They don’t measure time the way the humans seem to. But he’s seen the rise and fall of too many of their civilizations and leaders not to know that it’s been centuries since they first came through. Barachiel didn’t remember a stretch of time quite as long as the last few years though. A hundred faces and countless kings gone in the blink of the eye, but Tommy Milton’s death slowed his measure of time to a crawl.
He’d felt it, how long it had taken for the last of the light to leave the man’s eyes. How long he’d sat there until Isaiah came to collect him. The fires had stopped, he didn’t know when, and the slain shedim had been taken away. Everything to make the guardian’s death look like an accident had been taken care of and he was forced to accept that there was nothing that could bring Tommy back. The human he’d kept watch over, the man who’d become his friend, and the father who’d made a seraph promise to keep his daughter safe.
Barachiel knew he should have returned with the others. To wait for the next guardian, to prepare for the shedim’s eventual return. They were never gone for long. But he couldn’t just up and leave the girl he’d promised he’d protect. Sidney was so young, she didn’t know what had happened. She didn’t know or remember her father’s friend. Tommy had been so good at keeping those two parts of his life separate, Barachiel didn’t know how he’d done it. He would keep his promise, disguise himself and only appear when absolutely necessary.
He just hadn’t counted on how long those years would feel. How out of place and disconnected he felt from everything. It wasn’t until he sensed the change in her, the change in the balance of this existence that time seemed to kick back into gear. It wasn’t until she’d finally seen him, until he’d folded himself into her life, that he felt a sense of the being he’d been when he’d made that promise. Not just Barachiel the seraphim but Barry - proud protector and friend to the Milton family.