{"id":2790,"date":"2016-03-09T00:00:15","date_gmt":"2016-03-09T05:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=2790"},"modified":"2016-03-08T23:57:33","modified_gmt":"2016-03-09T04:57:33","slug":"twenty-six-03-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=2790","title":{"rendered":"Twenty-six – 03"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Marin’s point of view.]<\/em><\/p>\n

Aoife stared blankly at Seamus, her expression caught somewhere between slack and incredulous. Phelan growled and shook his head again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need to take a walk,\u201d he muttered.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll come with you,\u201d I said. I glanced up at Thom, who nodded slightly and let go.<\/p>\n

\u201cBe careful,\u201d he murmured, then kissed my ear. I smiled faintly.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlways.\u201d I squeezed his hand. \u201cTell Jac I\u2019m with him when she finishes up with whatever wounded we\u2019ve got, okay?\u201d That way either she and Thom would worry together, or neither of them would get to worrying\u2014I was hoping for the latter.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course.\u201d Thom stole another kiss before I let go of his hand and moved toward Phelan, who\u2019d paused a few feet away to wait for me\u2014a small favor that I honestly hadn\u2019t expected.<\/p>\n

Phelan gave me a weak, crooked smile as we began to walk away, headed toward the space beyond the tent. It was raining, but not too hard. I tugged the hood of my jacket up. Phelan didn\u2019t bother to cover his head, walking out into the rain.<\/p>\n

I suppose he\u2019s used to that kind of thing. Getting rained on.<\/em><\/p>\n

I wondered how many hours\u2014days, nights, maybe even weeks\u2014he\u2019d spent on the road in the rain, bareheaded or otherwise.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s got a lot of years on all of us.<\/em><\/p>\n

We\u2019d walked about half the distance to the wall before he sighed and I glanced at him sidelong. \u201cDid you just need to get away from your sister and the bickering and the blame, or was there something else going on?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of things,\u201d he murmured, shoving his hands deep into his pockets. \u201cThere\u2019s a part of me that thinks she\u2019s right and at the same time, I think the only thing that would have happened if I\u2019d actually gone after the bitch was me getting myself killed.\u201d<\/p>\n

I caught his free hand and squeezed it. Phelan sighed again and tilted his face toward the sky, staring up at the rain and the clouds.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I don\u2019t know that we\u2019ll ever be free of her,\u201d he said quietly. \u201cAnd even if we were, someone would just step in to fill the void. I wish it wasn\u2019t the case, but that\u2019s just the way it is. I can\u2019t change it. I just have to live with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to live with it,\u201d I said softly. \u201cYou\u2019re not alone. Not anymore\u2014not ever again.\u201d<\/p>\n

He squeezed my fingers again. \u201cThanks, le\u00e1nnan<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime, Phelan.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Marin’s point of view.] Aoife stared blankly at Seamus, her expression caught somewhere between slack and incredulous. Phelan growled and shook his head again. \u201cI need to take a walk,\u201d he muttered. \u201cI\u2019ll come with you,\u201d I said. I glanced … 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":[124,197,14],"tags":[176,150,170,152,149,173,148,159,168,147,165,158,146],"class_list":["post-2790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-5","category-chapter-26-book-5","category-story","tag-aoife-ocredne","tag-awakenings","tag-fiction","tag-marin-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-phelan-ocredne","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-seamus-vaughan","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-thom-ambrose","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-J0","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2790","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=2790"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2791,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2790\/revisions\/2791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}