12: common

~~Rose~~

Sadness struck me as I walked through the halls of the dreary castle towards Michael's room. He had started to be a bit better towards me since I accepted his deal and had worked endlessly to take away the depression clouding me as I left my daughter.

He promised that if he saw Levi again that he would apologize, that our relationship would be different now, that I would be respected and revered as the new leader of the Archangel Council.

But we were in the middle of a war. One with my family.

And the council wouldn't let me stop it because only one of them had accepted me as the leader.

Michael was very sick and months had passed, and he was holding on longer than was expected for him. He had grown kind and fond of me in his sickened state. He was dependent on me to take care of him, to sit and talk to him, to take care of everything in his place.

His powers remained until he died, and then they would be transferred to me due to the right he had performed on me when he had locked half of me away.

I stopped in front of his door, my hand hovering right in front of it, poised to knock and alert the nurse of my presence so she could take a break.

I missed them, all of them. I turned and let my back hit the door. I was happy of course for Michael not hurting any of them directly, but the council took advantage of him while he was delirious and not in the right mindset.

He had worked hard for this peace that I had taken advantage of for years. Peace in which the war between angels and demons went on pause.

I turned back to the door and put the steal walls up around myself again. Anything that he said, I could not let it change anything. He hurt me, he hurt Levi.

He threatened to hurt Mauraline.

I knocked and watched Daeli slip out. She paused and placed a hand against my cheek and I leaned into the touch.

"Breathe and put that steal between you and him. He has been in a mood today, little one. Today is truly going to be a turn for the worst, and it may be his last."

I nodded and let her pull away from me. I never corrected her improper title for me. According to the law, people were only to call me Archangel Rosalina, but I would never be that girl and she definitely knew I was not ready for it.

I stepped into the room and heard Michael's labored and pained-sounding breaths. I stepped up to his bedside and was surprised to see his eyes open.

"Rosalina, you're here," he said, his dull eyes opening a little wider before he went into a coughing fit as he tried to sit up to visit with me.

"Michael, you need to rest, please relax. We'll have plenty of time to visit, I promise," I replied, trying to set him back down.

"Rosa, please don't call me," he started coughing again, blood dripping down his chin. I took a handkerchief from the bedside table and dabbed it away as he continued talking to me. "Don't call me by my name today, Rosa."

"Okay, Father," I said, relaxing him enough to lay the rest of the way back.

"I'm dying, Rosa."

"Could have fooled me," I replied, sarcasm leaking into my words.

"Rosa," he scolded. I kept silent before noticing how slowly his hand moved to take mine. "I will not be here to council you anymore in the ways of the council."

I nodded and let him hold my hand between his weak ones.

"They're never going to accept me, father. They all hate me!"

"That isn't true, they just don't understand you. They don't understand why I loved your mother enough to sire her two incredible daughters," he said, closing his eyes as a wave of pain shook through his body. I pushed a bit of the healing light into him before Michael shook his head at me, signaling for me to let it take its course.

"Why did you love my mother?" I asked, wanting to talk a bit more before being thrown back into the wolves.

"Grace was always by her father's side when I would go to visit for peace meetings. She tended to me whenever she could before her father would draw her away. I knew from the first moment I saw her that she would one day be mine," he said, smiling at the memory.

"Why did you think she would be yours?"

"As you know, demons have a promised, but angels have a soulmate. Once you meet this person for the first time, you feel as though your heart is going to beat right out of your chest. You don't care who they are, you don't care about what they did or where they came from, all that matters is them. The world seemed to shift on its axis when I first saw Grace. She didn't understand it, but she didn't care. She wanted to be with me.

"She had your sister, Lavender, then with her promised. He was a horrid man, I could never understand how she had put up with him for so long," Michael started, wincing at the mention of her promised. "Many people will tell you we met after he died, but we met while she just had Lavender, I think she was four months old at the time. His name was Archemend, and he had never truly loved your mother like I love her.

