Chapter 7 Galilee
Galilee
The wind stole Gali’s scream—stole it right out of her lungs and threw it into the wind, where it would undoubtedly tumble
through the forests, coil around a cypress tree, and find its way to Celestial’s ears. Gali winced at the thought even as
she wrapped all her limbs around Lucifer, air roaring past her ears as they fell. She could feel the wheels of fate turning
with a heavy inevitability, and the future was a storm of Kincaid women being unleashed on the city, God help them all. It
was all Gali’s fault—Celestial had warned her what Nana Darling would do. Her family was going to rain down, a terror on top
of the terror she was already feeling as she and the Devil hurtled toward the ground. Maybe it had been ordained from the
moment Lucifer melted out of the darkness and her eyes fell on him in the hallway. Maybe her want had engineered all this,
and now her life was about to be blown to bits, and it was too late for Gali to do anything to stop it. It had certainly been
too late the minute she touched Lucifer and made a deal with him.
“I’ve got you,” he murmured in her ear. Gali took a breath to scream again, but then Lucifer’s wings snapped out and their
bodies jerked into a halt midair. Her scream abbreviated into a sharp gasp, and Gali stared at the sight over his shoulder,
shocked and not a little bit in awe.
“You have wings,” she whispered breathlessly.
Lucifer huffed in response. “Why wouldn’t I?”
Gali wasn’t sure how to respond. His wings weren’t bat leather and talons like she had imagined the Devil would carry. They
were feathered, a deep burnished black like the heart of a stone, gleaming with slick power. She tilted her head. “You have
six wings.”
Lucifer rose in the air, and Gali tightened her arms around his neck as the ground retreated beneath them. “Do you know nothing
about angels?” he asked.
Of course she did. While angels might touch the earth as beautiful winged people, it was nowhere close to their final form.
Gali frowned and fought the urge to touch the feathered curve where his wings burst off his back.
“You don’t really look anything like this, do you?” she murmured, almost to herself, trying to distract her mind from the
fact that they were flying over the city, that her friends were frozen in her loft, and that the Devil had essentially just
kidnapped her. It was easier to burrow against the furnace of his skin and ask curious questions against the burning musk
of his scent.
“This is as much a true face as any other form,” Lucifer replied easily.
“Show me your other form one day?” The request surprised her even as she said it out loud. It presumed a future where they
would have both the time and the intimacy for that.
Lucifer fell silent, and Gali winced. She just wanted to see him, truly see him, but why would she want that in the first place? Why did it feel important?
“It’s not a thing for humans to see,” he finally said.
Gali grinned. “I thought you said I wasn’t human.” A memory of her cousin’s voice suddenly ran through her head. One day they gon’ have to tell you the truth. Gali shook the echo away.
Lucifer chuckled, the sound rich and deep.
“Fair enough, little demon.” He bent his head, and Gali lifted hers up to look at him.
God, but he was still so beautiful, it left her breathless.
Lucifer dipped his head some more, and she let her eyes flutter shut, her lips parting.
Sure, her world was unraveling at multiple seams, but she was fairly certain a stolen kiss under the clouds would make it all better, just for a brief moment.
Instead, she felt the warmth of his tongue lick across her eyelids, then pull away.
Gali tried to glare at him in outrage, but her eyes remained coated in darkness. “What did you do?!”
“My apologies,” he said, sounding thoroughly unrepentant and very amused. “I can’t have you see where I’m taking you just
yet.”
Anger spiked through her. “You blinded me?!”
“It’s temporary.”
Like that mattered! Gali tried to force her eyelids open, but they were held fast. Her eyes flickered helplessly behind the
skin, trapped in the dark. “I’m gonna kill you,” she growled, feeling the air currents change as he began to descend. “Where
the hell are you taking me?”
Lucifer actually sighed out loud. “Not to Hell, unfortunately.” His voice curled hotly around her. “Although it would be such fun to have you there. The things we
could do . . .”
Gali ignored the suggestion thickening his words. “Hell?” She’d never truly believed it was real; there seemed to be enough
of it here on earth.
Lucifer paused again. “Many afterlives are possible,” he said eventually. “My Hell is just one of them.”
Gali felt them glide into a descent, and their landing was so gentle, she barely felt any impact. She tried to struggle out
of his arms, but Lucifer simply tightened them around her and walked forward.
