Chapter 19 Galilee
Galilee
In the silence after her grandmother’s words, Gali let the light fade back inside her, seeping out of her eyes. Once again,
she was made of stinging hollows. In just a hiccup of time, she’d discovered that Collette wasn’t her mother, she’d seen her
birth mother in Nana Darling’s memories, and then she’d watched the woman casually threaten to kill her more than once. Her
aunts and cousins were whispering among themselves, shocked by the revelations Nana Darling had paraded around them. Sage
was still bitter and hostile, but she was keeping her mouth closed. Zélie was curled up against her mom, Eunice, and it made
Gali miss who she’d been an hour ago, when she’d had just one mother and things had been simpler. Now she was unbelievably
sad and equally exhausted, hurts piling up like fallen leaves inside her.
“Thank you,” she said to Nana Darling. “I didn’t understand how much you paid to get me. To keep me.”
Her grandmother smiled faintly. “You’ve always been worth it, Galilee Kincaid.”
Gali looked from her mother to Celestial, then got up to fall into a hug with them, their knees clumsy on the grass. “Thank you for choosing me,” she said, her voice muffled as they huddled around her. “Thank you for telling me. I understand why you couldn’t before.”
Collette was crying again, but Celestial just looked relieved when she pulled back.
“Can’t tell you how glad I am that it’s out now,” she said to Gali. “Thanks for not giving Nana Darling a choice.”
The cousins grinned at each other, and then Nana Darling stood up, dusting off her clothes. She seemed to have come to a decision
in the aftermath of the memoryscape, and Gali could tell by the set of her mouth that Nana Darling didn’t like the decision
very much but was going to follow through with it anyway.
“Well,” her grandmother said, “I think it’s time to let you fight your own battles, child.”
Gali groaned with relief. “Please, and thank you.”
She could feel Lucifer’s presence behind her, steady and waiting, and she knew the house was still there with all the princes
and their ultimatum.
Nana Darling sighed and took her hands. “Come home when you can,” she ordered.
“I will, I promise.” Gali leaned in and kissed her grandmother’s cheek. “I just have to finish some things here.”
“You aren’t evil, Galilee Kincaid.” Nana Darling’s eyes shone bright with tears. “I am so sorry I even said that. I can’t
say the same for your lover, but that’s between you and him, no matter what I may think.” She raised and dropped an elegant
shoulder. “I am old, and I am human. There are many things I do not understand, but I see now that you are touching a realm
I cannot access, and like with all children, we must trust you to wing your way true.”
Gali simply nodded, her throat choked up with thick feelings. Celestial came up to them and kissed Gali’s cheek.
“He’s good for you only because he’s not human,” she whispered. “You can get big and it won’t scare him, Gali, so get big.
We’ll love you anyways.”
Collette joined them, slipping her arms around her daughter. “You’re a Kincaid,” she whispered fiercely, “and you’re mine.”
Gali shuddered out a breath, because it was true, and she could feel it wrapping around her like an oath, like a creek deal,
like love. One by one, most of the other Kincaids stepped forward, their hands reaching out along with their words, fingers
brushing Gali’s hair, Jesmyn’s murmured apology, Shirley’s tears.
Nana Darling fixed Lucifer with a flat stare. “Morningstar,” she said.
He mocked out a small bow, and Gali hid a smile. Her grandmother beckoned to Leah.
“We fell into some hunting on your grounds,” Nana Darling said.
The Devil frowned, and Leah dragged forward a hemp bag and shook out a scaly reptilian body the size of a large dog. A foot-long
gash split its abdomen, and rancid entrails were spilling out. Gali leaned in for a closer look, then recoiled when the stench
hit her. “What is that?”
The creature had died with an open mouth, showing rows and rows of dripping fangs, and it was covered in black scales. It
had a long tail tipped with a scorpion’s stinger, muscular legs sprouting out of a barrel body, and huge jaws. Whatever it
was, it felt both evil and displaced. Lucifer swore under his breath, and Nana Darling’s lip curled.
“One of yours, isn’t it?” she said.
The Devil sighed. “A hellbeast. You call them demons. It shouldn’t be here.”
Celestial raised an eyebrow. “We know that,” she said. “You gonna need us to clean up the rest of your mess?”
Lucifer narrowed his eyes at her. “My princes will take care of it.”
Nana Darling kicked the corpse toward him. “See that they do. Your beasts are not welcome in our world.”
“I’m aware,” he replied, giving the Kincaids a contemplative look. “Out of professional curiosity, what did you use to kill
it?”
