From The Ashes (Forbidden Trilogy Book Three)

Chapter Six: Unity

Obsidian

I'd hated asking if Constance could stay with me, but I knew if I connected with Celeste, it was best if I wasn't alone. I was already an emotional mess. There had been so much unnecessary loss, that I wasn't sure if I could handle Celeste's emotional fragility without breaking. 

I'd known each and every one of my people who'd lost their lives to Balthazar. I couldn't bear the thought of losing Celeste too. Hell. It was already a struggle knowing she was in danger and being abused and used by Victor. It was stupid to think he wasn't manipulating her and hurting her in any way he could, because that's what he had done before, when she had 'meant' something to him.

But now, she was just a pawn.

Something he could use and abuse in order to further his agenda. He was a cruel monster and I was absolutely positive he got off on hurting others.

And if given the chance, I wouldn't hesitate to save her.

However, as I had explained to Constance when she'd been contemplating saving Gabriel, we needed to stick with the initial plan. We couldn't afford any missteps in this. Her strategy to take out all three of Victor's weapons--the drugs, the holding cavern for half breeds, and rescuing Celeste and Gabriel--would cripple him immensely. Yes, he would run. But, he wouldn't have much, if anything, to fall back on. 

If Victor and Camael survived the strike, they would be right back at square one. And, most importantly, they wouldn't have the resources they needed to rebuild quickly.

While their escape could mean further mayhem in the future, we could at least rest knowing they were condemned. They wouldn't be able to walk amongst us without fear of being recognized and captured. Or killed.

It took a little while before my mind eased into sleep. And when it did, I didn't connect with Celeste. Regardless if that was a good thing or not, I was choosing to see it as a good thing. Even if Constance was a bit disappointed when she asked the next morning. I mean, I understood her concerns and why she wanted to know Celeste's state of health. But, there were other important matters to contend with too. Such as ensuring the safety and future of my people.

I wasn't just some lowly demon half breed. 

I was the lord of the stronghold. I was a leader. I had an entire immortal group who depended on me to ensure their safety. They depended upon me to put their needs and security first.

I had needed the fitful rest in order to be able to coherently face the board of demons today. To say I was nervous was an understatement. Today was a huge day. Today would determine how the relationship between demon half breeds and other immortal half breeds developed. Today could either forever create a rift between the two, or start the process of mending past transgressions.

Honestly, I hoped it was the latter. I hoped my people would extend a hand of helping and healing instead of withholding. My people didn't need to start off on the wrong foot. We all needed to band together in order to ensure our future. But, this was up to them to decide. I couldn't make this call. Not this time.

I just hoped the others saw it the way I did.

I could only pray they saw the benefits of helping the immortal half breeds who were facing death. I could only hope they agreed to help, like they had when they'd banded together behind Constance when she had come forward asking for our help.

We needed that kind of unity. We needed that kind of positivity and hope in order to continue to move forward.

"Nervous?" Raphael's ribbing brought me up short.

Hell, I hadn't heard him sneak in!

"I'd be a fool if I wasn't." I grumbled, looking around the room, watching as those on the council filed in.

His thoughtful expression turned to agreeance. "I guess you're right. In that case, I wish you luck."

"Thanks." I deadpanned. I was definitely going to need it. "Where's Eidolon?"

"The hell am I supposed to know?"

I pinned him with a death glare. I'd asked him to keep an eye on her after I'd left her side this morning. Just for my own peace of mind and sanity. "So help me, Raphael--

"I left her with Mathew," he interrupted and I felt myself relaxing some. At least she was with someone we could trust. "I figured she could handle herself and she did say she knew her way here. So, I didn't think it was a big deal." He shrugged. "I figured you might need a little reassurance, but you're over here doing a fine job of psyching yourself up. Or is it out?" He smirked.

I groaned aloud. I so wanted to strangle him right now.

"I heard you were alone with Eidolon last night."

Oh my freaking goodness! "What does that have to do with anything right here and now!?" I fairly exploded at the sudden change in topic, and the implications he'd suggested in his tone.

Raphael's smirk grew and I knew I'd reacted the way he'd wanted me to. I forced myself to take several deep breaths.

"I honestly just want to know who she is, especially if she is sleeping in the same room as you."

Fishing.

He was fishing again.

"Her name's Eidolon," I snapped, not amused by any of his s**t.

"Eidolon isn't a damn name!" he growled.

"And who are you? The name police?"

Her voice startled both of us and we both guiltily turned to face her. Eidolon.