"Many male demons that were alive during the time of the war had horrible memories, it scarred their souls. They would take to violence growing up because they were never taught any other way. If their promised said or did something wrong, they got hit. Do not get me wrong, Rosa, I have no excuse for my behavior or for any of theirs, but that's what was causing it.

"She would meet me in what we called our field, and we had done this for a while before the first time I ever touched your mother intimately. She was planning on breaking her bond with Archemend and told me she would never take a hit from him again. She told me that she wanted to be with me," he laughed bitterly then, caught in his own world again, yet I couldn't stop listening. No one had ever told me this story before.

"If I had known she was pregnant at that time, I would have never let her go back into that house."

"What do you mean?"

"She was pregnant with a little boy, one who we gave away years ago to keep him safe to an angel who resides on Earth, protecting the young who have no place in either world."

"Angelina," I echoed. Michael nodded at me. "That makes Levi-"

"Your older brother. No one knew about him except for all of us, but when she went into that house, Archemend smelt it on her. Smelt my scent mixed in with hers and knew. He had known that she was pregnant, but the scent only shows up a month into the pregnancy."

"What did he do to her?" I asked, hate and fear invading my body.

"He locked her away in a dungeon much like my own. He tried to get her to renounce Levi so he could get rid of it. That is the most absolute rule of the demons, you have to have permission in order to use your magic on your promised. If he could get her to ask to get rid of the baby, then he could use his magic to truly get rid of him.

"I found out when I went back to Asladon to see her, when she didn't show up. Lakina came and found me. She told me and I immediately went to Lucifer. I told him about us, told him everything I knew and he agreed to help under the negotiation of absolute peace if I was to be with his daughter. I accepted and we got her away, but that wasn't all.

"Lucifer charged Archemend with treason and sentenced him to eternity in the dungeons below the castle. No one has heard from him since then. Grace had Levi a few months later. He was perfect in our eyes but we knew if anyone ever found out, they would kill them both, so we put him in the care of Angelina.

"Then she became pregnant with the two of you. I was ecstatic, I was going to have another child, but also scared too. Scared we would have to resort to the same measures as we did with Levi, so I stayed away for a while. I received a notice from Gabriel about the plot of the council behind my back. They had found out about all of you. They had put poison into your mother's system and it would kill all three of you.

"When I got to her, she held Angel in her arms. Her body was weak and already almost gone, so I took the baby and she agreed to become an angel, someone who could be by my side so I could protect her.

"I left to make preparations and then she came to me and told me about her Rose. She knew it was twins, but she made sure that each could be in her rightful place so she could take her birthright when the time came. Angel would be an archangel, and Rose would be an archdemon. At first, I was furious with her, then I realized that having two girls in one place would put them in more danger.

"Your mother's mind started deteriorating after that. She was sick. She was a demon in an angel's body. I knew I would lose her, but I held on. I held on through Angel leaving. I held on through getting you.

"Rosalina. You are strong, but you will always be in danger." At that moment, I saw the glinting of metal as he pressed the dagger into my hands. It had a silver handle and the sheath was covered in multi-colored roses.

"This dagger is one of three, each given to your siblings. They are the only things that can keep an angel or a demon dead. All you have to do it get even a tiny scratch, and they can never recover from it. They will bleed out until dead. Each of your siblings has one, and they are the only three in existence.

"One was used to kill Zayn. You must understand that you will not come back if it hurts you."

His grip began weakening on me, and tears began to form in my eyes.

"I love you, little Rosa. You will be a great leader, one better than me. Fix the mistakes that the madness controlled me for." With that, his eyes closed and he released his last puff of air.

"No. No, no, no. Michael, please not yet. I have so many more questions!" I felt the power leaking into me from him and instantly I was afraid.

"No! Mom needs you still, Angel and Levi still need you!" I cried out. I wasn't ready.

The magic stopped when it was all mine.

"Daddy, I still need you," I cried out into the room before falling into him, the sobs hitting my body hard.