Chapter 19 Galilee #3
more of Levi’s scent now that he was so close to her—that clear and singing cacao, sharp and earthy. When he finally rose
and folded his wings into nothing, the scent retreated, but it still clung to the jacket and to the edges of Galilee’s mind.
“What was that about?” she asked, straightening up and holding the denim in place around her shoulders. Levi was looking up through the
willows.
“Michael was passing overhead,” he said.
“You couldn’t use a glamour?”
“Archangels can see through those. You can’t deceive them with a thing that isn’t really there. You have to make the thing
real.” Levi glanced up the garden path. “I’d better get you back to the house.”
“Hold up.” Gali took a step forward, and Levi’s eyebrows went up, his hand drifting to his sword. She rolled her eyes. “Relax, I’m not going to try and kill you—you did just protect me.”
“Forgive my caution,” he replied without a hint of apology, keeping his hand on the sword’s hilt.
Gali exhaled and counted her breaths. “You stopped being so cruel all of a sudden,” she said. “Why?”
Levi blinked once, then met her eyes calmly. “Lucifer got angry.”
Gali could feel a load of unsaid things behind his words, things she didn’t particularly want to start poking at. It wasn’t
as if she’d start mattering to the princes just because she mattered to Lucifer and he’d lost his temper or something. “Oh”
was all she said.
Levi was still looming over her, but he’d let his hand fall off his weapon. “Is that all?”
Actually, it wasn’t. There was still a point of curiosity that Gali wanted to sort out, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.
“Might I touch you?” she asked bluntly, and watched in amusement as Leviathan glared at her.
“Nothing about that request reassures me that you’re not trying to kill me.”
“Stop being difficult for two seconds,” she replied. “I just wanna see if the princes are affected by my power the way Lucifer
is.”
Levi’s gaze narrowed. “You’re offering to burn me?”
She hoped it struck some fear into his arrogant ass. “Sure, if you wanna look at it that way.”
“You mean the way it is.”
Gali rolled her eyes. “If you scared, just say so.”
The taunt worked, as she’d expected. Leviathan thought for a moment, tapping a finger on the hilt of his sword. “I suppose
that information would be useful on our end as well.”
“Whatever helps,” she offered solicitously, and Levi gave her an unfriendly look that somehow didn’t have even a fraction of the loathing he’d shown her earlier in the house.
Gali wasn’t sure how she felt about that—the way he was thawing out, loosening his limbs around her, protecting her, even though he was just following orders.
It was too quick a shift, like he was luring her into something else.
She found herself hoping that her touch would burn him, if just for the protection it would afford her.
“Fine.” Leviathan took a step in her direction, already unbuttoning his shirt, and Gali instantly regretted trying this experiment
with him. The problem with a slightly less homicidal Leviathan was that it became much easier to appreciate how disturbingly fine he was. “We all assumed that your effect would transfer over to the princes,”
he was saying, “but I’d rather confirm than assume. It might be specific to Lucifer, for all we know, but then you’d have
to try and kill me with the rest of your undisciplined power instead.”
“I’d make it work,” Gali retorted, even as her throat went dry looking at him. The pale patches scattered over Leviathan’s
brown skin extended down his neck and onto his chest, draping over his collarbones like small pools of light. He stopped too
close to Gali, and the bitter cacao filled her lungs again, too rich, too heavy.
“You know,” Levi drawled, “you could’ve just said you wanted to touch me.” His voice was low and amused, and to her own disgust,
it made Gali blush.
“Shut up.” She reached out a hand but hesitated an inch away from his marked skin. “If I hurt you, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to.”
Levi stared down at her. “Strange words for someone who wants me dead,” he murmured, and his breath brushed against her face.
“I’d rather kill you on purpose,” Gali replied. What if it was worse than with Lucifer? What if it incinerated Levi from the
inside out and she couldn’t stop it? She shook her head and steadied her hand. “You ready?”
“Just touch me, Galilee.”
He sounded both serious and silken, and Gali wondered if she was imagining a sliver of hurried anticipation in his words. She blew out a sharp breath, then dropped her fingers against his chest.
Leviathan’s skin was cool and smooth. He didn’t flinch, so she pressed her whole palm against him and fed a trickle of power
into his body. Like Lucifer, there was no heartbeat underneath.
Gali looked up into his face. “How does it feel?”
Leviathan was frowning, his pale eyebrows pulled together and his yellow eyes fathomless and flat. His lips parted, but no
sound came out, just a rough exhale. She yanked her hand away in alarm.
“Oh, God, was I burning you? Are you okay?”
His face cleared, and Levi gave her a tight smile. “Unfortunately, I’m quite unhurt,” he answered. “You’ll have to kill me
another way.”
Gali grinned, relieved even though she shouldn’t have been. Burning the princes would’ve been a great advantage, but while
Lucifer loved it for his own perverse reasons, Gali knew it would simply be torture for anyone else, and she wasn’t sure that’s
who she wanted to become. However, she did love the way the power felt now that she was letting it grow through her.
“Like I said, I’ll make it work.”
Levi’s eyes were fixed on her. “Can’t wait,” he clipped out, then turned down the garden path. “Come on, little one. Time
to return you to Lucifer.”
He set off without waiting for a reply, his sword hanging off his hip. Galilee turned to look at the woods her family had
vanished into, then she sighed and followed Leviathan, cacao and smoke trailing along her skin.