Tristan's eyes went wide at the news, and a sudden thought struck him. Why would his family be in the front row, if either him or Oralee wasn't going?

He tensed, and Lady Maritza caught his eyes. She mouthed I'm sorry, and then turned to the crowd.

"Our first Angel will be Tristan Ashburn. Please come up to the stage."

He felt like his life had turned surreal, but he managed to make it to the stage without embarrassing himself.

Lady Maritza spoke again.
"Now, we know this will be a hard transition for our children, so we'll be making two pairs. The second angel, this time female, will be Adina Clarence, my own daughter."

Tristan glanced at the girl he'd loved for so long. She didn't look surprised, just resigned to her fate. She slowly mounted the steps, and stood close to him. He could see the tears on her cheeks.

Khaos nodded. "The second demon chosen is Ajax Flame, my son." Eco looked at her best friend. He looked murderous. He stalked up to the stage and stood right next to Echo, their sides brushing.

"This is stupid!" Ajax muttered to her. "What are they doing?" Echo shrugged. "They're trying a new thing, I guess. It won't work out though. Things like this never do." She glared at the angels from under her hood. "Demons and Angels don't mix. We never have, and we never will."

Eco glanced at her family. Coal had grimanced, looking at the ground. He understood the relationship between her and her best friend. Her parents were looking at her grimly.

She realized that...she and Ajax had no way to get out of this. Their fates were already decided, their lives laid out.

Echo would give anything to have her freedom again.

Tristan reached out to comfort the other Angel, but thought better of it. The demons, and even some of the angels, would see it as refusing the task that had been put upon him.

He stood close, however, trying to be a comforting presence.

Lady Maritza continued, talking about how these two unions would bring love, and even children, which would be important to strengthen the bonds.

Tristan tried to keep a neutral look on his face while she was talking, but it faltered at the word "children."

Echo felt her anger rising, but feeling Ajax stand next to her, brushing his shoulder against hers, she knew it was a bad idea to lash out at the Head Demon. She shot a glare over at the Angels on the other side of the stage. She didn't care enough to try and hide her emotions. She turned back to the rest of the demons and angels, and sneered angerly.

They deserve to know how we feel if they force us into this.

Echo zoned out, ignoring everything that the Head Angel and Demon were saying, focusing on keeping her emotions in check.

Tristan let a light scowl grace his face as the two continued on. This was awful. Ruining some of their most respected family's children for the hope of renewing a treaty? Despicable.

The speech seemed to be coming to a close, and Tristan wished he'd payed better attention, because he hadn't heard when the stupid marriage would take place.

Echo snapped out of her daze when the demons and angels in the crowd before them stood up and started to leave. The Heads told them they were going to be talking praviately with their families. Echo tried to step forward and lash out at Khaos, but Ajax grabbed her arm and shook his head silently. Rage was burning in his eyes, but he kept his mouth shut in a straight line. Echo snarled and stalked to the room that the angel families and the demon families were waiting for the desscussion.

Tristan turned to Adina.

"You knew." The words were less of an accusation, and more of just plain hurt.

She stared at her hands, her blonde hair falling into her face.

"Yes. I'm sorry, I wasn't allowed to tell you."

He sighed, but wasn't angry. He wished that he could have left before all this happened. His whole life was changing.

Before, he could've married whoever he wanted, could've decided that he did or didn't want kids. Now, he would have to marry a demon, and would be expected to seal the union with children.

Ajax and Echo walked side by side in tense silence.

Echo broke it. "We have to marry angels." Ajax sighed. "We don't have a choice, Ek." He looked at the ground.

Echo felt a flash of flaming anger ans scored her claws on the wall, leaving deep gourges in the marble. She felt savage satisfation. Her life was practically ruined, so why should anything else be perfect. Ajax glanced at the claw marks in the wall, but didn't say anything.

"Marrying an angel." Echo scoffed again. "An Angel."

Tristan had started following the demons from a larger distance, and flinched when he heard a large scrape. Adina started shaking, and he started looking for what might have made the noise.

They passed part of a wall that was mutilated by something, he could only assume it was one of the demons. With a sigh, he considered going home. It wasn't like people would really care, not until the marriage, or whatever was happening.

But no, he couldn't do that, and make everyone uncomfortable, and make it seem like he was a traitor. He rubbed his eyes, and paused against a wall to let the gravity of the moment sink in.

Echo shoved the doors to the meeting room open, Ajax following her in much more calmly.

Lady Maritza and Khaos were already in there with her parents, brother, and what Echo guessed was the angel's families.

"Good, both of the demons are here. Now all we need are the angels." Khaos said.

Lady Maritza nodded, and poked her head out of the room, seemingly waving at someone to hurry up.