“You can put me down now,” she snapped, swiveling her head around as if it would help the darkness coating her eyes. Not being
able to see where she was made all the fine hairs on the back of her neck bristle with warning.
“So impatient.”
He still didn’t let go of her, and Gali was debating whether to really try to fight her way out of his grasp—maybe just bite him wherever her teeth could get a hold—when Lucifer stopped walking and let her down.
He brushed his thumbs across her eyelids, and Gali blinked a few times, her eyes adjusting to the light as the darkness lifted.
“Where did you bring me?” she asked.
Lucifer simply stepped back so she could look around herself. They were standing in a room with high ceilings and black walnut
floors, a worn antique rug under their feet. The space felt old, down to the plaster crumbling off the walls. There was a
heavy wooden door opposite them and a sprawling unmade bed in the center of the room with disheveled sheets.
Gali frowned. “You live here?”
Lucifer folded in his wings, and Gali tried not to stare in fascination as they melted into his back and out of existence.
“This is one of my homes for now, yes.”
She crossed her arms around herself, suddenly conscious that she was still in her large shirt and very tiny sleep shorts.
“Why did you bring me here, Lucifer?”
His jaw tightened when she said his name and his eyes bled black. Gali took a step back. It had been sexy the first time she’d
seen it, but right now she didn’t feel safe, and there was nothing hot about that.
“Don’t do that,” she said. “I’m not in the mood.” Her body felt muddled—desirous but anxious and angry. He’d kidnapped her. Bonbon and Oriak? were stuck in her apartment, and she had no idea how to fix what she’d done to them. “Take me back.”
Lucifer blinked, and his eyes returned to the deep brown and flickering gold.
“I apologize,” he said, drawing himself up.
His face was serious now, without a fragment of playfulness, as he picked up a linen robe from the bed and handed it over to her.
Gali pulled it on, wrapping herself in the soft fabric.
It smelled of smoke and Lucifer. “I needed to talk to you,” he was saying, “and it’s . . . urgent.”
Gali glanced past him to the balcony and the open French doors he’d flown in through. Something was stirring in her blood,
wild and musical, like a warning bell or a hunting horn. Her fear solidified into a sure knowledge. Nana Darling.
“We do need to talk,” she agreed. “But then you’ll take me back to my friends right after.”
Lucifer paused, frowning. “You’re concerned about something.”
Gali’s mind was wandering off, reaching out toward Celestial. As surely as if she were standing on the old porch of the Kincaid
house, Gali knew that her family was coming for her, a small but vengeful army. She could almost see her mother slicking her
hair off her face, slipping a sanctified razor blade into her cheek. Gali glanced up at Lucifer, and her heart thudded against
her ribs at the sight of his face, like it always did. Nana Darling couldn’t kill him, could she? No, the Devil was almost
certainly immortal. But Nana Darling could hurt him, of that Galilee was sure. The Kincaids had been hunting inhuman things and sometimes human ones for a long time in those
woods, guarding the civilians who lived around them, even the town of Salvation itself. They had anointed weapons, blessed
edges, and they’d use them against Lucifer without hesitation. As Gali gazed at his face—a face she could see psalms being
written about—it dawned on her that the worse certainty was that Lucifer could hurt Nana Darling. He could hurt Celestial,
or Collette, or any of the Kincaid women. They would all be so worried about protecting Gali, when she was the one person
Lucifer had shown no interest in hurting. But he was the Devil, and the Kincaids were bringing war to his door simply because
he existed and he wanted her.
That’s not entirely true, her thoughts corrected. They’re bringing war to his door because he took you.
Gali took a tentative step toward him. “Lucifer . . .” she began.
He closed his eyes for a moment, as if to gather himself at hearing her speak his name, but his face was as calm as a mirror
when he opened them again. “Yes, Galilee?”
Fuck, but she loved that he said her name in all its completeness. It sounded like a prayer each time it passed his lips.
“Would you ever hurt me?”
It was something she had to ask, because he was the Devil and she didn’t know him, and what if her family was right?
Lucifer winced, and something like pain or grief washed over his face. Gali blinked in surprise, certain she was imagining
it, because that was absolutely not the response she’d expected or wanted. But no, Lucifer was still standing there, sorrow
pulling at his mouth and apology thick in his eyes.
“Galilee . . .” he said. “We need to talk first.”
She took a step away from him, then another. “You didn’t answer my question.”