{"id":2228,"date":"2014-09-08T00:00:58","date_gmt":"2014-09-08T04:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=2228"},"modified":"2014-09-07T17:25:41","modified_gmt":"2014-09-07T21:25:41","slug":"thirty-four-04","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=2228","title":{"rendered":"Thirty-four – 04"},"content":{"rendered":"

Something screamed in the distance. I jerked, twisting toward the sound, heart pounding painful tattoo against my breast.\u00a0 Who was it?\u00a0 <\/em>What was it?<\/em> I swallowed bile and shuddered. Thom touched my shoulder and I leaned against his hand, abruptly out of breath and lightheaded.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat sounded like it was near camp,\u201d I whispered, barely able to hear my own voice over the sound of my thundering heart.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was,\u201d he said quietly, fingers tightening. \u201cThey\u2019ll be fine, Mar. We have to trust them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have help,\u201d Seamus growled. \u201cThe Hunt will be guarding the perimeter once they\u2019ve dealt with the gremlins. I imagine most of them have already returned to the border, which means that scream was more likely to be my daughter than one of your friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

The way he said \u2018my daughter\u2019 tore at my heart. The words were laced with equal measures of bitterness and agony. Something told me he was wondering what it might have been like if he\u2019d been there when she was young, during her formative years\u2014however long ago that might have been.<\/p>\n

Something tells me that she\u2019s had more than a few centuries for the crazy to set in.<\/em><\/p>\n

I shuddered and forced myself back on task, swallowing hard and pulling away from Thom with no small measure of effort. He watched me, pain flickering through his gaze before he turned back to the search.<\/p>\n

Not enough time. There\u2019s just not enough <\/em>time.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHas this ever happened before?\u201d I asked abruptly, glancing toward Seamus in the dim.<\/p>\n

He flinched slightly. \u201cOnce,\u201d he admitted. \u201cI\u2019ve seen it once. It was what happened to the Ridden Druid.\u201d<\/p>\n

I straightened, eyes widening. \u201cI thought he was just possessed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was more complicated than simply that,\u201d Seamus said, his eyes on the rubble, as if he didn\u2019t dare meet my gaze. \u201cHis soul was sundered and his consciousness was split\u2014part subsumed beneath the Stag King that ruled his physical form, part trapped in a silver vessel that was carefully hidden. While Brighid sought his physical form, Finn and my brother sought the vessel. I helped as I could\u2014it was probably the last bit of good that I did before Albina gave me to the Hunt.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot the last,\u201d Leinth said quietly from the other side of him. \u201cYou did have a son.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seamus winced. \u201cAye,\u201d he whispered. \u201cThat I did.\u201d He took a deep breath and exhaled it in a rush, shaking his head hard. \u201cIn any case, they found the vessel and provided it to Brighid so she could regain her brother. The stories say he wasn\u2019t the same after that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wasn\u2019t,\u201d I said quietly, heart in my throat. \u201cHe was blind and strange, but was still Ciar, still her brother.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seamus shuddered. \u201cYou have her soul.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd some of her memories.\u201d I hopped down into a hollow where I could still see the tile floor of the building that had once stood in that spot. \u201cThere are things I remember sometimes, things that I see. To be honest, it\u2019s a little disconcerting\u2014worse because her daughter\u2019s ghost is here watching over Neve and I.\u201d I pressed a hand against my stomach and shivered, biting down hard on my lower lip for a moment. \u201cIt\u2019s all very strange.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, once we find the vessel, we\u2019ll just need to return Phelan\u2019s anima<\/em> to him and all should be well,\u201d Seamus said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAssuming we\u2019re able to find it,\u201d Thom growled.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d Seamus agreed quietly. \u201cAssuming we find it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will,\u201d I said. \u201cOne way or another, we will.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Something screamed in the distance. I jerked, twisting toward the sound, heart pounding painful tattoo against my breast.\u00a0 Who was it?\u00a0 What was it? I swallowed bile and shuddered. Thom touched my shoulder and I leaned against his hand, abruptly … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[82,117,14,52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-4","category-chapter-34-book-4","category-story","category-winter"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-zW","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2229,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2228\/revisions\/2229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}