I splayed my wings out to either side of me, catching the air and holding myself steady in the sky. My gaze immediately fell to Siena and Lucifer, gut curling in concern when I saw Siena's frightened expression. She blocked every swing of Lucifer's sword with her own, dodged his razor sharp wings when he would slice them across her- but I could see the exhaustion wearing down on her. She'd been able to keep up this far, but her soul's power was waning. She wasn't made to fight against Lucifer. This wasn't her destiny, and yet she had thrown that notion to the wind to protect me.
I raced over to where they fought against the overcast sky, flashes of Lucifer's green light erupting across the clouds like an opaque lightning. Every flash seemed to disorient her more and more, and I felt my wings straining against the wind as I fought to get closer to them. How they had managed to get so far away from the sinking ship in so little time, I had no idea.
Another flash of brilliant green light and a scream echoed across the sky. Furious flames of my soul's power ignited within my veins as I watched Siena fall from the sky, a dark wide gash on the inside of her wing. Her other wing frantically flapped against the swirling wind as she fell towards the earth hundreds of feet below, spiraling faster and faster. My gaze drifted up to Lucifer, to his growing grin as he shot down after her, shimmering blade aimed at her torso.
No.
I let my soul loose once more, hurdling towards her spiraling frame as she plummeted towards the earth. She would not die for me. Not today, not ever.
I watched as the edges around my vision began to grow fuzzy with a white light, water and wind tearing at my skin as I pushed faster towards her. With a final push of my wings, I crashed into her body just before she hit the ground, wrapping my wings tightly around her to shield her from the impact.
My feet slammed into the ground, the cement crumbling like sand beneath Siena and I's weight. I felt the shockwave erupt out from us the moment Lucifer's blade hit the outside of my wing. A blinding flash of light at the impact sent me reeling, my vision completely gone for a few moments while I continued to shield Siena from Lucifer.
Then, there was silence. A deafening, ringing silence.
The faint sound of small rocks raining on the ground around us, the crash of waves against the nearby shore, slowly began to crescendo in my ears. I opened my eyes once more, allowing myself to focus on the details of the feathers on my wings, still held tightly around Siena and I like a cage. I looked to my side at her. She was barely conscious. I could tell she had lost a lot of blood.
"Jo-," she began, her eyelids barely fluttering open before closing tightly again. "Jo- you're glowing."
I glanced down at my body. She was right. Every single vein in my body was alight with a brilliant blue light, pulsing brighter with every thump of my heart. Even my wings, now that I could see clearly, had blue light bleeding through each individual feather. I could feel the power inside me like a wildfire, raging and free from its cage at last.
"I can't- Sie I need you to run. I know you can't fly, and I don't know how far you'll be able to make it, but you need to get as far away from Lucifer and I as possible," I instructed. Her bronze eyes widened in protest, and I shook my head.
"He's going to kill you," she whispered out. I fought back the burning sensation that curled like a viper in the back of my throat.
"Run away and find Grey. Tell him I love him, and I'm sorry. I will do everything I can to stay alive," I pushed, staring down at her intently until I saw the hardness in her eyes dissipate. She shut her eyes tightly, tears streaming down her ash covered cheeks.
"Goodbye, Jordan," she croaked out and I squeezed her hand tightly in mine.
"Goodbye, Siena."
Slowly, I opened my wings. I felt Siena hobble away from my side and I spread my wings out to either side of me in an effort to cover her escape. Lucifer stood a few meters away from me, green glow bleeding through his veins as he slowly rose to his feet. His white wings were covered in a dark ash, an inky blood slowly dripping from his left arm.
I watched in satisfaction as his glowing green eyes fell on me, his jaw now slightly ajar.
"It's not-not possible," he hissed out through gritted teeth, stumbling backwards. "I am the only Angel who has ever been able to glow, been given this sort of power. It's impossible."
"Clearly, it's not," I bit out, a sardonic grin curling on my lips. Narcissistic asshole.
"That's why you could break through the Hellfire. You and I- you and I are the same. Our Mother created you to be my equal, the other side to my coin," he murmured, as if in complete shock. Slowly, his surprised expression hardened once more. "It matters not. You only have minutes to live, anyways. Your little boyfriend took his last breath not moments ago."
I felt my world shatter around me. It wasn't true. Surely, it wasn't true. His death would mean instantaneous death for me as well, wouldn't it? I would know. I would know.
"That's a lie," I snarled with a curl of my lip. Lucifer merely chuckled, curling his wings elegantly behind his back.
