Chapter 13 Galilee #2
“I built a life here,” she hissed at Celestial.
“Y’all got no right to come in and fuck everything up for me!
” Her cousin raised an eyebrow, but Gali didn’t care.
This was exactly what she hadn’t wanted, exactly why she had brushed off all Collette’s suggestions that the family come and visit her.
“I had something that was just mine, not on some Kincaid shit, and y’all just couldn’t let that happen, could you? ”
A ripple of displeasure ran through the aunts at that, and Sage spat on the ground, taking a step forward. “Watch your tone,
girl.”
Gali was about to snap at her when Nana Darling interrupted, her voice deceptively light and curious. “What exactly is yours
here, the thing you’re fighting for?”
Gali knew better than to answer. She bit her lip and looked away, furious tears burning at her eyes. Nana Darling canted her
head to one side, her eyes assessing her granddaughter mercilessly.
“Nana Darling,” Leah began to say, “maybe—”
Their grandmother held up a hand for silence. “Is it the right to rob your friends of their time?” she asked. “To leave them
paused and hanging in the air like they were dolls you got tired of playing with?”
Blood rushed to Gali’s face. “I didn’t even know I could do that!” she burst out. “It’s not like I did it on purpose.”
“Oh, and that makes it better?” Nana Darling smiled, unamused. “That makes it all right?” Behind her, Sage was smirking now.
Gali hung her head, unable to answer. “Were they okay?” she finally asked, her voice subdued.
“We let time flow around them again,” Nana Darling answered. “But do you know what we found even after that, Galilee?”
The cousins winced at the tone of their grandmother’s voice, and Gali swallowed hard. “No, Nana Darling.”
Her grandmother took a step closer, her face hardening. “A glamour, Galilee. We found a glamour left in their minds. Do you have any idea how that might have gotten there?”
Ah, fuck. Gali had forgotten that Lucifer mentioned leaving one so Bonbon and Oriak? wouldn’t remember the last minutes of what had gone down: the way he hadn’t bled when Oriak? shot him, his demon eyes, the pulse of immortality that had laced the air.
“It wasn’t me,” Gali replied, shame sticking at the back of her throat. She’d let it happen, though. She’d thought it was
for the best, but now, faced with Nana Darling’s bruising disapproval, Gali realized exactly how badly she’d fucked up.
“I most certainly hoped it wasn’t you,” her grandmother was saying. “Because the thought that the child I raised to respect the sanctity of people’s minds would go as far as altering memories?” She shook her head, her eyes bright with disappointment.
“Oh, Galilee, I had hoped you were not that lost.”
Gali flinched. Her tongue felt swollen in her mouth, unable to mount a defense. Did it matter if she hadn’t been the one to
do it? She’d let Lucifer do it, rather than face the possibility of her friends seeing some truths about who she was and the
world she walked in. Nana Darling had taught her better, and truly, her grandmother had every right to be disappointed in
her. Memories were Nana Darling’s most precious belongings—sacred gifts that she shared with her family, spinning out those
living stories so that people they had loved and lost walked among them once more, just for a merciful spell of time. What
did it say of Gali that she’d been basically fine with her friends losing some of theirs, as long as it didn’t threaten her
own comfort?
“What are you fighting for?” Nana Darling repeated, and it hurt because she didn’t sound like she was judging or condemning
Gali this time. She just sounded gentle, an elder waiting to receive her granddaughter’s confession, and Gali was willing
to give it to her. Maybe saying the words out loud would lead to absolution.
“I wanted to keep the illusion intact,” she whispered. “I was afraid.”
Collette sighed and reached over to brush a curl off Gali’s cheek. “It’s not a bad thing to be a Kincaid,” she said. “But
it’s not something you can outrun either, my love.”
Gali bit back tears. “I just wanted to be normal, just for a little bit.” It had been a brief respite from being increasing amounts of strange, from the ache that emptied her body to the power that moved through it, so deep and terrifying that she hadn’t told a single soul, not even the Devil, the only other monster she had.
Even his princes looked at her like she shouldn’t exist—Leviathan’s yellow eyes burning in her memory.
“I knew it wasn’t real, but it felt like if I tried hard enough, I could make it real. I could make it stick.”
“Why would you want that?” Celestial looked genuinely confused. “Why would you want to be like them?”
