Page 66 of Far From Center
Wings shot from his back, snowy-white and nearly twenty feet across. Gabe felt his physical form shimmer and knew that he was glowing, his eyes like silver-blue ice. The rope of energy left his arm, and Tura jumped backward, stumbling and falling on his rear as he shielded his eyes.
Gabe towered over the traitor, then he shot out a hand to grip Tura by the neck, raising him in the air.
“I demand a hearing. I demand to present my case before the head of my choir and the Ruling Council,” Tura choked out. “Procedure. Protocol. Established and followed by Angels of Order for billions of years.”
“I’ve decided not to follow the rules today.” Gabe gripped the spirit-self behind the angel’s form, and began to slowly shred Tura from the legs upward. “Today, Tura, I will be your judge and jury. I pronounce you guilty of treason and sentence you to death.”
The angel screamed, His legs and torso crumbling. The screams turned to shrieks and wails until suddenly he went silent, nothing left of the angel known as Tura beyond a pile of sand.
AndnowGabe fell to his knees, wings fading from view.
Hands gripped his shoulders, stroking his back with tentative, trembling fingers. “By the Goddess, Gabe. I thought for sure he was going to kill you. I thought I’d lost you forever.”
He turned to smile at her, the ground tilting around him. “Never underestimate me, Nyalla. I am a mighty and powerful archangel.
A mighty and powerful archangel who was slurring his words and near passing out.
Nyalla eyed him with concern. “Are you okay?”
He gave her a thumbs-up. No, wait. That wasn’t his thumb, that was a different finger, and he was pretty sure that gesture meant something else entirely. “Okay. And we’re going to hike out of here and get you on the next plane off the island. Just as soon as I take a little nap here on this cactus.”
She laughed, cupping his face in her hands and kissing him. “I’ll stand watch while you nap. And so help me Goddess, I don’t care if I have to steal a passport from some poor tourist, we’re both leaving on the next plane out of here. You, me, and Terrelle, because there’s no way I’m going anywhere without you, Gabe. I’m not leaving you. Not ever.”
“Good.” He slumped down on top of a bed of prickly pear. “Because I’m not leaving you either.”
