{"id":2430,"date":"2015-03-25T18:36:31","date_gmt":"2015-03-25T22:36:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=2430"},"modified":"2015-03-24T18:37:15","modified_gmt":"2015-03-24T22:37:15","slug":"six-05-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=2430","title":{"rendered":"Six – 05"},"content":{"rendered":"

The sound of hoofbeats behind them made Thordin curse and twist, peering out across the snow as the sun sank slowly down toward the western shores of the lake. \u201cBloody fragging hell<\/em>, Matt. Who else was coming?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019d be Thom, probably,\u201d Matt predicted. \u201cEither he didn\u2019t find Phelan and gave up, or Phelan went to find someone or something else before he joined us. Either way, I really don\u2019t think they\u2019d let Phelan come alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Likely not. If there\u2019s one thing that would make this go from bad to worse, it would be him showing up here unescorted.<\/em><\/p>\n

He turned back toward the ice, squinting against the sun. Darkness would come all too quickly and that would make the fighting harder, more dangerous.<\/p>\n

Powers that be and were, don\u2019t let me get them killed. That\u2019s all I ask. Take me instead. I\u2019m ready for it.<\/em><\/p>\n

A sharp ache in his chest told him that he was lying to himself. There were too many things unfinished, too many loose ends. He wasn\u2019t ready.<\/p>\n

But no one ever was.<\/p>\n

His lips thinned and he strained to see any sign of cracking ice, of movement in the depths beneath the frozen slabs. He hoped they wouldn\u2019t be able to find her, that she wouldn\u2019t come. She\u2019d chide him\u2014no, more than chide, she\u2019d lecture<\/em> him\u2014about what he planned to do, about trying to face it alone.<\/p>\n

Facing one nearly killed you the first time. What makes you think you\u2019ll be as lucky the second time?<\/em><\/p>\n

This one\u2019s probably smaller.<\/em><\/p>\n

He couldn\u2019t stop the smile. Matt looked at him funny.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you okay?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Thordin said softly. \u201cNo, and I never was. I just pretend.\u201d<\/p>\n

We all pretend, almost all the time. We pretend that all is well.<\/em><\/p>\n

Maybe someday the lie we tell ourselves will actually become the truth.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The sound of hoofbeats behind them made Thordin curse and twist, peering out across the snow as the sun sank slowly down toward the western shores of the lake. \u201cBloody fragging hell, Matt. Who else was coming?\u201d \u201cThat\u2019d be Thom, … 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":[124,131,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-5","category-chapter-06","category-story"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-Dc","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2430","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=2430"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2432,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2430\/revisions\/2432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}