AZRAEL

Witness to Fire

 

Maya Torres had always prided herself on being observant. Three years of journalism school had trained her to notice details others missed—the micro-expressions that revealed lies, the inconsistencies in official statements, the story beneath the story. But nothing in her education had prepared her for phantom wings made of fire and ash.

"What are you?" The question hung in the air between them as the last of the divine spell faded from the classroom. Around them, students were beginning to stir, blinking in confusion as if waking from shared dreams.

Azrael struggled to his feet, sweat beading on his forehead from the effort. The ghostly wings flickered and vanished, but Maya had seen them clearly. Impossible as it seemed, she knew what she'd witnessed.

"I'm nobody." His voice was rough, strained. "Just... just Alex. Same as always."

But even as he spoke, she could see the lie in his storm-gray eyes. This was not the quiet, distant classmate she'd known for three years. This person carried himself with an authority that made the air around him feel electric, dangerous.

"Nobody doesn't have wings of fire." Maya stepped closer, lowering her voice as Professor Morrison began calling for order. The older man seemed disoriented, fumbling with his notes as if he'd lost several minutes of time. "Nobody doesn't make angels disappear in bursts of light."

"Angels?" Azrael's laugh was bitter. "Is that what she looked like to you?"

"That's what she was, wasn't it? The woman who tried to kill you." Maya had pulled out her phone during the confusion, though she wasn't sure why. Instinct, maybe. The journalist's impulse to document the impossible. "I saw her sword. I saw the light. And I saw you break her blade with your bare hands."

The classroom was returning to normal around them. Students gathered their scattered belongings, talking in hushed, confused tones about the strange daydream they'd all seemed to share. Morrison was trying to resume his lecture on consideration, but his heart clearly wasn't in it.

"We need to get out of here." Azrael moved toward the door, his steps unsteady. Whatever power he'd channeled had left him drained, barely able to stand upright. "Before she comes back."

Maya fell into step beside him, her reporter's instincts screaming that this was the biggest story of her life. But underneath the professional excitement was something deeper—genuine concern for the man who'd sat three rows ahead of her for three years without her ever really seeing him.

"My car's in the north lot." She slipped her arm under his shoulder, helping to steady him. "We can talk there."

They made it halfway across campus before he collapsed.

It happened without warning—one moment he was walking, leaning heavily on her support, the next he was dead weight in her arms. Maya barely managed to lower him to a bench beside the library steps before his knees buckled completely.

"Alex!" She knelt beside him, checking for a pulse. His skin was fevered, and she could swear she saw faint traces of that same fiery network beneath his flesh. "Alex, stay with me."

His eyes opened slowly, unfocused. "Maya?"

"I'm here. What's happening to you?"

"Power," he whispered. "Too much, too fast. Like trying to drink from a fire hose." He attempted to sit up, then thought better of it. "Three years of being human, then suddenly..."

"Suddenly you remember you're something else entirely." She helped him lean back against the bench, her mind racing. "The wings. The fire. The way that woman called you 'forsaken.' You're not human, are you?"

The question should have sounded insane. A week ago, Maya would have recommended therapy for anyone who asked it seriously. But after what she'd witnessed in Morrison's classroom, the impossible had become mundane.

"I don't know what I am anymore." Azrael's voice carried a weight of exhaustion that went deeper than physical fatigue. "For three years, I was just Alex Kane. Student. Warehouse worker. Nobody special. Then yesterday, something tried to kill me, and I..."

He held up his hand, palm facing upward. Maya expected to see the flame-cracks she'd glimpsed before, but his skin looked normal. Human.

"I burned it to nothing," he continued. "Turned an entire city block into a crater. And suddenly I'm remembering things that shouldn't exist. A war in heaven. Armies of light. A throne made of radiance and—"

Fire erupted from his palm.

Not the controlled flame he'd wielded against Sariel, but something wild and desperate. Black fire edged with silver light, burning cold and hot simultaneously. It danced across his fingers like living thing, beautiful and terrifying.

Maya jerked backward, nearly falling off the bench. The fire cast no shadow, but she could feel its heat against her face. Or maybe it was cold. The sensation defied classification, like trying to describe color to someone born blind.

"I'm sorry." Azrael clenched his fist, extinguishing the flame. "I didn't mean to... It just happens sometimes. When I'm emotional, or scared, or—"

"Just human." Maya's voice was barely a whisper. "Right."

They sat in silence for a moment, the weight of revelation settling between them. Students passed by on the library steps, heading to classes or study groups, oblivious to the fact that they'd just witnessed something that would rewrite every textbook on theology and physics.

"You could run," Azrael said finally. "Pretend this never happened. Go back to your normal life, write normal stories about normal people."

Maya considered it. The rational part of her mind was screaming warnings—this man was dangerous, inhuman, carrying powers that could level buildings. Association with him would put her at risk from whatever forces were hunting him.

But the journalist in her was already composing headlines. And underneath that professional excitement was something more personal. For three years, she'd watched Alex Kane from across lecture halls and library study rooms. The quiet intensity, the way he seemed to carry some invisible burden. She'd always wondered what lay beneath that carefully maintained facade.

Now she knew.

"Not a chance." She stood, extending her hand to help him up. "I've been waiting my whole career for a story like this. Besides, you look like you could use a friend."

He stared at her extended hand as if it might bite him. "Maya, you don't understand. The things that are after me... they won't hesitate to kill anyone who gets in their way. That woman in the classroom was just the beginning."

"Then I guess we'd better figure out what you are and why they want you dead." She kept her hand extended, waiting. "Together."

After a long moment, he reached up and took her hand. His skin was fever-hot against her palm, and she could swear she felt something like electricity pass between them. Not painful, but definitely not normal.

"Together," he agreed quietly.

They were halfway to the parking lot when Maya's phone buzzed with an emergency alert. She glanced at the screen, expecting a weather warning or amber alert. Instead, she found herself staring at a news notification that made her blood run cold.

BREAKING: Mysterious Symbol Appears Over Eidolon City

She looked up, following the direction indicated in the alert. High above the urban sprawl, carved into the overcast sky like a brand burned into flesh, a symbol blazed with the same impossible fire she'd seen dancing across Azrael's palm.

It was beautiful and terrible—geometric patterns that seemed to shift and writhe when viewed directly, surrounded by script in a language that predated human civilization. Even from miles away, she could feel its power pressing down on the city like the weight of divine judgment.

"What is that?" she whispered.

Azrael's face had gone pale as ash. When he spoke, his voice carried the hollow tone of someone watching their worst nightmare unfold.

"A summons. They're calling me home."