"I-I'm sorry. I was just, um... I was just leaving," Raphael stuttered under her intense gaze, his own unable to meet hers. He quickly made himself scarce.

"Just ignore him," I commented, fairly amused by his response to her.

"Ignoring him isn't any fun," she muttered, almost sounding amused herself.

"We should tell him--

She leveled me with such a severe look I stopped midsentence.

"You're right. We shouldn't."

What was it about her that intimidated me? That intimidated all of us? I wanted to be annoyed by it, but all I could do was have respect for her intimidation factor.

"Good luck, princess," she quipped, a damn near giddy edge to her tone as she glided past me to find a seat as the stragglers made their way in.

Oh, good lord! Today was going to be one of those days. I had to wonder how long she'd been waiting for an opportunity to use the word against me.

Well, everyone was here. I made sure the door was shut before making my way to the front where I began this very important meeting. "Thank you all for coming on such short notice. Especially during a time of great mourning. I will try to keep this short and to the point so we can all return to our duties while we start rebuilding this stronghold and continue to help and support each other while we go through the healing process."

As I continued to talk, and to tell them what was to come for the immortal half breeds, I began to relax. From what I could tell, most of them were responding positively and sympathetically to what I was suggesting. There were just the few ornery old goats who knew how to hold a lasting grudge, and looked like they had swallowed a lemon. And I had anticipated their defensive responses.

"And why should we help them?"

"All they have ever done for us is: one, kill us; two, stand by and watch us be killed; or three, not given a damn about us in the first place. So, why shouldn't we do the same to them?"

"Why not give them a taste of their own medicine?"

Several shouts rent the air, but not as many as I had initially presumed. I let them have their say before responding.

"Because we know it's not right. We know what it's like to be on that side of the spectrum, because we are living in it now. We have been there for a very very long time. And while we might feel it is within our right to stand by and watch them burn, it isn't the right thing to do. They are unique, individuals just like us. They bleed, just like us. They are being discriminated against, just like us because those on the immortal councils have deemed they are some kind of threat. A threat to what? To their comfortable livelihoods!? The immortal councilmen have determined that the half breeds are different! Just like we are different! And they--the councilmen--are insisting that pure blooded immortals need to take a stand before it is too late. The Immortal Council breeds hate and fear, especially if there is someone, or something, that is different than they are.

"But it doesn't mean we have to be like them. We have the choice to accept the immortal half breeds. To embrace them. To help them. We have a chance to save them from the same pain, the same losses and struggles we have had to go through to get to where we are now. We have a chance to extend mercy. We have the chance to save children. Brothers. Sisters. Husbands. Wives. We have a chance to save mothers, fathers, grandparents. We have a chance to save them all. I understand if you need a little more incentive, or a little more stability that we won't be stabbed in the back by the very ones we help--

"Isn't it true that Balthazar attacked us because of Constance's actions to take the archangel from him?" one of the old goats interrupted.

Oh hell. I wasn't going to be able to get out of this one. Taking a deep breath, I nodded. "Yes."

I felt the shift in the room and felt my heart fairly drop. This wasn't good. I wasn't sure I would be able to recover the room after we went down this path.

"If we continue to help her, more misfortunes are sure to befall us!" the speaker stood up and addressed the room. "I say we cut our tie with her and her cause. We have been treated like pawns in wars before. We deserve better than that!"

"We deserve to be treated as if our lives matter!"

"Our lives, and the lives of our children, are more important than any war! Especially one that doesn't care about us."

"Her enemies can find us here. They know where we are. It is best if we walk away now before we are completely destroyed."

As the u[roar continued on, I stood there and listened. I was waiting for them all to get it out, to get out all of their fears while I devised my next argument.

And then, suddenly, her voice rang above them all.

"Yes, you do deserve better!" Eidolon stated, standing tall, silencing the room. "And I believe standing with Constance, and ultimately, with me, will be your best chance at gaining the freedoms and rights you so desperately want and deserve."

"And how do you plan to achieve those?" one growled.

"Others have broken promises and spun empty vows about changing the demon laws. Yet, all of them were liars and cheats! They used us! Abused us! And Constance is no different!"

"On the contrary, she is different, because she has kept her word," Constance snapped back right as Ickarous came bounding through the door, a rolled and sealed parchment in hand.

"I'm not too late, am I?" he asked nearly out of breath.

"You're right on time," she praised, motioning him to come in.

