Steel

Chapter 33

We easily sliced our way through the oncoming lower Demons that had flooded the streets of lower Manhattan. Siena was a woman possessed, as if she could sense what the Demons were going to do before they themselves did. Her arms and hair were covered in ash and soot, dusting those glimmering gold seams to a faded brass. However, her eyes were still glowing with bronze fire. Together, we'd pushed the lines back several blocks from Central Park, but I knew that Demons were still outpouring through the bay, so we continued moving south.

We had paused to take a breather around an alleyway during a slight break in the onslaught. My blade was covered in ash, and I banged it against the brick side of a building while Siena and I caught our breath.

"How are you feeling?" I panted, brushing a few stubborn strands of my hair back. Siena's gilded eyes flicked up to mine and she wiped sweat from her brow.

"Good. You?" She questioned, tilting her head to the side and stretching out her neck.

"Concerned. Did you see how many Demons were coming out of that hole in the bay?" I questioned, clenching my jaw a little in anxiety.

"We've got enough ranks to handle it. I do, however, think we need to go check on the front lines to make sure they're holding," Siena replied coolly, as if suggesting we go to the battlefront was a nonchalant thing to say. However, the gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach told me I needed to go see Grey- even if it was to just make sure he was okay. It wasn't that I didn't trust in his abilities, which he'd touted enough for me to believe, but I wouldn't forgive myself if he didn't make it through this.

I'd also never seen him in action, and part of me was curious.

"Michael didn't want me on the front lines because he doesn't want my soul to slip through," I let out a big sigh and Siena rolled her eyes.

"Screw Michael. For all we know, they could be dying out there and need our help. You and I are obliterating these guys. I'm confident that any stragglers who make it to Ravenna and Zadkiel won't make it past them," Siena chuckled smugly.

"Are you sure you don't want to be with Zadkiel during this?" I furrowed my brows in slight confusion.

"If I'm with him, I will only be distracted with him and he will only be distracted with me. It'll end up with us protecting each other and to hell with the world. I'm better off here with you, protecting those that actually need my protection," she shook her head with finality.

"So do you think it would be a bad idea to accompany you to the front where Grey is, then?" I let out a little disappointed sigh, and Siena chuckled in amusement.

"Probably, but I don't really give a shit. Besides, you're the one Lucifer is after anyways. There's not really a downside to having Grey protect you," she snickered.

"It'll piss Michael off if Grey abandons his post," I posited, but Siena's grin only grew wider.

"When. You mean when Grey abandons his post," she corrected with a wink and I huffed. "Like I said there's really no downside."

I pondered for a moment, or at least pretended to, before agreeing to Siena's plan to head to the front lines. From what I saw of Ravenna and Zadkiel, anything that came across them wouldn't survive long after. Ravenna must've been an upper level Demon when she left Hell, because I'd never seen any lower level Demon with that much power. She sliced through them like butter. It was crazy to think the same polite woman painting at the training fields in Heaven was now obliterating Demons with a massive grin on her face.

Siena and I unsheathed our swords once more, flexing out our wings before shooting off into the smoke filled skies above. Demons were still spilling out of the bay in massive numbers, crashing into the shores like a clockwork of devastating tsunamis. With every slam of their waves into our forces, I could almost feel the devastation they laid upon us. I couldn't even see the front lines of Manhattan yet, but the devastation occurring on the Brooklyn and New Jersey sides of the bay were alarming to say the least.