Gali just wanted to be back in her apartment, taking a scorching-hot shower before crawling into bed. Leviathan wasn’t going to let her leave, though. At some point, she’d have to have it out with him and the rest of the princes, but right now, she was just sotired.
“Look, if you’re not going to kill me, how about I go back to the house and take a shower?” she said. “We don’t have to interrupt Luci and his brother.” Who was anarchangel, her mind noted for good measure.
Levi leaned back on the bench and shook his head. “Can’t let you near the house, little one. Luci’s orders.”
At least he’s stopped calling her “human.” “Do you always do what Luci says, like a good little bitch?” she asked, thoroughly irritated now.
Levi raised an amused eyebrow. “He’s the King of Hell, so yes. I follow orders.”
A mosquito bit Gali on her calf, and she cursed out loud, slapping at it and missing. “This is ridiculous! Y’all can’t make me stand out here in the garden indefinitely.”
“Do you?” Levi was stroking the scabbard again—he was so fucking obsessed with that sword there was nowayit didn’t have a name. Gali found herself annoyed at how decadent his voice was, as if temptation had been spun fine and shoved down his throat, only to sing back up again.
“Do I what?” Gali asked, distracted. Her calf was already itching like a motherfucker.
“Doyoufollow orders?” Leviathan asked. “Like a good little bitch?”
He made the last few words sound like a caress, albeit an indecent one. Gali stopped in place as that darkness sang low again, twisting in her belly. A breeze wandered through the garden, and she shivered in the tunic. Leviathan sighed and stood up, shrugging off his jacket.
“Put this on,” he said.
Gali took the jacket and draped it over her shoulders. It was a heavy denim and smelled of bitter cacao. “Thanks.”
Levi was about to answer, but then he jerked his head sharply to the side, his nostrils flaring.
“What is it?” Gali asked.
Levi cursed in a language she didn’t recognize and grabbed her arm over the jacket, pulling her into the willow trees.
“Get down,” he ordered, and Gali dropped obediently into a crouch, pressing her palm against a trunk for balance. A childhood brushing against the darkest parts of the Kincaids’ forests had long since taught her when not to argue with a bodyguard.
There was a soft hiss above her, and she looked up to see that Leviathan had curved over her and snapped his wings out. Unlike Lucifer’s, they were membranous rather than feathers. The undersides were a deep scarlet on all four of them, like venous blood. As she watched in awe, the outside of his wings mimicked the willow branches, sprouting leaves that dripped over, concealing both of them from view.
“How the hell did you do that?” she whispered.
Levi shook his head. “Be silent.”
Gali nodded and remained in her crouch as long seconds passed. Past the smoke and musk of Lucifer’s tunic, she could smell more of Levi’s scent now that he was so close to her—that clear and singing cacao, sharp and earthy. When he finally rose and folded his wings into nothing, the scent retreated, but it still clung to the jacket and to the edges of Galilee’s mind.
“What wasthatabout?” she asked, straightening up and holding the denim in place around her shoulders. Levi was looking up through the willows.
“Michael was passing overhead,” he said.
“You couldn’t use a glamour?”
“Archangels can see through those. You can’t deceive them with a thing that isn’t really there. You have to make the thing real.” Levi glanced up the garden path. “I’d better get you back to the house.”
“Hold up.” Gali took a step forward, and Levi’s eyebrows went up, hishand drifting to his sword. She rolled her eyes. “Relax, I’m not going to try and kill you—youdidjust protect me.”
“Forgive my caution,” he replied without a hint of apology, keeping his hand on the sword’s hilt.
Gali exhaled and counted her breaths. “You stopped being so cruel all of a sudden,” she said. “Why?”
Levi blinked once, then met her eyes calmly. “Lucifer got angry.”
Gali could feel a load of unsaid things behind his words, things she didn’t particularly want to start poking at. It wasn’t as if she’d start mattering to the princes just because she mattered to Lucifer and he’d lost his temper or something. “Oh” was all she said.
Levi was still looming over her, but he’d let his hand fall off his weapon. “Is that all?”