He closed the door and made his way to where I stood at the front of the room before presenting the document to me. Everyone watched on in confused, tense silence. Waiting to be let in on what Ickarous had.  "Obsidian, lord of the demon stronghold, I present to you the initial draft revising the demon laws. We would like you to review them and give us your honest feedback. Please, write down whatever revisions you would like to see made and we will do our best to see they are met."

You could have heard a pen drop in that room in that very moment.

Even I was in awed disbelief at the document Ickarous was offering me.

"You should make sure it isn't blank," Raphael's comment mirrored my own fears and doubts.

My people had been fighting for so long for their right to walk freely amongst everyone else. To love who they wanted without fear of repercussions or death. They had waited a long time to not be in fear for their very lives if they even dared step out of the safety of the stronghold. 

This seemed unreal somehow.

This felt like a dream.

My gaze met and held Constance's.

Following her, supporting her and her cause had been the smartest move we could have ever made, even if it had wrought death and destruction on us.

Agatha had been right about her from the beginning.

"I trust him, and Constance." I responded to Raphael, knowing I could trust them to not betray me.

"Well that's just plain idiotic. Constance isn't here. And he's an archangel for f**k's sake! You cannot trust him! Besides, if you want to gain the rest of the councils trust, you should probably make sure it's legit. They'll want proof too." I knew he wasn't against Constance, per se. But, in his mind, she was stuck in purgatory. There, she had no say in what went on in the world. There, she had no voice or power over what happened to the half breed demons or the demonic laws. I knew he sounded harsh, but he was trying to keep our people's best interests at heart.

Raphael was right about the others wanting to actually see that this very important document wasn't just some ploy to get us to comply. s**t like that had happened before, which was why we didn't trust so easily. Raphael wasn't the only one who didn't trust an archangel's word. Hell! I was still skeptical of archangels. All except for Ickarous. For some reason, I trusted him. And maybe that was stupid of me. Archangels lived by a different code, one many would speculate was in the grey area between good and evil. 

However, there were too many who believed archangels were pure, perfect creatures just because they were a branch off of the heavenly kingdom. However, that wasn't the case. 

"Thank you, Ickarous." I graciously took the document and proceeded to untie it and roll it open. The handwritten script was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen, and as I glanced over it, I couldn't stop the emotional upheaval I was experiencing in my chest. So many had waited for this day. So many generations had come and gone, wishing and hoping and praying for this to occur. For this document to liberate them from the injustices that were initially cast upon all demons. Turning it towards the crowd, I showed them the proof. Once again, the mood in the room shifted. "Satisfied?" I asked Raphael.

"Do you still believe it is a mistake to follow Constance?" Raphael asked the room, ignoring my jab, his voice loud and proud. "Without her, the demon laws would never have been reviewed and revised. She might have pissed off an old demon, but it was because of her bravery and actions that made this happen!"

The room was buzzing with conversation as they talked it over amongst themselves.

It was tragic, how we had pissed off Balthazar enough to provoke an attack on the stronghold. Yes, innocent lives had been tragically lost. But, we finally had hope that our time hiding would soon be coming to an end.

"We are safe," I stated clearly for everyone to hear. The room quieted down instantly. "With this, no other immortal has the right to kill us just for existing." And, if they did, we could pursue legal action against the individual, or individuals, in question. We could now defend ourselves without fear of being wrongly accused for protecting ourselves. If other immortals tried to murder us, set up demonic traps to torture us and kill us, we now had a fighting chance to not only get justice, but we now had the protection of the law that stated we were to be granted a fair hearing. 

"We trusted and believed in her," I continued on. "And I know she would want us to extend our generosity and kindness to the other half breeds who are in need of our help, because no one else will step forward to help them. Right now is our time to shine. Right now, we have the opportunity to set ourselves up for how our future relationships with the other immortals will fare. If we ignore them now, and turn our backs on them during their time of need, we will be sending a clear message that we do not care about them. That we won't be able to move past old grudges. It will set the precedent for the future. Is that what you want? To keep us and them separated?"

There was a murmur of no's around the room as everyone started to become more animated.

I knew my people were kind. I'd seen it firsthand on many occasions where they had helped others who weren't demons. This was just on a grander scale, and it was scary, because the very same individuals who were focused on the immortal half breeds had once been focused on us. Helping them would draw the council's attention back on us, and all half breeds would be demonized.

There were still a lot of hardships ahead of us.

