Steel

Chapter 45

A sharp pain pierced through my chest as the dusty air swept into my lungs with a heave. I could hardly see a thing around me, there was so much ash, dust and smoke. I winced as I slowly sat upwards, glancing down at my shredded steel battle suit. Dark blood was seeping from my shoulder and I could feel it caked on the feathers of my wing. I didn't even know if I could still move my wing. While that may have been the worst injury I seemed to have sustained, it wasn't the only. Blood seeped from a gash in my thigh, and I could see that my ankle was twisted. I'd likely torn, if not broken a few ligaments. My spine felt like someone had slammed a bus into my back, and when I gingerly reached behind me to see if I was bleeding, I winced from the pain. No blood, but badly bruised.

I glanced down at the ground beneath me. It was fractured, as if an asteroid had hit the earth. Smoke seeped out from the splintered surface like it had been on fire only moments ago. The air smelled putrid, like sulfur and ash.

Only when I tried to push myself up to my knees did I realize I had something in my hand. It was warm, and I could feel some syrupy liquid coating the fingers that held it. I slowly moved my gaze towards my hand.

A heart.

It was a little larger than the palm of my hand, and dark in color like the inky blood that seeped off of it. Grimacing, I dropped the heart onto the dusty earth and brushed my hand off on my suit. It did little to erase the blood and ash that stained my hand.

I still couldn't see a thing around me. Everything was deafeningly silent. Not even the wind raking gently through my hair made a sound.

I needed to get up. I couldn't wait for anyone to save me. For all I knew, Lucifer was still alive, even with his heart ripped out. He was the Devil, how was I supposed to know if he played by the rules of Death?

With an agonizing scream, I pulled myself to my feet. My muscles stretched and tore as I did so, I felt bones cracking, tendons shearing in two. It took all I had not to crumble back to the earth again. Burning tears bit at my eyes, blurring my vision as I tried to look around. It was no longer silent, but filled with my quiet whimpers as I fought to remain standing.

I was in a crater. That much I could tell. I could see the fractured earth, shattered like an eggshell, slowly sloping upwards all around me. I couldn't yet see the rims of the crater, but at least I now had something to go off of.

But how on Earth was I supposed to walk?

I glanced pitifully down at my trembling legs. My ankle was still twisted at a painful angle and blood was now dripping past my knee. Not only that, but I could feel my battered wing dragging on the ground behind me. I hadn't the strength, nor will, to keep it up higher.

I had to do this. I had to.

Another bloodcurdling scream tore itself from my throat as I forced my leg forward in a shuffle, my knee crumbling as I stepped down. It hit the earth with a shockwave of pain radiating up my body and knocking the air from my lungs.

I had to make sure Lucifer was dead. If Grey was dead, I could have only moments before I died as well. I had to make them count.

I suppose it was a slight solace to know that this pain would soon be gone. I hadn't even begun to process the pain of Grey- I wouldn't be able to. I knew I wouldn't. If I even tried, I was sure my heart would simply stop beating. Any moment without him was too much. I would not be able to withstand that gravity.

So I pushed that thought quickly from my mind and let out another agonized scream as I wretched myself from the ground once more.

Tears streamed down my cheeks as I forced my legs to shuffle across the ground towards the orange light I could faintly see piercing through the haze. I could faintly make out where it hit an edge, perhaps the rim of the crater. I had to get there. I didn't know yet how I was going to climb, but I was going to.