The Fallen Ones (The Fallen Angels Series Book 1) (16 page)

Ilyana:

I have
never been a fan of public speaking, I took speech class as an elective in
school at Mothers insistence and I remember arguing with her that it would
never be useful to me eventually, I argued my way out of the class. Now as I
stand up and prepare to make the biggest speech of my life, I realize that I
may have underestimated the usefulness of that class I once hated. I am still
dressed in the clothes from last night. None of us got any sleep as we sat
around the table preparing for the journey ahead of us. My body is completely
exhausted and I know that my makeup must be running. I silently wish that Lizzy
were here to help me, but I know that she is helping make things right at the
old enclave with Rose and that thought brings me comfort.

Levi
suggested we take our time to introduce me to the citizens at the compound, win
them over individually - help everyone feel safe on a lateral level as their
friend, before I ever position myself as their leader or their safety blanket.
Samuel and Marcus quickly shut down that idea though, pointing out that every
minute we spent planning we were risking more Nephilim running off to join
Guinevere out of fear. So here I am now, watching as Samuel offers an
introduction to the other Nephilim, I don’t know what their response will be or
how any words will come out of my mouth, but I know that I have to do whatever
I can to stop them from joining with Guinevere and beyond that, I will need
allies if I have any hope of ever getting Ephraim back. Kailand is holding my
hand as he slowly pats my back “You can do this Ilyana, this is the moment you
were born for.” I roll my eyes at the thought “If I was born for this, you
would think that giving a speech to a crowd of scared Nephilim would come a
little more easily.” He laughs and looks me square in the face as he responds
“Destiny is seldom ever convenient and it’s even rarer for it to be natural.
It’s in the moments you’re at your weakest and most vulnerable that you shine
the brightest, you’re beautiful in every sense of the word, Ilyana. Never
forget that.” He reaches down to gently cup the side of my face as he places a
chaste kiss on my lips. “They are going to fall in love with you, maybe not
immediately – it’s natural to fear change, but when they see you for all that
you are – then they will love you.”

My
cheeks grow warm at his compliment and kiss, never before has something so
sweet felt so strong. I’m at a complete loss for words and before I have the
chance to say anything, I hear my name being called by Samuel from the other
side of the curtain. “Well here goes nothing!” I make my way through the
curtains and up to the podium where the microphone is waiting for me. I am no
more prepared for this moment now than I was last night and decide the best
thing to do is speak from the heart. I look out at the crowd and see a lot of
scared faces, Nephilim and servants alike, looking to me for the answers I’m
not even sure of yet, but in that moment I want to do everything I can to
protect them. For the first time since I have been here, I see children,
presumably belonging to the servants, their faces dirty and small looking up at
me, there is a little boy close to the front of the room with what appears to
be fruit punch stains on his face. The site makes me smile and makes me feel
more at home than anything I have seen since I got to this Island.

Before I
can stop myself I begin speaking “I know a lot of you are here for answers, and
the truth is, I don’t really have them yet.” They begin whispering amongst
themselves but I continue on “The truth is, after what I witnessed two nights
ago – what I was a part of. I know that I have a responsibility to everyone
here. We were attacked internally by someone that many of you trusted and some
of you may have even loved. We were attacked by someone that swore an oath to
protect other Nephilim at all costs. We were attacked, trying to free prisoners
that were being unjustly held for crimes they didn’t commit by the very same
leaders that swore an oath to each of you here and the worst part is the entire
time we were being attacked for doing what we believed to be right, she was
standing alongside our enemies, commanding my slaughter for defying her.” At that
several women in the crowd gasp “I was lucky to make it out alive and had there
been more demons, I am not sure that I would’ve. We are our own strongest asset.
The truth is, I am just one person, one person isn’t always capable of a lot,
but if we join together, if we begin training and once again utilizing our
strongest asset, we can protect ourselves, we can protect our future
generations, our safety, our comfort, our homes. One person can’t do that, I
can’t promise it will be easy, I can’t even promise that I know how we are
going to pull it off, but I can promise you that I will die fighting for your
safety, before I will ever allow anyone - no matter how powerful they might be,
come to our island, into our homes and lead us with fear.” At that several
voices in the crowd shout in agreement much to my surprise. “I am here today,
proposing that we reinstitute our training programs, strengthen our own
fortress and for the first time in a long time, I propose we take the war to
them. No more waiting in fear for our world to fall apart. If you are with us,
now is the time to let us know, if you are not, you have a week to make
arrangements to go elsewhere, if you need any help with that at all – come to
us and we will help you make arrangements and make sure you arrive securely to
wherever it is you are going.” The crowd erupts, I see many people begin to
leave, but what surprises me more are all the Nephilim that choose to stay, I
see men talking to Levi and making plans for how they can strengthen our
training programs, I see servants lining up and talking to Marcus, trying to
find out what they can do to help, I am being met with pats on the back and
smiles by some and scowls by a few others. I turn around to walk back towards
the apartment building and immediately the little boy with the fruit punch
stained lips steps in front of me, he has the most angelic smile on his face
and I stoop down to his level to shake his hand “My name’s Ilyana. What’s
yours?” he takes my hand and shakes it back “My name is Eli, can I tell you a
secret?” I laugh and nod an emphatic yes. He stuffs a small toy car I didn’t
notice was in his hand down into his pockets and then gets up on his tippy-toes
and cups his small hands around my ears so he can whisper his secret “War is
coming…”

Thank you so much for reading my book! This has been a labor
of love and has taken a lot of time, I am working on a really awesome sequel
right now that is slated for release on October 31
^st
, 2014. I can’t
wait to dive back into Ilyana’s new world with each of you!

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I’ll see you next time,

Katie