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“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.”
A mother’s love was one of the purest forms of love in the universe, and Haziel ached for the woman with a smile on her beleaguered face as she made her way back to them.
Issy turned to her. “How long?”
