{"id":2732,"date":"2016-01-13T00:00:11","date_gmt":"2016-01-13T05:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=2732"},"modified":"2016-01-12T22:21:23","modified_gmt":"2016-01-13T03:21:23","slug":"twenty-two-02-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=2732","title":{"rendered":"Twenty-two – 02"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phelan glared at her, then at me. I stared right back, tilting my head to one side, silently daring him to deny it\u2014to say that he wasn\u2019t<\/em> lying, that everything was fine even though we all knew that it was pretty far from it.<\/p>\n

Jacqueline just arched a brow as she started a second cup of tea, since she\u2019d given the one she\u2019d made in the first place to Phelan. \u201cWell,\u201d she said after a moment of awkward silence, \u201cI don\u2019t think any of us are going to be all that grumpy about having some help in that regard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phelan winced and stared into his cup before he cast a hooded glance in her direction. \u201cThanks for backing me up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes your well-being is more important than presenting some kind of united front,\u201d she countered.<\/p>\n

I fought back a smile. Sometimes, I didn\u2019t think Phelan quite realized what he was getting into with Jac, and it was probably better that way.<\/p>\n

Jacqueline turned her attention away from her lover and toward Aoife\u2019s companion. \u201cWho\u2019s your friend, Aoife?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe better question would be who you<\/em> are,\u201d Aoife said, her voice careful, almost as wary as the appraising look she shot in Jacqueline\u2019s direction. She\u2019d definitely noted the byplay and the way Phelan didn\u2019t quite<\/em> defer to Jac the same way he did to me.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh,\u201d Phelan said, then cleared his throat, a little bit of color washing into his cheeks that had nothing to do with the chill in the air. \u201cAoife, this is Jacqueline. Jac, my sister Aoife.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jacqueline smiled. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to finally meet you, Aoife. Phelan\u2019s told me a little bit about you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSeems you\u2019re miles ahead of me, then,\u201d Aoife said, her gaze fastened on her brother. \u201cI noticed that there wasn\u2019t a full answer to my question in that introduction, Phelan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re being impolite, Aoife.\u201d<\/p>\n

She smirked. \u201cI prefer the term direct<\/em>, brother mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

The man at her side sighed and offered me his hand. \u201cGray Miller,\u201d he said. \u201cMy name\u2019s Gray Miller.\u201d<\/p>\n

I felt a little bit of a jolt as I took his hand and from the look on his face, I could see he\u2019d probably gotten the same sort of physical sensation\u2014or something similar\u2014when he touched my hand. I managed to smile. \u201cMarin Astoris. I take it you\u2019re a friend of Aoife\u2019s?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething like that,\u201d he said, glancing sidelong toward her. She wasn\u2019t paying attention; she was too busy glaring at her brother.<\/p>\n

I wondered how long it would be before someone took pity on one side or the other\u2014or on the rest of us\u2014and broke the stalemate.<\/p>\n

I decided it wasn\u2019t going to be me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Phelan glared at her, then at me. I stared right back, tilting my head to one side, silently daring him to deny it\u2014to say that he wasn\u2019t lying, that everything was fine even though we all knew that it was … 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":[124,180,14],"tags":[176,150,170,177,174,152,173,148,159,147,167,146],"class_list":["post-2732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-5","category-chapter-22-book-5","category-story","tag-aoife-ocredne","tag-awakenings","tag-fiction","tag-gray-miller","tag-jacqueline-bell","tag-marin-astoris","tag-phelan-ocredne","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-seamus-vaughan","tag-serial-fiction","tag-sif","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-I4","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2732","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=2732"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2733,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2732\/revisions\/2733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}