“I’m sorry, Belial.” Leviathan turned, his sword at the ready, his body shielding Lucifer and Galilee from the other princes.
Belial froze in utter shock. “What are youdoing, Levi?”
Levi hoped Lucifer was listening, since Galilee was beyond that now. “Let him try and get through to her,” he said. “We can’t touch her without wounding Lucifer.”
Asmodeus narrowed his eyes. “You defend her,” he said. “She is unleashing Hell with her pain and thousands will die, but youdefendher, Levi?”
“Attacking her might make this all worse.”
“You’re transparent, Levi.” Belial’s many eyes were all cold. “It would take a second to collect her head and this would be over. You would have done it earlier today without hesitation.”
Leviathan nodded, a sharp-edged void balanced in his hands. “And now I will not.”
Asmodeus snorted, smoke roiling out of his nostrils. “We don’t have time for this. Beelzebub, Mephis. Kill her. Disable Levi if you need to.”
“KillLevi if you need to,” Belial corrected. “We have a fucking job to do, even if both of them have been turned by some broken angel-born bitch with a convincing cunt.”
Leviathan heard Lucifer stand up behind him, obsidian wings roaring. He flared his out as well and took a small step back so he and Lucifer were back-to-back. Ten thousand memories crowded in, and Leviathan shoved them all out again, turning his head to speak quietly. “She’s not lost to you, Luci. Forget the princes. Find her in there.”
Lucifer was silent, but then his wings brushed against Leviathan’s, prompting another wave of memories, naked flesh and wings caressed by silk and mouths. “Don’t do that,” Leviathan snapped. “You know I hate it.”
“I know precisely how much you like it,” Lucifer replied, his voice soft and private. He was grounding himself, using Leviathan as the anchor. “Just like I know you waited outside my room earlier.”
The Devil spoke easily, as if he hadn’t just been weeping, as if Galilee wasn’t spinning apart, as if Hell wasn’t being born into this realm. Leviathan was glad that Lucifer was stable enough to flirt in the midst of chaos, but Lucifer’s words made him draw in a harsh breath, punched by quick memory. True, he had come to the bedroom door when Galilee had been screaming Lucifer’s name with nothing but wild, shatteringpleasure in her voice. There’d been a time when Leviathan had sounded like that.
“You’re going to do thisnow?” he bit out. “Just stop her, Luci.”
“I intend to.”
Lucifer’s wings retreated, and fear swung its way into Leviathan’s throat as he watched the Devil step directlyintoGalilee’s blazing light storm. Beelzebub and Mephis had been approaching her, but now they stopped in their tracks and exchanged uncomfortable looks. Leviathan whipped an arm out, slicing his sword in a showy arc scant inches away from their multiple throats.
“Don’t move,” he ordered.
Lucifer reached out and cupped what was left of Galilee’s face with both his hands, hissing softly as he made contact. Given the way he’d described her touch before, Leviathan couldn’t imagine how much that contact burned right now.
“Beloved,” the Morningstar whispered, “are you there?”
The light howled and cut thin slashes into Lucifer’s cheeks. Fire scalded his face, bubbling the skin of his form.
“She’s attacking him,” Beelzebub hissed, glaring at Leviathan. She was a horned beast in her true form, three tongues lolling out of her razored mouth. “Youfailin your duty to protect the king.”
Leviathan shrugged, not lowering his sword. “He’ll be fine.”
Mephis was watching him closely, and Leviathan didn’t like it. Mephis was cunning, a cruel little trickster who had a knack for picking out secrets. “What happened when you went up to the room?” they asked, eyes orbiting in the air around where their head should have been.
“Who cares?” Beelzebub snapped.
“Or was it in the garden?” Mephis continued. “When it was just the three of you, so conveniently allied against us now?”
Leviathan ignored them. Galilee left her human form completely, forcing Lucifer to back away from her as she shifted fully into a maelstrom of fire and light. A sharp spark sounded, and all the illuminationin the room died. It didn’t matter to anyone there—none of them needed light to see—but even as Belial and the others fought a groaning Hell, as Leviathan held Beelzebub and Mephis at bay, the core of the room was not the breaking gate but the tableau formed by the two entities. Lucifer had his power emanating from his pores, pressing against the maelstrom that was Galilee. Her light contracted, then blew a shock wave of power through the room.
Time stopped.
The gate froze in the middle of a scream, and the princes staggered back. A numb silence fell as tongues of fire flickered into the air, floating around them all, and then the maelstrom spoke.
“You betrayed me,” it said to Lucifer, and its voice was piercing, sharp crystal echoing faintly with chimes.
Lucifer drew in a harsh breath. “I did,” he admitted. “I thought I could save you.”
