Lucifer darted to me with a growl, and I fought not to flinch. “Because I found something you and Michael couldnevergive me!” His voice lashed out like a flaming whip. “I built it up piece by piece, and now you want to tear it down, just because I’m notsufferingenough for your liking?”
“Yes!”I screamed. “Iam suffering! Why shouldyouget to be loved?”
We were as close as a breath, our faces nearly touching. Lucifer’s flecked eyes searched mine as I tried to reel my emotions back in.
“You know,” he said, “I always wondered what I’d do if Michael let me come back to Heaven. I dreamed of it for endless millennia, and I told myself I wouldn’t go, I wouldn’t do it, such was my spite and hurt. But now? It feels like a great exhale, Deziel, not a decision fluttered on an angry wind, to know that I will never go back, that I don’t want that anymore.” He touched his forehead to mine, even as his mouth cut gouges into me. “I have made something better from the love of discards, and it sits heavy in my marrow. You and Michael will never take that away from me.”
I wrenched myself away from him, gasping. His princes were still watching us, a foul audience, and Galilee was staring with wide eyes, her hands pressed against her mouth. I felt trapped. How dare he make me feel like this, when he was the hunted one?
“You will be destroyed, Morningstar,” I choked out. Snowflakes started falling thickly from the distant ceiling of the vault, my cold grief splintering over our heads.
Lucifer shook his head. “You’re wasting my time, Dez.” Snow was accumulating on his lashes, the flakes melting like tears. He jerked his chin at the yellow-eyed demon. “Get Galilee out of here.”
Her name jolted me back to my purpose. Oh, I was more cunningthan the Devil had realized, I had been preparing for decades. I pressed my hand to my belly and forced my voice to be strong, ringing through the space. “You’re not taking my daughter anywhere,” I said, and the snow froze in midair.
Galilee made a choked sound, her hands falling by her sides as she stumbled back. Shock slowed her movements, reverberating in her face. “You’re lying,” she said, and the words came out desperate, hoarse and dry.
“Why use a lie when the truth is a far sharper weapon?” I replied, my form blurring as I walked toward my daughter, my cutting blade. The snow floated out of my way. The iron-gray hair of my vessel darkened wetly until it clung to my cheeks. My face reshaped itself, my neck collapsing to a human length, the red leaching out from my lips until they were pale and bloodless. Galilee watched, and I saw the moment horrified recognition dawned in her eyes as mine faded from moss green to a wild dark brown.
“It was you in the woods,” she gasped, as my clothes crumbled and a bloodstained white shift replaced them. “You made the barter.”
Her heart was stumbling now—I could hear it, and I knew it was because of the memory Darling Kincaid had shown them, me standing in the creek with a wet, red newborn.
I grinned at my child from a long-dead face. “I’m so glad I didn’t kill you,” I said warmly. “You’ve turned out so much better than I ever hoped, Galilee Kincaid.”
She flinched, her fingers trembling, her inky eyes blown open. The demons in the vault were openly shocked, murmuring to each other in violent hisses. “She’s a fuckingsleeper agent,” one of them said, her words low and strained. The yellow-eyed demon had stepped forward to stand by Lucifer’s shoulder. His sword was drawn and it glowed with a cold light, but his eyes were inscrutable as he stared at Galilee. Lucifer was silent, his eyes fixed on my child, deep grooves bracketing his mouth.
“See, the beauty of my daughter,” I explained to them all, “is that shehas more power than you can fathom. I don’t imagine you’d have an easy time killing her.” I slid a knowing look over at the Devil. “You won’t be able to let them do it, will you? Youneedher now.”
Lucifer’s eyes shifted, and my mouth stretched into a smile again.
“I knew you would. She was crafted perfectly for you.”
The Devil grimaced. “She’s your child,” he answered, and when he looked at Galilee again, it was with a fresh and shocked horror. “She’s yourchild, Deziel.” He took an unsteady step back, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes. “Fuck!”
“No,”Galilee said, and I was delighted to hear the pain and fury in her voice, seeping into her eyes and turning them white, bleeding light into her hands. “Lucifer, no. That isnotmy mother.” Her power was boiling up, slipping off its leash, running wild from distress. We were so close now. She was my blade resting on the Morningstar’s collarbone, an exhale away from his throat, and all I had to do was lean on her.
“But I know you so well,” I taunted. “I watched you your whole life, little girl, wanting to be weak, wanting to be human. Not knowing what you needed, butI knew. I knew you’d run to Lucifer like a plant to the light.” I shrugged. “We’re all monsters to the humans, after all.”
Galilee looked sickened, the light stuttering out of her in fits and starts. “How much of this did you set up?”
I couldn’t help but laugh, and the sound melted the suspended snowflakes into warm droplets hanging like gems in the air. “Ah, child. I brought that mask to Salvation. I knew Lucifer would follow once it started to malfunction, and he would be brought within reach of you—one of the few entities who can harm him—and the rest was inevitable.”
The demon with writhing snakes on her head hissed at me. “You and your kind havealwaysbeen able to harm him,” she said.
I tapped a damp finger against my cheek. “Let me rephrase. One of the few entitiesoutside Heaven’s commandwho can harm him.”
The yellow-eyed demon looked disgusted. “You created Galilee because you were too afraid to attack Lucifer directly?”
I ignored him. What did they know of Heaven and our rigor, our rules? I had created Galilee because I was not permitted to move directly against the King of Hell, so it was the corners and loopholes for me, squeezing God’s justice into spaces where it barely fit. And here she was, my blade of a daughter with glowing hands, her hurt gaze pinned on me.
“That’swhy I exist?” she asked, her voice unsteady.
I tilted my head at her. The droplets of water in the air floated slowly to the ground, making small puddles. “It’s a purpose, Galilee. We gave you a righteous one. You should be grateful for it.”
“How did you do it?” The question came from the snaked demon, and I allowed it only because no one had appreciated how hard it had been to pull this off, to carry a child in a human form for what felt like endless months as it siphoned life from my vessel’s flesh. I hadworkedfor this justice.
“I took this form, obviously.” I turned my hands over, examining the skin. “We came down to the earth.”
