Haziel didn’t know what Ramiel had told Wrath about her absence. Wrath hated broken promises as much as she hated breaking them. Her archangel, however, had sent her on a mission, and she could not refuse.

Her mission was simple; find out what was going on with the horsemen and how dire the situation was. Only not so simple. The horsemen were powerful beings. How powerful, nobody knew for sure because nobody could remember ever encountering them. What she did know was that they were too powerful for her to mess with, so caution was needed.

She flew through the night, taking it easy on her injured wing. Ramiel’s power helped her fold time and destinations, and it took her only a fraction of the time it would have taken a mortal to journey halfway around the world to the resting place of the horsemen.

It was winter in her new location. Landing at night in a secluded corner of a hotel’s garden, she changed into regular human clothes. For this mission, she would be going incognito, and she muted her angelic aura and powers. She wondered how humans would react if they knew how often supernatural beings moved amongst them. Still, people were always drawn to her angelic aura, and she had never had any trouble finding an ally or a temporary friend amongst people.

She brought into being the things she would need to go human: identification, a driver’s license, and that most powerful of human gods, money. In this time, in the form of a credit card.

The hotel was quiet in the early evening hiatus between lunch and dinner, and she had no trouble securing herself a room for the night. The hotel gift shop was still open, and she added to her necessary supplies with toiletries and a change of clothes. She wouldn’t be able to visit the site of the horsemen’s underground lair until morning, so for tonight, she had a rare opportunity to be human.

Haziel had always appreciated humans, and her favorite assignments were the ones involving the earth plane that allowed her to mingle as one of them.

After finding an empty table in the hotel bar, she ordered a glass of wine and some appetizers and settled in to people watch. A middle-aged couple strolled into the bar hand in hand and took a seat near her. Haziel sharpened her hearing and listened in as they discussed their daughter, the possibility of selling their house now that their children had moved out, and then drifted on to a dream holiday they wanted to plan. Their conversation spoke of intertwined lives, a shared past that was both a comfort and a security, their mutual love and enjoyment of each other even after thirty years of marriage. These were things she would never have, and she drew a strange comfort from eavesdropping on a life that wouldn’t be hers.

“Hello.” A child stood beside her dressed in jeans and a jersey, her small feet tucked into brightly colored sneakers. The clothes hung on her delicate frame, and a floppy hat shadowed a young face that bore the signs of a weight no being this young and fresh should carry.

Haziel discovered this sweet soul was not long for this plane, and her heart broke.

“I’m sorry.” A harried mother hurried over. “I tried to stop her, but she insisted on talking to you. I hope she’s not disturbing you.” Grief hung over the mother like a noxious cloud that seemed to eat the life from within the woman.

“It’s fine.” Haziel gave her a reassuring smile. “I’m always happy to meet a new friend.”

“See.” The girl smirked at her mother. “I told you she would want to talk to me.”

“It really is fine.” Haziel skimmed the public areas of the mother’s mind. “I was lonely anyway.”

The child gave her mother a surprisingly adult look. “Why don’t you go and call Dad?” She pointed to a bank of potted plants. “And you can watch me from over there.”

The mother frowned. “Well, I don’t⁠—”

“It’s fine.” Haziel pushed a tiny amount of compulsion at the mother. “Your daughter and I will have a chat while you speak to your husband. We’ll stay right here so you can watch us.”

With a nod, the mother turned and walked toward the plants, already dialing.

“She doesn’t want me to hear her conversation,” the girl said and pulled a face. She settled into the padded chair opposite Haziel. “It’s about me.”

“I know.” Haziel offered the girl some of her appetizers.

The child took a chip and dipped it. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“I don’t have much appetite,” she said, crunching into the chip. “It’s the treatments.”

“I know.” Haziel sipped her wine and waited.

It took the girl a moment longer to find her courage. “You’re an angel, aren’t you?”

“What gave me away?” Humans faced their lot with such heartbreaking courage. She wished she had the power to change things, but the noninterference rule was unbreakable. A small tweak to the elaborate fabric of creation here could create a massive rip somewhere else.

“The wings. They kind of shine behind you.” She squinted behind Haziel’s shoulders. “They’re pretty and there are a lot of them.”

“I am seraphim,” Haziel said and offered the girl another morsel to eat. “I have six in total.”

“Wow.” The girl’s eyes widened, and then she giggled. Leaning closer, she said, “That’s a lot of wings, and I don’t think my mom can see them.”

No, she wouldn’t be able to. Only souls on the cusp of their transition into the next life would be able to see her wings. “I’m sorry you’re sick.”

“Yeah, it sucks.” The girl sighed. Her brown eyes were direct and uncompromising as they met Haziel’s. “Are you here to take me?”

“It doesn’t work like that.” Haziel nodded to a hovering waiter to refill her wine. If only the alcohol could wash away the tragedy of this child’s rapidly dwindling existence. “What’s your name?”

“Issy.” She made a face. “It’s short for Isabella but nobody calls me that.”

“Hi, Issy.” Haziel held out her hand. “I’m Haziel.”

They sat in a silence for a moment longer.

Across the lobby, Issy’s mother was crying as she spoke into her phone. Her shoulders were slumped with a defeat too great for them to bear. The end was near, and human doctors could offer little help anymore.

“How does it work?” Issy cocked her head. “I mean, if you’re not here to take me.”

“You’ll just drift away,” Haziel said.

“Will I be scared?”

“No.” Haziel took Issy’s skeletal hand in hers. “Not then, you won’t. You’ll feel really peaceful, and you’ll be ready.”

Issy looked over at her mother. “My mom is not going to be all right.”

“No, she won’t.” Even if she could, Haziel wouldn’t taint Issy’s trust with lies and platitudes. “She will miss you every day, until your souls meet up again.”

“But they will meet up again?” Issy stared deep into her. “Won’t they?”

This Haziel could tell her for sure. “Yes, they will. Your soul and your mother’s are joined. You have traveled many lifetimes together, and you will travel a few more before you’re done.”

“Good.” Issy nodded. “Can I ask you a favor?”

Haziel wished with everything in her that she could give Issy an unqualified yes. “I can’t heal you.”

“No, not that.” Issy shook her head. “Nobody can heal me anymore. It’s about my mother. Could you maybe, I don’t know, visit her after I’m gone and let her know I’m all right?”

If she had to tie Ramiel up and lock him in a cupboard. “I will do that. I won’t be able to appear to her as I am now, but I can send her a message that she knows is from you.”

“Thank you. We’ve been bird watching since I got too sick to go to school. My favorite bird is the European bee eater. They’re such pretty colors.” Issy stood. “She’s finished her call. She’ll need a minute to make herself look like she hasn’t been crying. She does that because she thinks I don’t know.”