"Did God not tell you? Death can die, and he did. But Death will come for you only after his soul is gone, which it's not yet. It will be soon. So, if you have anything you'd like to say or do in your final moments of existence, I'd suggest you do it now," Lucifer purred, his serpentine eyes watching me with delight.
I screamed out in my mind for Grey, waiting for a response. I was met with silence, as if there were no connection with him to begin with. Maybe he was just ignoring me, maybe that was it. Maybe he was so drained he couldn't use his soul anymore to communicate. He wasn't dead. He couldn't be.
"Tick tock, little girl," Lucifer seethed.
Every breath burned like wildfire in my chest. My soul ripped at my skin, wanting to be free of its mortal cage. Time seemed to slow for a moment as I collected myself, as I prepared myself for what was about to happen.
If Grey was truly gone, my death was inevitable. I pushed away the heartache that swelled like a crushing weight in my chest, threatening to suffocate the wildfire that had only just began to burn so brightly. If he was gone, I would soon be with him, wherever he was. That was all that mattered. Even in oblivion, I would find him. We were inevitable.
If my death was a mere moment away, I only had a moment to save the world. I had only a moment to save the souls of Heaven, to save all souls from eternal damnation should they not deserve it. I had one moment to achieve my Reckoning.
This was it.
I felt my hand grip the hilt of my sword, the sword Grey had specially made for me. If I was going to fade, it would not be quietly. Lucifer would be going down with me. I would rip the life from his body. I would rip the evil from this world like my mortality had been ripped from me.
I could see him now, soaring towards me with a confident gleam in his eyes. In his mind, the war had been fought, and the war had been won. Little did he know that Heaven had yet to play its final piece, and he would be in checkmate soon enough.
Power exploded from within me as I rose up into the air and met his sword with mine. The clang of our swords sent shockwaves of power rippling throughout the sky, brilliant veins of lightning scattering across the clouds around us with a thunderous boom.
He swung his blade with extreme expertise, something even all of my training hadn't prepared me for, but my soul wouldn't let me down. Every swing was met with my sword, and every break in his rhythm was when I chose to swing my blade. Several times I had hit home, sinking the steel into his golden skin. It was never enough to kill, but enough to prove I would not be so easily conquered. This was what I was made for. Lucifer's end was upon us.
A blast of power left Lucifer's fingertips and slammed into my chest, knocking the air from my lungs. I could feel my heart stuttering within my chest, as if it'd lost its rhythm. There was too much energy being held inside of it. I had to let it out.
I channeled my soul's power into arm as I swung down at his blade. The steel sung through the air with a high pitched hum as it raced towards Lucifer's, meeting it at the top of his swing.
An explosive shockwave rippled through the air as my blade sliced cleanly though his. In his moment of surprise, I took my opportunity and threw myself at him, but he wrestled the sword from my grip and drove it clean through my shoulder and wing.
Searing pain surged through my body and I screamed out in vibrant agony. If this was my end, I knew that the pain didn't matter. I had to fight through it. I had to kill him. The world depended on it.
I flung my good wing towards his wrist and sliced through it, sending my sword hurdling to the ground below. Lucifer was not so easily distracted again, however, and immediately sent out a brilliant flash of his blinding power. I swung that wing out in front of me as a shield and felt the wind flying past me as I began to fall through the air.
I forced my wings out to either side of me, screeching in nauseating pain as they caught the wind and I began to soar. My bad wing was trembling, threatening to crumble beneath the wind at any moment. I couldn't get myself any higher. I could barely hold myself at this altitude.
When I glanced behind me, I didn't even have enough time to scream when Lucifer's body slammed into mine. The air flew out of my chest, burning inside of me and making my vision go dark for a few moments.
When my eyelids fluttered open again, it was Lucifer's brilliant green eyes glaring back at me. His platinum hair whipped around his golden face as we fell, faster and faster, towards the ground. I could hear the wind beginning to whistle in my ears, the wind ripping at my limp wings beside me.
"Any last words?" Lucifer sneered with a feline grin. I felt his hand wrap around my throat, forcing my head to angle straight down towards the rapidly approaching ground.
"Yes actually," I croaked out weakly against his choking hand. Slowly, my lips curled into a smirk as I met his gaze once more. "Enjoy oblivion."
I slammed my hand into his chest, past the bones of his rib cage. Then, I wrapped my fingers around his still beating heart, and ripped it from his body.