Wings to Die

Genesis

Welcome to my new story. I'd like to thank my lovely girl Moni (Bel Watson) for her help with the cover and being my beta reader. I hope you all enjoy this.

Mac 

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Azrael doesn’t really remember much of how it happened, he just remembers burning white hot pain as he was helping a soul to the afterlife. He remembers tumbling, falling, spinning. Remembers his body colliding with the earth and knocking him out. He remembers waking to the burning pains in his wings, looking over his shoulder and being greeted with uneven bloody stubs, frail feathers soaked in his blood and looking battered. Remembers trying to get his wings to stretch and only having one joint there. Remembers reaching for his emergency crystal and finding it smashed. 

He remembers vividly the frightening pain of being alone.

Azrael remembers stumbling through the forest, bleeding, his gown torn and hair a mess. He remembers a boy no older than six finding him in the forest. Azrael remembers the small boy taking his hand and leading him home to his mother. An especially brave woman for the 1660’s.

He remembers being called ‘Mistur’ a lot as the lady had cleaned his wings and wounds the best she could. Remembers the moment he had to withdraw them into his body and the immense pain that had settled between his shoulder blades as he did. She’d told him it was best not to show people that kind of thing. He remembers never being more thankful of his ability of metamorphosis in all his years.

Azrael remembers the little boy turning twelve and living through the plague, but dying in the fire of London. He remembers packing up then and moving elsewhere.

Azrael remembers hundreds of years later and living through and under several different monarchs. He remembers word of a war in 1756 and a slave rebellion in 1760.

1834 and his skin was crawling for years as the workhouses began taking in children. Azrael remembers beginning to make his way in the world now. He remembers trying to be good to his staff and trying to ensure the children or families under his care were never sent to the warehouses if he could.

1913 and the suffragette Emily Davidson throws herself in front of the kings horse. Azrael remembers the horror of the scene, he remembers a glimmer of his old life when the air seemed to shimmer as he saw her soul being collected. Azrael remembers deep, intense, burning home sickness.

1914-18, Azrael remembers clearly being drafted for the war. He remembers the horror of it vividly. There was so much death, everywhere he looked there was death. There was no saviour for his soul, they were too busy collecting the many that floated around the fields they fought on.

1939-45 He remembers, to his complete horror, being drafted again. He remembers that sick feeling, the one he had when the angels were so close, so close to him that he could taste home. Remembers the war being just as bad if not worse. He remembers hating the way he was capable of turning off his emotions and strategizing.

1965 Azrael remembers the cars and races, the pretty girls in skirts and the music, remembers the death penalty being abolished.

1st June 1996 Azrael remembers faltering in his step as something seemed to hit him squarely between the shoulder blades, he remembers hunkering over and feeling short of breath. His vision shifted in a way that left him feeling blind for a moment. He remembers standing again and the pain between his shoulder blades falling to a dull ache. He remembers for an odd moment all the faces he’s had to use over the years. Remembers all those he was close too and promptly has to go home. Azrael knows what it means, the other half of his soul has landed.

He morphs the next day.