Steel

Chapter 18

Minuscule particles of ice skimmed over my skin as Grey and I dove down through the thick clouds. Were I not an Angel, I was positive that those shards of ice would've ripped open my skin. They felt like broken glass.

Grey was a few hundred feet in front of me, his massive charcoal wings pulled in close to his body like a billowing cloak as he soared downwards. I pulled my own wings closer, speeding up my momentum.

Slowly, the faint shadowy shapes of treetops came into view between the clouds below and Grey extended his wings, soaring slowly across the deep forest. A pang of nostalgia curdled in my stomach as my eyes swept across the landscape. The last time I was here, so much had been different. In the distance, I could see the pointed roof of Grey's house sticking up through the trees, hear the faint crashing of angry waves against the rocky cliffs below.

At last, I was home.

Grey beat his wings a little harder as he approached the gravel driveway in front of his house. I remained a few hundred feet up, shrouded in cloud as I watched. I was to stay up here until I felt it was safe. Three figures exited through the front door of Grey's house, sauntering out to the driveway and watching as Grey swooped downwards. With a thunderous boom and a rumble of the earth, his feet touched the ground.

Fuck. I could feel his power from here. How did I never notice it before?

It seeped out of him in slow dark waves, like a thick ink spreading across a blank page. I felt my chest walls threaten to cave inwards, my heart beating slower and slower within my ribs. One by one, each of the Fallen fell to their knees in front of him.

This didn't seem like a way you'd greet old friends.

"Good. For a moment there, I'd worried you'd all forgotten who I was," I heard Grey's low voice grumble.

"How could we forget?" One of them croaked, breathing heavily. He had dark skin like Suriel, but pale silvery hair that curled like a mane around his head. The other two had pale skin and fawn brown hair, with similar facial features. Twins, perhaps.

"You did once," Grey snarled slightly, his voice dripping with venomous intent.

"That was centuries ago. And you shattered every bone in our bodies," one of the brown haired men spoke shakily.

"Oh yes. And when I ripped the heart out of Ashalal. He shouldn't have made you all believe you could beat me and steal my power. Fatal mistake on his part. Anyways, I'm glad fear that still reigns in your hearts," Grey chuckled slowly, maniacally. He took a deep breath in, as if savoring the power he held over them.

I'd never seen Grey like this, as who he once was. He'd mentioned that he used to be very different, that he'd done terrible things and been a terrible man. I guess part of me had never truly believed him. It was astonishing- how he could so easily bring almighty Angels to their knees, make them tremble with fear. The same man that held me gently in his arms, that took care of me when I needed help, cried when I'd broken up with him in Paris. The same man who would gently kiss my neck, wrap his wings around me to keep me warm, let a little human girl bite his lip when he kissed her and take a swing on him when he was a douche.

Grey was ridiculously powerful. Not even Michael had made me want to crumple like his power did. And he loved me. He had given everything for me.

As if on cue, Grey's fluorescent cerulean eyes flicked up to the sky, signaling that I was ok to come down. I took a deep breath in, slowly lowering the walls I had built around my soul. Light so bright it was blue quickly flowed through my veins, illuminating underneath my skin. I could feel my power seeping into my irises, the glow swallowing me whole. It felt like the high of a drug rushing through my veins, my heart suddenly beating a hell of a lot stronger than it had only a moment ago. I was alive- invigorated.