Angelraised

"Ah, young Levi," the man started. He stood and motioned for me to take the queen"s throne next to him. I slowly made my way there and sat down. Michael sat down and smiled at me, yet my stomach churned at his smile. It gave me vibes worse than Week always had.

"You summoned me here today, sir, may I ask why," I asked, focusing my eyes down on the floor.

"Yes. I summoned you to offer you a deal," my eyes widened and found his gaze. I shivered under the intensity of it, he was looking for something in me and it made me feel dirty.

"A deal?"

"I will allow you and your soulmate to stay here," he started. I leaned away from him as he came closer towards me. "Under a few conditions."

"Conditions?"

"You have to stop the plan to release Rose"s demon half," he said and I jumped up, I felt frustrated and confused.

"What do you mean, stop it? That girl doesn"t belong here, she"s a demon!"

"And so are you." I froze and felt even more confused.

"I"m not a demon."

"Not fully, only a halfling," Michael said, and his eyes shone with truth, making my stomach drop. That couldn"t be true, yet why does it sound correct?

"There"s no way."

"But there is, Child. Rose thought of her demon half as dirty too, making her easy to bind away. She doesn"t want that demon half, she never did, making it easy to bind her since she didn"t fight me," Michael said. I searched his face, but it remained stone smooth. "Search as you want, child, but Archangels can only speak truths as we know it."

"But, Rose has never know any side of her besides her demon before this!"

"That"s not so true." The scene faded around us and out came memories of Rose and I. Her eyes were bright silver before they flashed blue. In all our memories, her eyes were either that shocking silver, or the bright blue of her eyes now. I collapsed and watched as they continued before going to the last time I had seen her, where her eyes were blue while she had those black angel wings.

"Levi, she was never truly a full demon child, her angel side was prevalent in every single memory you had with her, yet you didn"t ever know it," Michael said before placing his hand on my shoulder. "It made her feel dirty and different, didn"t it, Levi?"

I felt tears welling up in my eyes as I looked at the memory of us on the overlook at the lake.

"Levi, I feel broken. What am I? I don"t belong anywhere. I"m dirty, Levi, and no one can clean me."

Her words made the tears finally fall. How hadn"t I see it before? She was hurting, yet I did nothing about her pain. None of us did.

"You all didn"t even know about the attempt on her own life, did you?"

As he said that, the scene changed to Rose jumping off the cliff, yet she was younger. A letter soon appeared before me and I reached for it and held it in my hands. My name was written in Rose"s calligraphic handwriting.

"What are you waiting for? Open and read what she wrote you on that night."

I opened the letter with shaky hands and carefully read what she had written me.

"Levi-

My brother and best friend, I"m sorry. The voices were right and the pull towards death was too strong. I"m sorry I wasn"t strong enough to overcome them like you always told me I was capable of doing. You"re my best friend and I"m sorry I"m leaving you alone like this. One day you"ll find an amazing person who will love you unconditionally and wholly. No one will ever take my place, and they better not or I"ll haunt your a.s.s. I swear I will.

Just try to test me on this one.

Sincerely,

You"re one (and only) bestest friend in the universe

Rose

P.S. take care of Angelina for me, I know that you will anyways, just like you always have, but I never want you to leave her side."

I let the paper slip through my fingers as the room came back into shape around me. Michael sat with me and comforted the ache in my soul over the girl who I always wanted to protect.

"I know, child. She ended up surviving and removing the letters from both you and Angelina. She battled her demon for that long before the pain overtook her."

"Michael, if I help you, will Rose be safe from herself?" I asked, looking over at the archangel.

"Yes, because I will always protect what"s mine, and she is my daughter."

~~~~~~~~~~~

Five days is how long it took after my meeting with Michael to feel good enough to se shed again. I studied her face. She had gotten older from the girl I remembered, her face was paler would though. No one knew how long she"d be in her comatose, but no one believed she"d truly survive this. I heard the door and watched Week take her other side.

Neither of us spoke, instead we sat and watched her skin grow paler. I had no sense of time, but I woke and Week was still draped over Rose"s body on the other side.

The door creaked open again and I watched Angel walk in. She curled up on the bed next to her twin and stopped moving.

"How long?" I asked, pushing the words out more aggressively than I had meant.

"How long for what?"

"How long are you going to hide what you two are?" I asked. u003ciu003eYou"re half-breeds like me and princesses of a kingdom in heaven.u003c/iu003e

The two of us went back and forth for a while.

"Now Rose the demon and Rosalina the angel are at war with each other because they feel only one can remain," Angel said. Her eyes were growing misty as she spoke to me.

"Who would win?" I asked. Angel looked up at me then and spoke in a very serious tone.

"Neither, they would only end up destroying each other."

It was that moment I decided I would always save these girls. I was just like them, yet I wasn"t as powerful. I would go against Michael and tell Angel what was happening, somehow, someway.