"There's been enough bloodshed," one of the elders stated, standing up. "Who would we be if we didn't help? We would be no better than what they paint us to be. If we help them, we can show them exactly who we are. We can gain an ally with the other immortal half breeds. We can rally under one cause. Together, we might just be able to win equality, our freedom and gain the same rights as those who sit in their corrupted seats of power."

"Who's in favor of lending our half breed brethren a helping hand?" Raphael asked from the back.

I don't think I'd ever seen them completely united before. This, right here, was history in the making. We were living in an age that would change the course of so many lives and immortal races.

"Uriel," I addressed when everyone had settled back down.

"Yes, Obsidian?"

"I want you to work with Ryn and gather a group to go over and inspect the old stronghold. Make a list of what repairs are needed. The supplies we should take over. We need to get it ready ASAP. I'm not sure when we will need it, but I presume it is going to be sooner than any of us are expecting."

He nodded and left the room.

"Everyone else, spread the word around what we will be doing. If our people have any questions or concerns, please bring them before me. I want all of us to be comfortable with what is going to happen."

Unity.

It was an important aspect of this war we were waging.

Without it, we would surely fail.

***

Gabriel

I started awake.

I wasn't sure what had disturbed me.

Hell, it could have been my beaten and battered body. I was still hanging suspended in the air. The open lashes on my back had stopped seeping, which was a good thing. I was weak from the loss of blood, but the amount I had lost wasn't enough to kill me. My hands and arms I couldn't feel them anymore. They'd gone numb a while ago. I wasn't surprised by this. I was rather heavy, especially with my wings and both of my shoulders were dislocated to boot. 

I tried shifting, but stopped when the pain lanced down my arms, shoulders and torso. I groaned in agitation, wanting just a little bit of relief from this full body ache. It was a consistent, dull pain that could drive one insane. Which was most likely the point.

Settling back down, I focused on Constance. I was relieved to know she was alive, to know she wasn't in purgatory, like Victor and Camael believed. Somehow, she'd pulled the wool over their eyes. Somehow she'd known they would look for her, to confirm she was in purgatory and she had planned ahead.

I was just glad she was alive.

It had eased some of the growing darkness, but not much.

The pain and circumstances was what made me vulnerable to the darkness. It made me more temperamental. It made me lose my focus and control over myself and my demonic powers.

At least now I had a light in the darkness.

Constance.

Even if I did lose myself to it, to the darkness consuming my soul, I knew she would find a way to find me. To show me the way back to her.

I wasn't sure if I could have kept my resolve if she connected with me again, which was why I had made her promise not to come after me and why I'd forced barriers up. The temptation to get out of this place and away from the solidarity and mind numbing pain was becoming greater by the second. But she needed time. She needed Allen to find where Victor was hiding the drugs. And if anyone could find them, it was him.

Allen had proven useful with his impeccable tracking abilities.

I just hoped he would find it sooner rather than later.

It wouldn't be long before Victor started his mass collection of half breeds. I'd heard them talking about the council meeting tomorrow and what Victor was hoping to achieve.

I stared into the darkness and willed sleep to come find me once again, wanting to be anywhere but here.

I was just about to drift off again when the bright lights blinded me.

Groaning, I blinked my eyes several times, my eyes physically aching from the sudden change in light.

And then Nikolai walked in with the dreaded whip.

Not this again!

I snarled at him as he prepared himself for another round of torture. I was sure this was the only way they could keep Celeste complacent and in line. I was her only weakness right now, the only one who could hurt her, because Constance's embedded soul would keep her safe from anyone who tried to hurt her or the children she carried.

I hated how I was used in such a way. They had roughed me up several times, possibly with the hope I would break when it came to the more severe lashings when Victor made her watch. Obviously, I didn't know when he had her behind the enchanted, one way glass. Which was why I continued to keep my silence. I refused to break, to beg for it to stop. To give in and plead for her to do whatever they asked her to do.

Then again, I was glad I was the one to suffer such severe abuse. To think Victor would and could do the same atrocious things to her was unimaginable.

When Nikolai passed by, I mustered up enough strength and shoved him back into me with my wings. He stumbled, taken by surprise by my attack. They had initially had my wings bound. But, Victor had specifically told Nikolai to unbind them the last time. He had been in the process of tying them once again when I'd struck.

Because of Constance, I knew he was one of the good guys. He just had everyone else fooled and for some reason, I needed him to know that I knew. He had suffered greatly, just like everyone else had, but he had to carry his guilts and sorrows silently.

"I see you, Nikolai." I stated, my gaze meeting his knowingly.

Before he could say anything, two other figures moved through the door and my blood instantly ran cold.