“I didn’t say that,” snapped Gali. “I don’t want to be like them. I just didn’t want them looking at me like I was fucking crazy.”
Celestial leveled a stare at her and raised an eyebrow. “The way people look at me, you mean.” Gali flinched, because her
cousin was right. There was a reason Celestial preferred staying away from the city while Leah and Zélie and the others went
in and out freely.
“Hush now.” Shirley frowned at Celestial. “Galilee’s been through a lot, remember? Don’t go jumping down her throat just yet.”
Their concern made Gali want to scream. “If y’all think I’m some victim being ravished by the Devil or whatever, why you here
scolding me? This couldn’t wait till later?”
Her grandmother’s eyes flattened as her remaining mercy evaporated. “What you did to your friends was also a violation, Galilee Kincaid.”
The censure in her voice sent Gali reeling a step back, and Collette gave her a worried look. “But you’ll make amends, baby.
It’ll be all right.”
Zélie looked curious now. “But were you ravished by the Devil?” she asked. “You certainly smell like it, yet your skin’s unmarked.”
Gali fought the urge to raise her hand to her throat, wondering if Lucifer’s hands had truly left it unbruised.
“She wouldn’t have been harmed, not like that,” Collette chided. “He probably used a glamour on her like he did on her friends.
It’s still coercion, whether she enjoyed it or not.”
“Ma!”
Celestial peered into her face. “Did you enjoy it?”
“That’s enough, girls.” Nana Darling’s voice was firm, and Celestial backed off reluctantly. Gali knew her family could see
her blushing, and it embarrassed her even more.
“I wasn’t under a glamour,” she said.
“Well, that’s exactly what someone who was glamoured to say that would say,” Zélie replied, unable to stay silent. “It’s not
exactly reassuring, Gali.”
Gali nearly hissed with rage. “So nothing I say matters anymore, does it? Y’all decided I’m not capable of speaking for myself
and that’s it? Case closed, Kincaids ride for vengeance?” They were so fucking stubborn. “Y’all just gonna get yourselves
killed,” she snarled.
Nana Darling gave her an evaluative look. “Be that as it may,” she said, “I’d suggest you look to your friends first.”
The blood reversed out of Gali’s face with a shocked swiftness. “You brought them here?”
Collette patted her arm. “Where else would they be safer than with us, sweetheart? We even got to stop some demons that were
headed toward the city on the way.”
“Yeah,” Celestial chimed in. “Thank goodness we wore the charmed whites, or we’d look a fucking mess right now.” She shuddered.
“You know how sticky demon gore gets when it dries.”
Gali swung her head around wildly, but she couldn’t see her friends. There was no way. There was no fucking way her family
had brought Bonbon and Oriak? to what they intended to be a battleground with the Devil and his princes. How the hell was
Gali supposed to explain that away? “I don’t want them to see any of this,” she said, panic skating at the edges of her words.
“We have to send them back, please.”
Nana Darling sighed. “You so afraid, Galilee. You think your friends won’t love you if you show them the truth of who you
are?”
Gali stared at her grandmother. She wanted to tell her the truth so badly, that she didn’t even think her own family would love her if they saw the truth of who she was—the way her strangeness eclipsed theirs, the light that burst out of her hands and how it burned, the shrieking power—all these things that had driven her away from the Kincaid house because, somewhere deep in her soul, she knew her strangeness would separate her from them.
Gali didn’t want to be separate, but people kept insisting on looking, and all they were going to find in these truths was a canyon gaping
where none used to be.
“Give your friends a chance,” Celestial said, with a little shrug. “We didn’t bother to hide our shit from them, and they
seemed fine with it.”
Gali groaned out loud. “What do you mean you didn’t bother to hide your shit?” A chill raced down her back as her cousins exchanged guilty looks. “You didn’t let
them see you fight the demons, did you?”
Leah looked abashed. “Didn’t occur to us not to,” she admitted.
Collette waved to Peony, who was at the back of the Kincaid cluster. “Just ask them yourself, baby.”
Gali glared at her cousins, who were avoiding meeting her eyes as Peony jogged off to a patch of willow trees and came back
with Oriak? and Bonbon in tow. Of course her family had hidden them away at first, until their Kincaid business was concluded.
