Lucifer had sighed. “So you set her loose, absolve yourselves of any responsibility for what she does next, and you watch what happens. Are you hoping she’ll hurt Galilee since you can’t?”
Michael shrugged eloquently. “You and your lover seem to make many enemies, Luci.”
“You’d like me to think so,” he said, soft as a noose. “But my only enemy stands before me right now.”
Michael had laughed then, utterly without fear or guilt. “Well played, Luci. Make sure you keep your lover safe then, body and soul.” His smile was cold and anointed as he lifted up into the sky. It had made Lucifer hesitant to leave Galilee to return to Hell, but she was safe with Leviathan. Sometimes, when Lucifer came to visit Salvation, he’d hover with a glamour in the air outside her loft and watch through the window as she slept in the curve of Leviathan’s arms, their chests rising and falling in unison. It was an odd feeling, witnessing their intimacy from afar, yet when he returned to them, they both welcomed him easily, together or separately.
At the table, Galilee had heard Oriak?’s question, and she turned to Lucifer, her eyes bright with tentative hope. “Do you know yet?” she asked. “How long it’s gonna be before you have to return to Hell?”
Lucifer took her hand and kissed the tips of her fingers. “Years,” he answered.
Galilee inhaled sharply. “For real?”
“It’s just a fraction of time compared to forever,” he reminded her. “Belial has everything in hand, and by the time I have to return, you should be strong enough to come with me.”
Galilee laughed with relief. “I don’t know about all that,” she said, just as a bread roll missed her head narrowly.
“Sorry!” Bonbon didn’t look sorry at all. “Y’all just looked like you were about to make out, and I had to intervene.”
Oriak? raised an eyebrow at her girlfriend. “There isn’t a single romantic bone in your body,” she marveled.
Bonbon frowned. “I thought you knew that.”
Oriak? sighed and leaned over to kiss Bonbon’s cheek. “And yet, here I am, ablaze with foolish hope,” she said dryly.
Lucifer squeezed Galilee’s hand as she watched her friends with emotion gleaming in her eyes. He knew how terrified she’d been that shewould lose them, that her life would become something unrecognizable, and he shared her gratitude that they’d all done the work to stay with one another. The last thing he wanted was for Galilee to be cut off from the people she loved, even if it would have driven her deeper to him.
Bonbon looked up past Lucifer and broke out into a smile. “Hey, you,” she said, just as a hint of cacao brushed across Lucifer’s senses. A slow smile rolled over his face, and then Leviathan was standing there, wearing denim on denim and looking inexplicably good in it. His locs were in twists, and his dark eyes were fixed on Lucifer.
“You made it,” he said, and the pleasure in his voice was controlled butthere. Lucifer rose out of his chair, stepping away from the table so he could place his hand on the back of Levi’s neck and drag him into a scorching kiss. His prince made a harsh sound in the back of his throat, and Lucifer cupped his jaw in his hands, deepening the kiss and reveling in the way Leviathan melted under his mouth, even after all these eons, now that Galilee had welded them together again.
“Hey,” he heard her whine. “How comethey’renot banned from making out?”
“Becausetheydon’t have a public sex kink,” Bonbon countered.
Galilee huffed. “Yeah, they do. They just don’t do it at parties.”
Lucifer broke off the kiss, and Leviathan blinked at him before pulling himself back together and bending to kiss Galilee.
“Hello, little angel.” The prince stroked his thumb at the corner of her mouth and looked at her with naked affection. “Did you miss me?”
Galilee stroked his cheek, her face ablaze with feeling even as her voice turned sarcastic. “It’s been a few hours, so yes, I missed you terribly.”
Levi slid into the chair at her left and leaned across the table to dap up Oriak?. “What’s good, princess?”
Lucifer stared at them in shock. Leviathan and Oriak? had constantly sniped at each other from the beginning, which was fair, given the Devil and his princes had been posing as staff in her father’s house and she’d always been an imperious bitch, as Levi had put it.
“What the fuck did I miss?” he asked. “When did you two kiss and make up?”
Oriak? glared at him, and Galilee snorted out a laugh.
“She came to see me in training,” Galilee explained. “Next thing I know, they’re bonding over their sadistic streaks and comparing weapons, which I didn’t even know Oriak? collected.”
“He seduced her with his sword,” Bonbon translated helpfully, and Oriak? choked on her champagne.
“Bonbon!”
Leviathan winked at Bonbon. “Her sword’s much bigger, though.”
