The prince’s jaw twitched. “It’s a long story.”
“He said he betrayed you.”
“He did nothing that was out of line with who he was.”
Gali couldn’t even begin to guess at how old the pain buried in those words was. “Maybe one day you’ll tell me about it,” she said instead. “When you’re ready.”
Yellow eyes tracked back to her. “You speak like we have a future.” He said it carefully, and Gali decided to take it as a question. She’d decided not to try to return to her old life—it didn’t exist anyway. It had been burned away in a storm of light, and no matter how much that ached, Gali knew she could never get it back.
“We could.” She slid off the bench and leaned over the tub, kissing the hurt prince lightly on his lips. “If you wanna try it.”
The pale corner of Leviathan’s mouth rose. “Why, little angel, are you asking me out?”
Gali laughed and the bathroom echoed it. “Shit, maybe I am.”
He searched her eyes. “Are you a package deal?”
She sucked in a breath. Was that why he’d retreated and hid in here, all wounded? Gali could have pointed out that it was Levi who’d invited Lucifer to stay, that they had millennia of baggage between the both of them, and if anyone needed reassurance about not being the third wheel, it would most likely be her—but Gali also knew that wasn’t really the point, not right now.
“No, I’m not.” She cupped his face in her hands. “You stood against your team for me. You gave me a chance when no one else thought I could be anything other than what I was made to be, not even Lucifer. Whatever our thing could be, Leviathan, it would beours.”
Gali hoped she was making sense. Leviathan and Lucifer were a thing. Galilee and Lucifer were a thing. She was just trying to explain to this unexpectedly sad prince thattheycould be a thing as well.
“Maybe I’m just greedy,” she added, reaching into the water and taking his hand. “I like you, Levi. Clearly enough to forgive you wanting to literally murder me.”
Leviathan twisted his wrist to bring her hand to his mouth, pressing a kiss against the damp skin. “I like you too, Galilee Kincaid. I would like a thing with you that was just ours.” He sat up, and water splashed over the edge of the tub, spilling on her T-shirt. The prince of Hell slid a hand behind her neck and pulled her into a devouring kiss.
“Maybe,” he said into her mouth, “I’m just greedy too.”
Galilee wanted to go home. Leviathan offered to fly her back to her loft, but she made him drive her with one of the cars parked behind their house instead. She laughed at his grumbling the whole way, and he kissed her again in front of her building. When she watched him pull away, it was like a whole world retreated with him. Suddenly, the human world returned, and Gali saw the regular people walking past her with their dogs and conversations and normal lives. The park across the streetsat like a quiet pool of green. She smiled at her doorman and asked for her spare key, then went upstairs and let herself into the loft.
It looked offensively and exactly the same as it had a few days ago, when Celestial had called her, when the girls had shown up, when Lucifer had stalked through her window. Gali paced slowly around the space, wondering if she was imagining the faint trace of cacao from when Levi came to get her clothes. There were scratches on her windowsill, claw marks that smelled like smoke. Her phone lay thrown to the side, still turned off.
Gali turned it back on, and it exploded with notifications from the Kincaids, from the girls, and even a text from Lucifer.I’ll see you soon,it said. She went into the group chat she shared with Bonbon and Oriak?, then hit dial. It barely rang twice before they both picked up, their voices clamoring over the phone line. Gali was surprised by how relieved she was to hear them, how quickly tears sprang to her eyes.
“Y’all wanna keep yelling at me or y’all wanna come over?”
There was an immediate lull. “We’ll be there in ten,” Oriak? said, and then they both hung up.
Gali looked down at the phone and decided not to call the Kincaids, not yet. She was thinking of them, though, and of the large house by the blue bottle trees, of the creeks and the forests and the bones they had to find in there. It could wait. It was heavy, and it could wait. She climbed the stairs to the roof instead, and the bees rose in a great swarm at her arrival, coating her arms and body with a loud buzzing welcome.
“Yeah, yeah. I missed you too.” She sat on the edge of the roof, dangling her legs over. “We got a few minutes before my friends get here.”
The sun was beginning to set, and warm golden light spilled across the horizon. Galilee Kincaid let herself be cloaked in hundreds of small bodies, and it felt like home.
“I don’t feel like a person,” she said, when the girls had arrived and they were all curled up on her couch together. “I feel like a weapon. That’s all I was made for.”
Bonbon leaned over and took both her hands. “Does it matter how you were made or what you were made for? It doesn’t make you less real or less of a person. This is stillyourlife. You’re Galilee Kincaid. Only you get to decide what you are.”
Galilee broke into sobs, and her friends held her as the sky outside drained into darkness.
27.
Lucifer
Months later, the King of Hell walked into a bustling restaurant. A slight lull passed through the room as he entered—a common occurrence when humans sensed his presence but didn’t understand what they were responding to. The patrons stared for a moment before returning to their meals and conversations, even with the fine hairs raised on the backs of their necks. A hostess came up to Lucifer, frazzled and pushing her glasses up her nose. She blushed as she looked at him and consulted her clipboard.
“Um, table for how many, sir?”