When it came to their own convenience, they certainly knew how to keep the worlds apart. Still, Gali’s chest twisted when
she saw her friends, and even more so at the naked relief in their eyes when they caught sight of her in turn.
Bonbon ran toward Gali and pulled her into a hug. “I’m so fucking glad you’re alive,” she said in a low, harsh whisper.
“I’m fine,” Gali said, for what felt like the hundredth time. “I’m really okay. You don’t have to worry.”
Oriak? leaned in to kiss her cheek. “I think you’ll find we’ll worry if we want to, Gali.” She folded her arms and gave her
a hard stare. “Your family filled us in on the way over. So Helel is really the Devil? Like the actual Devil?”
Behind her, the Kincaids retreated to give them some privacy. Bonbon shivered and rubbed her arms. “He did say so in your loft. It’s fuzzy, but I remember.”
Gali swallowed hard. “My family explained what happened to you?” Bonbon and Oriak? nodded, their faces carefully neutral,
and Gali tried not to cry. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “After the gunshot, shit felt like it was spiraling out of control, and
I just wanted it to stop. I had no idea I could actually . . . stop it like that, and I didn’t have time to figure out how
to undo it before Lucifer took me and left.”
The scent of smoke and musk drifted up from the tunic as Gali ran her hands over it anxiously.
“I shouldn’t have let him fuck with your memories. I was just . . . I was so terrified that all this shit would fuck you up
even worse. I didn’t wanna be the one who dragged y’all into it. I fucked up.”
“Yeah, you did.” Oriak? looked unhappy. “It wasn’t great to hear what happened from your family. I mean, they’re sweet, don’t
get me wrong, but I don’t know them from shit.”
Gali nodded. “I should’ve made him go back. I should’ve taken care of y’all.” She dashed tears off her face as they began
to fall. “It just felt like a different reality altogether, and I thought you’d be safe like that until I figured shit out.”
Bonbon gave a small laugh. “Damn, it really is like your grandma said. You put us on hold like toys on a shelf.”
Oriak? nudged her. “Cut Gali some slack, though. She was being targeted by the Devil himself.”
“Yeah, about that . . .” Gali looked at them carefully. “Y’all don’t seem as freaked out as I thought you’d be.”
“Oh, I’m freaked out.” Bonbon grinned a little unsteadily. “It’s just that your family seems to be a contingent of bad bitches,
and that kinda makes me feel better about the odds.” Her grin faded a bit. “I mean, they also seem to have some actual magic?
Which is a whole separate mind-fuck if I think about it too hard.”
“Like I told you, stop thinking.” Oriak? smiled faintly at Gali. “I’m not so freaked out. I’m Nigerian.” She shrugged like that explained it all, and Gali made a mental note to pick up that line of conversation at a more convenient time.
“I’m sorry I lied to y’all, even if it was by omission.” She reached out and grabbed their hands. “I’ve never had friends
like you in my life, and I wanted to do everything I could to hold on to it, but all I did was jeopardize it. I’m gonna make
it up to you, though, once we get through whatever’s about to go down here.” Gali paused and frowned. “Which I still can’t
believe Nana Darling brought you around for.”
“Well, I’m glad she did so we could see you,” Bonbon replied. “And look, we love you, Gali. Is your family strange as fuck?
Yeah, sure. Is this thing with the Devil/Helel guy low-key terrifying? Absolutely.” She squeezed Gali’s hand and smiled. “Am
I still glad to be your friend even after you did some magic shit on me? Surprisingly yes.”
“Very generous of you,” Gali sniffled.
“What can I say? I’m a philanthropist.” Bonbon’s eyes lit up. “Also, this is marvelous material for my next book. A little
paranormal horror for the gyaldem.”
Oriak? made a face. “Isn’t all horror paranormal?”
Bonbon gave her a disappointed look. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.”
They bickered gently as Gali stared at them both. It hadn’t felt possible, but for a moment, it was as if they were back in
the world they used to be in, the same banter and everything. Gali felt a wave of gratitude crash through her—that her family
had pushed her beyond her fear and now she was here, with her friends, not hiding parts of who she was, and somehow, it felt
like they would be okay. She pulled them into a tight hug, and when her quiet sobs broke against their cheeks, Oriak? and
Bonbon simply held her even tighter, like they never planned on letting her go.