Actually, it wasn’t. There was still a point of curiosity that Gali wanted to sort out, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.
“Might I touch you?” she asked bluntly, and watched in amusement as Leviathan glared at her.
“Nothingabout that request reassures me that you’re not trying to kill me.”
“Stop being difficult for two seconds,” she replied. “I just wanna see if the princes are affected by my power the way Lucifer is.”
Levi’s gaze narrowed. “You’re offering toburnme?”
She hoped it struck some fear into his arrogant ass. “Sure, if you wanna look at it that way.”
“You mean the way itis.”
Gali rolled her eyes. “If you scared, just say so.”
The taunt worked, as she’d expected. Leviathan thought for a moment, tapping a finger on the hilt of his sword. “I suppose that information would be useful on our end as well.”
“Whatever helps,” she offered solicitously, and Levi gave her an unfriendly look that somehow didn’t have even a fraction of the loathinghe’d shown her earlier in the house. Gali wasn’t sure how she felt about that—the way he was thawing out, loosening his limbs around her, protecting her, even though he was just following orders. It was too quick a shift, like he was luring her into something else. She found herself hoping that her touch would burn him, if just for the protection it would afford her.
“Fine.” Leviathan took a step in her direction, already unbuttoning his shirt, and Gali instantly regretted trying this experiment with him. The problem with a slightly less homicidal Leviathan was that it becamemucheasier to appreciate how disturbingly fine he was. “We all assumed that your effect would transfer over to the princes,” he was saying, “but I’d rather confirm than assume. It might be specific to Lucifer, for all we know, but then you’d have to try and kill me with the rest of your undisciplined power instead.”
“I’d make it work,” Gali retorted, even as her throat went dry looking at him. The pale patches scattered over Leviathan’s brown skin extended down his neck and onto his chest, draping over his collarbones like small pools of light. He stopped too close to Gali, and the bitter cacao filled her lungs again, too rich, too heavy.
“You know,” Levi drawled, “you could’ve just said you wanted to touch me.” His voice was low and amused, and to her own disgust, it made Gali blush.
“Shutup.” She reached out a hand but hesitated an inch away from his marked skin. “If I hurt you, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to.”
Levi stared down at her. “Strange words for someone who wants me dead,” he murmured, and his breath brushed against her face.
“I’d rather kill you on purpose,” Gali replied. What if it was worse than with Lucifer? What if it incinerated Levi from the inside out and she couldn’t stop it? She shook her head and steadied her hand. “You ready?”
“Just touch me, Galilee.”
He sounded both serious and silken, and Gali wondered if she was imagining a sliver of hurried anticipation in his words. She blew out a sharp breath, then dropped her fingers against his chest.
Leviathan’s skin was cool and smooth. He didn’t flinch, so she pressed her whole palm against him and fed a trickle of power into his body. Like Lucifer, there was no heartbeat underneath.
Gali looked up into his face. “How does it feel?”
Leviathan was frowning, his pale eyebrows pulled together and his yellow eyes fathomless and flat. His lips parted, but no sound came out, just a rough exhale. She yanked her hand away in alarm.
“Oh, God, was I burning you? Are you okay?”
His face cleared, and Levi gave her a tight smile. “Unfortunately, I’m quite unhurt,” he answered. “You’ll have to kill me another way.”
Gali grinned, relieved even though she shouldn’t have been. Burning the princes would’ve been a great advantage, but while Lucifer loved it for his own perverse reasons, Gali knew it would simply be torture for anyone else, and she wasn’t sure that’s who she wanted to become. However, shedidlove the way the power felt now that she was letting it grow through her.
“Like I said, I’ll make it work.”
Levi’s eyes were fixed on her. “Can’t wait,” he clipped out, then turned down the garden path. “Come on, little one. Time to return you to Lucifer.”
He set off without waiting for a reply, his sword hanging off his hip. Galilee turned to look at the woods her family had vanished into, then she sighed and followed Leviathan, cacao and smoke trailing along her skin.
20.
Lucifer
Lucifer cut through the air like a rising sword as he flew back to the house, leaving Levi and Galilee in the garden. He knew Michael would be on the rooftop terrace of the house—his brother liked high places, the sinless soldier of Heaven gazing down at a thousand potential battlefields. Lucifer also knew that he couldn’t let Michael anywhere near Galilee. The archangel’s knee-jerk reaction to power he didn’t approve of was always destruction. It was such a waste, such a foolish culling, but Heaven had never cared about anyone’s potential as long as they could be seen as a threat, and Michael was nothing if not God’s lash.
