Chapter 15 Galilee #2
as the King of Hell panted for air, kneeling at her feet. “And now you’re gonna tell me what the fuck I am.”
There was absolute silence for one heartbeat, then two.
Nana Darling swallowed hard and nodded. “Stand down,” she ordered. “All Kincaids, fall back.”
Gali watched as the women who’d raised her and loved her finally lowered their weapons. Celestial was watching her with curiosity,
and Collette gave Gali a small smile, but everyone else’s fear was even louder now. Bonbon and Oriak? looked shaken, their
eyes still huge in their heads. It didn’t matter. Gali couldn’t keep hiding and her family couldn’t either. If fear was what
it took to get the truth, then so be it.
“We’ll give you both a minute,” Collette said, before herding the Kincaid women several paces back. Oriak? and Bonbon fell
in line with them, and they all gathered in a loose huddle, putting away their weapons and talking in a low, anxious hum.
Celestial put her hand to their grandmother’s elbow and led her away, and then it was just Galilee standing in burned grass,
her hand still fisted in Lucifer’s hair.
She let out a shaky breath and spun around, releasing his hair and dropping into a crouch before him. “Lucifer . . .”
He cupped her face in his hands and smiled at her. “It’s okay, Galilee. I’m unhurt.”
Gali was trembling. How could he be okay? How deeply had she burned him by not leashing her power? “I hurt you,” she whispered.
“Don’t lie to me. You screamed.”
Tears filled her eyes, and Lucifer’s face swam in and out of focus, that beautiful hooked nose, his thick eyebrows, his hooded eyes.
Gali fell forward onto her knees and felt him wrap his arms around her, pulling her against his body as she choked back a sob.
There was no time to cry. Gali tried to tug away, and when Lucifer didn’t budge, she tried to dampen her power so it wouldn’t sear through him again.
“Stop that,” the Devil ordered. “Never turn down your volume around me.”
Gali clutched at his shirt. “You screamed, Luci.”
A warm chuckle brushed against her ear. “Galilee, I nearly came,” he whispered, his voice light with amusement. Gali choked
and broke into a cough, her eyes tearing up as Lucifer patted her back.
“Don’t play with me,” she scolded, still keeping her face tucked close to his neck. “It’s not gonna make me feel better.”
In response, Lucifer pressed his hips against her belly, and blood rushed to Gali’s face as she felt his erection straining
under the denim. “Oh my God,” she whispered, fighting back a hysterical laugh as relief washed through her. “My family is right there, Lucifer! What is wrong with you?”
He was okay. He was okay. She hadn’t wounded him.
Lucifer ran a hand over her hair and pulled gently on a loose curl. Gali could feel Celestial and her grandmother glancing
over at her.
“Seems like there’s an old score to settle,” the Devil said.
That was one way to put it. It was certainly old, as old as she’d been alive, a secret that had shrouded her as a baby, that
had grown into her skin as she did, and now she was about to rip it off.
“Do you wish to speak to them alone?” he asked.
Gali shook her head immediately. “Nah. It helps to have you close.”
She could see that he understood.
“We’re always monsters to the humans,” he said.
Gali nodded. This was what she had chosen the moment she’d let the rage unlock her light, the moment she’d felt herself snap and had welcomed it.
Maybe it was the power racing through her veins, but she didn’t regret it.
She was smashing her world to pieces, and all she wanted was the truth, so she could have something honest to start building back on.
If that cost her her family, then she’d deal with it, with the hurt and rage and betrayal, and maybe she’d crash later, but right now?
Right now she was immense and they were afraid of her, and she was too big, too powerful, to care.
She was going to get some fucking answers.
Gali took a deep breath and walked over to her family, who had folded Oriak? and Bonbon among them and settled down on the
grass in a scattered semicircle, with Celestial, Collette, and Nana Darling at the front. Gali sat across from them, tucking
in her legs. The ground was warm and layered with ash in the aftermath of her power flare. Lucifer lowered himself to the
ground just behind her shoulder, and Nana Darling’s eyes flitted warily in his direction.
“Just pretend he’s a man,” Gali said, exasperation coloring her voice. They were acting like he’d ripped babies apart in front
of them, for God’s sake.
Collette swayed forward, her body leaning toward her daughter. “Is that how you see him, baby? As just a man?”
Gali glanced away. Her mother’s face was carrying too many things: sorrow, a plea for forgiveness, a secret she still hadn’t
shared. “I’m not here to discuss my relationship with Lucifer,” she replied, and she almost felt him purr behind her. She’d
called it a relationship.
Collette pulled back and folded her hands in her lap. “Of course.”
Gali lifted her eyes to Nana Darling, her chest aching as she registered how broken her grandmother looked, as if she had
lost Gali and were there talking to a ghost, as if there was nothing left of Gali to see. Had Nana Darling needed the secret
that much? Maybe it had been a buffer veiling Gali, making her look as human as the other children. Just a favored Kincaid,
like the rest of them. Nothing too strange. Nothing too strong. Celestial was right next to Nana Darling, but Gali couldn’t
quite bring herself to look at her cousin. Sure, Celestial had tried to lead her to the truth over the years, she knew that,
but maybe Celestial should have tried harder. Maybe she should’ve just told Gali, whether Gali was ready or not.
Some secrets shouldn’t be kept.
Nana Darling was gazing off into nothing, and Gali dug her fingernails into her palms. She could make her grandmother talk. The power was whispering all that possibility to her, telling her how the light could burn and force
chattering truths out of singed lips. It wasn’t something you would do to family, but Nana Darling had called her evil, so
did that make them enemies? Celestial coughed loudly, and Gali’s eyes swung over to her. Her cousin was the only Kincaid looking
at her without any guilt or awkwardness, just a touch of pride, as if she liked what Gali was turning into, even the cruel
bits. Celestial gave her a small nod, then leaned her shoulder against their grandmother’s, nudging her.
“It’s time, Nana Darling,” she said. “We have to tell.”