Jagged tendrils of light reached out from the maelstrom and wrapped themselves around Lucifer, sinking into his skin. Leviathan’s grip tightened on his sword as Lucifer winced with pain, his eyes bleeding black.
“I was wrong, Galilee.” His voice was rough. “I see it now.”
“You’re hurting him,” Leviathan said. Pale streaks of lightning were flaring through Lucifer’s flesh, and his power began to stutter.
“No,” the maelstrom corrected. “I amwoundinghim.”
Lucifer coughed out a laugh. “Just like I taught you.”
“Yes,” the maelstrom replied. “You understand punishment.”
“Ah, Galilee, beloved.” Lucifer fell to one knee as ash began to form on his face. “You never needed me to save you.”
His princes were watching in horror, and even Leviathan felt the unease crawling over his skin. She waswoundingthe Morningstar. If Lucifer died...
“Stop this,” Belial growled. “Levi, we have tostopthis.”
“Stand back,”Lucifer snapped at them.
“Morningstar, you’re the one who made sure your authority was nolonger absolute,” Asmodeus shot back. “We will not stand by and let herdestroyyou.”
Leviathan let his wings unfold and loosened his hold on his form. His human skin slithered away, and then he was clotted leather roaring out of an ocean once again. “Youwillobey the Morningstar,” he growled.
Asmodeus gave him a contemptuous glance. “Your loyalty is a farce if it leads to Luci’s death,” he pointed out. “She iskillinghim.”
“Lucifer knows what he’s doing.” Leviathan had no one to pray to, but he hoped with all his being that he was right, because this hurt more than he had imagined possible, watching Galilee Kincaid torture the King of Hell. If Leviathan had ever wondered about revenge for the harms Lucifer had visited upon him, that wonder was gone. He did not want this.I should have told him he was forgiven,he thought.
The maelstrom encircled Lucifer completely now, and the Devil’s power guttered even further. Asmodeus gave Leviathan a tight, resentful nod, a good soldier accepting Leviathan’s order in the chain of command, but Belial let out a cry of rage that shook the walls of the vault.
“Get him out of there!” she roared.
“Belial.” Lucifer’s voice was gasping now, punctuated by spare breaths. “There is nothing to fear.”
“Why do you lie to her?” asked the maelstrom. “How much of you was a lie?”
“I don’t lie,” Lucifer replied. His eyes were fanatically bright, a split and swirling abyss. “There is nothing to fear in glory, Galilee.” He coughed, and darkness dripped from the corner of his mouth. “Your true form astonishes me. I am grateful I got to see it.”
The maelstrom hesitated. “You are wounded,” it said. “You deserve it.”
“Undoubtedly. But I told you the truth, Galilee. I don’t care if you destroy me, if you obliterate me with feeling.” He laughed, and his skin lost color. “What a way to go.”
Leviathan watched with horrified interest, his sword clear in his hand, his position fixed. Was this all surrender, on all their parts? Hehad never really trusted the new Lucifer, not when he’d been so intimate with the old one, but this—this was different. The Devil was going to let Galilee annihilate him. As what, as penance? If there was ever a time for Lucifer’s old self to reemerge, it would be now, when his very existence was being threatened. Instead, he was smiling with death dripping from his mouth, accepting it with both hands.
“Change form, you suicidal bastard!” Belial yelled, as Asmodeus restrained her by a handful of scaled limbs. “She can’t defeat you in your true form!”
“I won’t fight her,” Lucifer replied. “She was never my enemy.”
It was entirely too much, right there. Leviathan rolled his eyes and reverted to his human form. “That’s enough of that,” he said, sheathing his sword as he stepped up to Lucifer, entering the maelstrom of light. Leviathan was moving faster than he was thinking, but he was as sure as his blade, ringing bright and clear. Inside the maelstrom, heat washed over his skin but it did not burn him. The storm that used to be Galilee Kincaid stopped moving, and Leviathan felt a tangible curiosity lick over him.
“Why are you here?” the maelstrom asked.
Because he would not watch the King of Hell become a martyr when it wasn’t necessary. “You don’t actually want to wound Lucifer,” Leviathan replied, thinking of the girl in the garden with wide, dark eyes. “Luci won’t say anything to stop you because he thinks he deserves it, but Galilee Kincaid iscareful, even with monsters.”
He reached down and stroked damp curls off Lucifer’s forehead. The Morningstar was in a bad way.
“Things have changed,” the maelstrom said.
“They have,” agreed Leviathan. “And you are angry and hurt, and no one prepared you for this power. No one taught you how to hold it. They hid you from yourself, and they made you into a weapon, and right now, Galilee? You’re nothing but a sword in Deziel’s hand, and she isn’t even in this room.”
