Steel

Epilogue

"Siena, will you leave it alone?" I hissed out through gritted teeth. "It looks fine."

"Fine is not good enough," she grumbled back, fussing over my hair once more. She'd been doing it for the last hour, and my neck was beginning to hurt.

"You're being ridiculous," I mused, glaring at her reflection in the mirror. She mouthed my words in mocking, continuing to braid my hair.

"How is fussing over the bride ridiculous?" I watched Ravenna smile as she walked into the room. She wore a pale blue gown, and her hair was slick straight as it fell to her shoulders. She'd cut it following the war, shortly after she'd had her daughter. God had blessed them with a hybrid child following the Reckoning, borne half Demon, half Angel. They now acted as the judgement that preceded the Afterlife.

"Because I look fine!" I refuted, earning a snicker from Ravenna's wine tainted lips. Her sharp teeth broke into a grin, glimmering in the diffused sunlight that filtered in through the windows.

"Fine isn't good enough," Ravenna repeated Siena's words and I rolled my eyes.

"See?" Siena replied in a snarky tone and I hissed through gritted teeth. It had been hours. How much longer would I have to sit here, victim to their every whim?

"You both are ridiculous," I groaned, shooting daggers at them both through the mirror.

"Your mother said that I could do whatever I liked. I'm only obeying her wishes," Siena smirked.

"Whatever," I huffed as Siena coiled a tendril of my hair and pressed it into its final place at the back of my head. Somehow she'd managed to coil my stubborn waves into intricate curls across my head. I'd been far too distracted with the anxiety coiling in my stomach to pay attention to whatever it was she had been doing.

"Relax, I'm done now," she insisted, taking a step back. Slowly, I rose to my feet, taking a glance at myself in the full length mirror.

The white gown was exquisite. Ravenna had picked it for me. It was covered in lace that stretched down to my wrists, covered the entire bodice of the gown up to my throat. At the waist, the gown became a rich white satin, shimmering in the light as it fell to the ground. It stretched into a small train behind me, enough to add some drama but not enough to be a detraction from the dress.

"You look incredible," Siena murmured, placing a hand atop my shoulder. My wounds had healed, though my ankle still ached every time the sky decided to rain, which was nearly everyday here.

I turned to them, looking first at the glorious Siena, who wore a bronze metallic gown that hugged her every curve and stretched to the floor below, her hair was curled in romantic waves, falling to her waist. While Zadkiel had perished in the Reckoning, she had found new love with Eve, the first woman. God had placed her as Archangel of Soul, managing all soulmates to ever exist. Her wings, once a dove grey, had been transformed into an effervescent white.

With Ravenna and Raziel in charge of judgement, and the death of almost all Angels and Demons, Hell and Heaven had been dissolved. With the disappearance of Hell, there was no longer any need to send the evil to a separate place than the good, because there was no longer anything to separate the two. Good and evil no longer existed. Mankind was simply- for lack of a better term, grey.

"A dress fitting for the Archangel of Mankind," Ravenna turned to me, coiling a tendril of my hair around her finger.

God had named me Archangel of Mankind following the Reckoning. Given that I was the first Fallen to be Created rather than having Fell, she felt I was fitting to represent the true spirit of mankind. Humans were neither good nor evil, they were created as a grey. But that did not mean they could not be as great as any.