The Unseen

Chapter 16

I swallowed hard upon processing the information, my throat feeling as dry as the desert. After everything I had been through, worrying about dying or not, death still seemed to cling to me like an invisible cloak, not wanting to let me out of its clutches.

"Please tell me you have a plan," I whispered when Ahriman left, so assured of our captivity that it didn't seem he left anyone to guard us.

"I have a plan," Andromalius whispered back instantly.

The quick response and the flat tone of his voice made me doubt the truthfulness of his words. There was something off about how he behaved, but I couldn't tell what.

"Are you saying that just to calm me down?" I asked persistently.

"Maybe," he replied, not sounding too perturbed by our situation.

Before I could question him further, a person landed before us, her wings as white as snow but her expression as dark as night. Valerie, whom I had assumed to be human who was there to help me with my deepest, darkest secrets, but who was actually an angel sleeper agent, appeared.

"Seraphina, I didn't expect you to be involved in this mess," Andromalius said, not looking as surprised to me as his words implied. "I knew about the factions of Heaven and Hell joining hands to thwart humanity out of jealousy, but I never thought you would be part of that. I mean, you were never as nice as most of the angels, but you were never openly unkind."

"It only goes to show that you don't know me that well, brother," Seraphina said, emphasizing the last word as if it was a curse word. "And we are not jealous. We only want to protect the balance of things. There is a reason there exist Heaven, Earth, and Hell, the reason they are divided like that. Everyone has their own role to perform. If we allow Angela and those like her to do what they were destined for, what would be left for us?"

"Peace," Andromalius said immediately. "We would finally have some peace. We wouldn't have to constantly fight each other and try to prevail over one another, angel or demon. How do you think the never-ending struggle feels to us who are both and neither at the same time?"

"I don't want to listen to you," Seraphina said, adding another rune to the circle.

That apparently made it soundproof because I could see Andromalius moving his lips, but no sound came out.

"You are jealous of humanity?" I asked, taking up the mantle of trying to convince Seraphina of the error of her ways. "There is no need to be. All we ever need to be is who we are. We are our special selves, and you shouldn't allow anyone to turn you into someone else, someone demons or angels want you to be. Because we all have a special place in the grand scheme of things, and our little input contributes to the greater whole even though we often can't see the impact that just being our true selves can have on those around us."

Seraphina's facial expressions softened, and a dim light started glowing in her eyes. That told me that, unlike the goblin, she wasn't fully committed to their cause. She was just afraid. Scared that in the new order of things that could be created by those like me, there might not be any room for her. Living in Heaven, and following its rules, was all she ever knew, and it made sense she would be terrified to step out of those bounds.

"I think the humans are given the right to choose because they are in the middle. They're neither born good nor bad. Only they can bring about a better world," I said confidently, not sure where the words were coming from but trusting them. "It's all about a choice, choosing to be the best versions of ourselves instead of sticking blindly to old rules and traditions, something that most angels and demons are so used to that they are barely ever ready to budge even a little bit because it's too scary. But we all need to be brave and true to ourselves. Don't let the demons control you like they controlled me."