"Gabe?" I whispered. Not sure if my tent was free from eavesdroppers.
"You called?" Gabe's voice rang through my head. I tossed over from my cot to look at him.
"You still willing to get me out of here?" I asked. Barely loud enough to sound anything more than a soft snore.
"Of course. I love you." I shrunk back. It was weird to hear an illusion tell me that. "Sorry." He added.
"Umm…so back to the escape." I changed the subject. Worse case scenario, he is fake, and nothing happens. Best case scenario, he is real, and he helps me escape. Either way I don't have anything to lose but everything to gain.
"Right. There is a brief moment when you have no guards." He answered stiffly.
"How would you know that?" I asked. Not sure if I should trust him or not.
"Michael has a scheduling chart in his tent." Gabe snorted, "He is to organized for his own good." Why did this sound like experience rather than a general statement. Doubt began to settle in. What if he was helping the Angels and I was walking straight into a trap? I sat up. I didn't want to put myself in a position where I am vulnerable to attacks.
"Anyways. You have a two-minute interlude. At this same time, the guards will be rotating around the base. In this time you need to be out of camp perimeter." Gabe informed.
"I can't be that fast." I said. There is no way I can run, however far, and sneak out of my tent in two minutes.
"Stop thinking like a mortal." Gabe tapped the bracelet.
Right. I could fly! "But I need to find someway to take it off." I said softly.
"Who are you talking to?" A voice asked. I turned to look at the blonde Angel, Atara, standing outside peering in. Her hand holding the tent open.
"Myself." I waved.
"Okay." She didn��t even question it. Like talking to myself is normal.
"As you already know. You need to make yourself angry." Gabe confirmed my theory.
"I tried." I whisper-yelled.
"Not hard enough." Gabe pulled me to my feet.
Just as I got balance, he pushed me down, "What the?" I almost shouted and I would have if not for the two Angels right outside.
"Get up." He commanded.
"Then don't push me down." I said narrowing my eyes at him.
"Then don't be so weak." Gabe shot back.
A dull sense of anger washed over me, "I. Am. Not. Weak." I whispered. It came out like a threat rather than a statement.
"You are." Gabe continued as I stood up, "You are weak. It took you so long to stand up to your father." Gabe pushed me but I didn't fall. I clenched my teeth and dug my heels into the ground. "You can't stand up to your friends." He laughed and pushed again.
"I don't need to stand up to them." I said. My eyes hardening as I locked into a stare battle.
"Really you don't?" Gabe laughed, "So when Jasmine didn't want to talk to you. What did you do?" He pushed me again, "You tried to change yourself. That isn't friendship. They are using you." He was right. I fell to the ground.
"You are right." I whispered and a soft ache began to fill in my chest.
"Now you are going to feel sorry for yourself. You really are the weakest thing I have ever seen. You aren't even going to fight me anymore. That's a little pathetic." Gabe crossed his arms.
"I love them." I defended. Still to weak to stand up.
"Love doesn't mean changing yourself for them. Didn't you feel like you became a better person since all of this?" I nodded, "So why are you letting others define who you are?" He glared down at me.
"I don't let others define me." I said and for a moment I felt the unbridle truth of his words. "I won't let them." I said standing up.
"You won��t?" He taunted, "Then why did you want to be so mortal again? I'll tell you why." Gabe pushed. "You are so desperate to fit in. You ignore yourself and what you want."
"I don't want anything." I pushed Gabe back.
He looked at me with a smile, "You don't want anything?" He began laughing, "You want Kai. You want to be a warrior who fight Angels. But look at you." He pushed me again.
"I don't need to look at me." I snarled and pushed him back. He didn't even budge.
"So weak. The moment you go home you try to change yourself." Gabe laughed.
"I wanted to be normal." I confessed.
"No you didn't. You thought you had to be normal." Gabe pushed back and I stumbled and nearly tripped into the cot. "I bet that's why Kai ran from you. He knew how unstable you are."
"I am not unstable. I am a teenager. I don't have my life figured out. I may be half immortal, so what? I am allowed to be confused." I pushed back.
"Just because you are allowed to be confused doesn't mean you have to be." Gabe pushed. "Kai ran because he saw how ordinary you are."
"He ran…" I trailed off. Why does Gabe keep hitting me with the truth, "I can be better."
Gabe laughed and pushed me again. His laughter was starting to tick me off, " So because I think you can be better. You are going to be better. If I said, you should dump Kai and run away with me, are you going to listen?"
"I am not like that!' I cried out,
"You are!" He took a step forward and grabbed me by the neck, "I should just end you now. Put you out of your misery."
My airway slowly began to tighten. His hand seemed to tightened with each second. He was going to kill me.
"How about I kill you now? Make my life so much easier." He growled and lifted me into the air. My vision went blurry.
I kicked my foot against his private and he dropped me. I collapsed on the ground in a heaving mess. He groaned but only for a second.
"Is the little weakling going to fight me off?" He taunted, "Couldn't even win a fight without help of her magic. Magic that isn't even yours."
I scrunched my eyebrows, "Of course it's mine."
"No it's not. Satan gave it to you. You haven't even tapped into your magic because you are weak." He snarled, "Your magic knows it. I know it. Your team knows it."
"I am not weak." I snarled.
"Prove it." He pushed me. This time I was sent flying across the tent. He has been holding back the entire time. But even then, I fell. "You want to stop them from killing your parents. Don't you?" He asked.
"I do." I admitted, standing up.
"How are you going to stop them when you can't stop me?" He taunted and proceeded to pick me up and fling me across the room, again. "Why don't you give up?" He asked stalking over.
My limbs hurt. Why weren't the guards doing anything? "Looking for someone to save you. Pathetic. "
"Shut up." I growled and rushed to him. He fell to the ground and I began to hit him.
"That doesn't even hurt. It's pathetic really." He grabbed my wrist and pushed me away.
Suddenly a rush of power filled through my body. It wasn't Nyra. It was different yet familiar. I extended both my hands out and spark shot through my fingertips. Hitting Gabe in the chest.
"Looks like you have awakened a new beast within you." He laughed and lunged at me.
I smashed my fist straight into his jaw and he went flying backwards. For the first time, I didn't feel so incomplete. I grinned and advanced.
"Unfortunately." Gabe said, "I didn't want you to awaken that power. We need something else." Suddenly that newfound power disappeared.
"What did you do?" I asked. Feeling helpless again.
"I locked it away." He grinned and my anger increased ten-fold.
"That wasn't up to you." I snarled attacked with fervor. The old sense of power rushed through me. Nyra. We didn't stop hitting Gabe.
"As much as this is fun." A voice said from the other side of the tent. I looked up to find Gabe sitting on the cot drinking out of a teacup. If Gabe was there, who was I punching? I looked down. Gabe was also underneath me, all battered and bruised.
"It's time for you to wake up." Gabe said.
Suddenly everything went black. When I opened my eyes, I was lying on my cot. The sky outside darkened significantly.