Black Wings

Chapter 12

"Wings! Wings!"

I looked up, thinking Rina was addressing me. But she wasn't. She was looking at Gabriel while pointing to her book. Upon closer inspection, I realized she was reading a children's illustrated version of the bible. She was point to 'Gabriel' visiting Mary. It wasn't actually Gabriel who visited Mary, he was still a fledgling at the time.

"Touch wings!"

Gabriel, who had been very close to her, became flustered and pulled away from her rather quickly. I pushed my chair back from the table a little bit and pulled Rina into my lap.

"Ri, I don't know if you remember or not, but touching someone else's wings is not okay. It's only for those in a special relationship."

"Like us?"

"No, Ri. Even more special. It's for life partners, those who will be together forever."

Rina seemed to think about it for a second due to the look of concentration on her face. She frowned again and looked up at me.

"Your wings prettier. Prettiest. Touch them." She said, completely ignoring my words. Or at least I thought. "Partners. Together forever."

"Always, Ri. But you're to little to have a life partner. I've barely even begun to think about a life partner."

Rina started pouting. She crossed her arms and huffed, but didn't break eye contact. There was an older light in her little green eyes, like my Rina was behind them. I sighed, once again falling to her little power.

"You're only a fledgling and I'm not mated, so I guess it couldn't hurt."

Rachel obviously didn't understand the full extent of this action, however Gabriel did and the look of total shock of his face made it clear. Rina perked up immediately as I started unfolding my wings around her. I half expected her to act like a child and grab painfully at my feathers, but she didn't. In fact, she reached out to touch them tentatively while glancing at my face while doing so. She stroked the inner feathers softly, her fingertips barely brushing them. But it still sent shockwaves through my entire being. I exhaled heavily, leaning my head back while biting back horribly embarrassing noises. It was made even more embarrassing that I was in public and wasn't alone, that my brother and friend were also in the room. I was also forced to chase away the extremely inappropriate thoughts of Rina in her proper age doing this. I folded my wings as it started becoming too hard to hold back the noises and thoughts. Then leaning forward to kiss her forehead, a very unangelic gesture.

"Don't ever change."

Rina smiled brightly. Her smile was interrupted by a yawn and I noticed just how late it had gotten.

"I think I found the spell. Most of the ingredients are surprisingly easy to get, except for two of them. Life essence of the subject and oil of eternal life."

"Gabriel, get everything else. I'll get the essence from Rina."

Gabriel nodded and vansihed.

"Ri, show me your wings. I know you're tired and we'll let you sleep as soon as this is over."

Rina nodded weakly while rubbing her eyes. Her little black wings spread out as she leaned into me. I put an arm around her and ran my fingers through her left wing. She shuddered at the feeling, but I managed to extract three feathers. Rachel brought the book as we went deeper into the library and finally an empty marble room. It was marble like the rest of the library, but it was big enough to perform a ritual. Gabriel brought everything needed to the marble room and Rachel performed the ritual. However, nothing happened.