Nana Darling spun the scythe in her hands. “Sanctified iron,” she answered. “Would you like to see if it works on you?”
Gali shook her head and stepped in. “All right now, that’s enough.” She exchanged a loaded glance with Celestial, and her cousin took their grandmother’s elbow.
“Let’s go, Nana Darling. We gotta make sure none of these things got on our land.”
Collette put her hand on Gali’s cheek. “I’ll be seeing you.”
“Yeah, Ma.” Gali smiled at her mother. “Soon.”
After she’d said goodbye to Bonbon and Oriak?, complete with tearful promises to find them as soon as she could, Gali watched
the Kincaids retreat in a sea of white, back into the woods that would take them to their own creeks and land. She was still
dressed in Lucifer’s tunic, and as he slung a smoky arm around her shoulders and kissed her hair, she knew it would still
look like she’d been abandoned in the clutches of the Devil to quite a few in her family. It didn’t matter, not when Nana
Darling had acknowledged her, not when Celestial had no doubts that Gali could hold her own against Lucifer, and not when
Collette loved her no matter what. The others would come to terms in time. Gali leaned against Lucifer as they vanished among
the trees, until it was just the two of them left in the garden with the corpse of a hellbeast at their feet.
She let out a breath. “Well, that was a lot.”
Lucifer laughed softly and hugged her to his side. “You handled it beautifully, Galilee.”
A dry voice interrupted them. “How touching.” Leviathan stepped out of a shadow, his locs pale in the evening light, the patches
on his skin stark.
Gali glared at him, annoyed at the startled kick her heart had given. “How long have you been standing there?” she snapped.
Leviathan still looked at her like he’d found her stuck to the bottom of his shoe, but to her surprise, he answered her question.
“Long enough to know that neither of you got the answers you sought from your family.” He gave an unamused smile, then frowned when he saw the body of the hellbeast. “Why is that here?”
Lucifer sighed. “The breach. The Kincaids hunted it on their way in.”
Gali looked between them as Levi briefly closed his eyes, as if reaching for patience. She had no idea what the hell they
were talking about.
“They took corporeal form already,” Levi said. “These things multiply too quickly—we have no idea how many are out there.”
“We’ve already pulled princes off the guard to hunt them.”
“I don’t like this, Luci.”
“Nor do I.”
The two of them stared down at the scaled creature, and Gali rolled her eyes. “Y’all done now?” she asked. “Anyone want to
fill me in?”
Levi sneered at her. “Mind your business, little human. I’m here to get Lucifer.”
“Leviathan, enough,” Lucifer said tiredly. “What’s going on now? I just stepped out.”
Levi folded his arms and remained pointedly silent, his eyes flicking to Gali.
“Are you kidding?” She folded her arms right back at him. “What, you want me to cover my ears like I’m a toddler?”
The dappled prince had the nerve to pause and consider. “I suppose it makes no difference,” he said, a sharp smile appearing
on his face. It made him look far more attractive than he had any right to be. “Stay and die or leave and die, our secrets
will die with you either way.”
His constant threats might have scared Gali again if he’d caught her before the confrontation with her family, but things
had changed. She was no longer a helpless human who the princes could poke and goad whenever they wanted. His words meant nothing—Galilee
wasn’t even sure she could be killed. As it turned out, not knowing what you were opened up entire realms of lethal possibility.
Gali matched Levi’s smile as she called up the stinging power waiting inside her and let her eyes go blazing white.
“Why don’t you try to take my head right now?” she invited, as circles of heat spun out beneath her feet. It felt inevitable, easy, and it made her giddy with strength.
Leviathan’s hand drifted to the hilt of his sword, and his yellow eyes gleamed. “Your little demon’s growing up, Luci.”
Lucifer leaned down to kiss Gali firmly on her mouth, and she bit at his lower lip, still annoyed. He pulled back with black-bled
eyes, wonder in the creases of his smile. “Your burn feels different,” he said. “Clearer, sharper.”
Leviathan sighed out loud. “Luci, you keep reminding me why she shouldn’t live.”
“Perhaps,” Lucifer agreed easily, his eyes still on Gali. “But I think she might be a little harder to kill than she was an
hour ago.”
Gali smiled. She’d seen the woman who gave birth to her, and fair enough, her first mother had been mad and infanticidal,
but she would have smelled of stark power. Gali was sure of it, could almost catch a whiff of it even through the memoryscape.
The woman had christened Galilee in blood—although Gali realized uneasily that she didn’t know whose blood had covered her as a baby. It was far more than would be warranted just by the birth alone. More important, though,
the woman had confirmed that Gali wasn’t human.