{"id":2820,"date":"2016-04-08T00:00:45","date_gmt":"2016-04-08T04:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=2820"},"modified":"2016-04-07T15:13:22","modified_gmt":"2016-04-07T19:13:22","slug":"twenty-nine-03-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=2820","title":{"rendered":"Twenty-nine – 03"},"content":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Matt’s point of view.]<\/em><\/p>\n

Somehow, she seemed different<\/em> as she stood in the doorway, her pale face illuminated by the warmth of the lamp\u2019s light. Her gaze, usually sharp enough to draw blood, was soft, her eyes crinkling at the edges with something that was almost…fondness?<\/p>\n

What the hell?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re awake,\u201d the Hecate said, her voice soft. Even that seemed different, the edges gone, like a blade carefully tucked into its sheathe\u2014or perhaps just wrapped in velvet and set aside.<\/p>\n

It was suddenly hard to breathe.<\/p>\n

Matt swallowed hard. \u201cBarely,\u201d he managed to say, staring at her. She was dressed in a long skirt, evocative of her supposedly Grecian roots, and a tank top\u2014more modern than he\u2019d ever imagined she\u2019d dress, somehow. Her dark hair was limned in gold in the lamplight, strands catching the light and reflecting like fire, red and gold blazing amidst the dark strands piled into a messy bun.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want you to know that I didn\u2019t want it to be like this,\u201d she said, slipping quietly into his room and closing the door behind her. She carried no weapons\u2014no visible ones, anyway\u2014and it didn\u2019t look like she was carrying any keys, either.<\/p>\n

Was it possible that door was unlocked<\/em>?<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until she got close that he saw the scars, on her arms, on her neck. They were old, faded and slender, white marks against already pale flesh, but he could tell by looking at them that they had once been deep.<\/p>\n

On instinct, he reached to grasp one of her arms, to pull her toward him so he could examine the long scar that ran from her wrist to her elbow, like a razor\u2019s cut that went too deep to be anything but deliberate.<\/p>\n

Instead of jerking back, she just stood there quietly, watching his face.<\/p>\n

His mind screamed at him to take this chance to get away, the part that wasn\u2019t being overwhelmed by questions, by memories that belonged not to Matt Astoris, but to his soul, the soul that had been C\u00edar mac D\u00fabhshl\u00e1in once upon a time.<\/p>\n

\u201cApotropaia,\u201d he breathed.<\/p>\n

Captor, savior, lady, protector, lover, lost and forgotten.<\/em><\/p>\n

Friend.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Hecate smiled, and it didn\u2019t make him want to run. It was a sad, wistful smile\u2014a terrifyingly human<\/em> smile, full of emotion and pain rather than the promise of agony. \u201cYou have no idea how long it\u2019s been since I heard that name.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt shivered. \u201cWhat did you do to yourself?\u201d<\/p>\n

A soft laugh escaped her and she put her hand over his, fingers squeezing gently. \u201cPain does horrible and wonderful things, sweet druid. In this, it did a horrible thing.\u201d She tugged her arm from his grip, then reached up to unconsciously trace the scar on her throat, her gaze growing distant. \u201cAnd fear did this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWho?\u201d he asked, his voice suddenly hoarse. Matt struggled to make sense of it all. C\u00edar had somehow loved<\/em> this woman?<\/p>\n

How is that possible\u2014and how did his family never know about that? How\u2014and why\u2014would he keep a secret like that?<\/em><\/p>\n

And if he really <\/em>did love her\u2014or the aspect of her that was Apotropaia\u2014why didn\u2019t he ever go back to her after everything that happened?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Hunt,\u201d she whispered, slowly sitting down beside him on the bed. \u201cThey feared my influence over their illustrious leader.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t mean Seamus,\u201d Matt said, his mouth dry.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d the Hecate whispered. \u201cNo, I don\u2019t. They tried to kill me. In some ways…in some ways, they actually managed to do it, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her lips met his and he didn\u2019t stop her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Matt’s point of view.] Somehow, she seemed different as she stood in the doorway, her pale face illuminated by the warmth of the lamp\u2019s light. Her gaze, usually sharp enough to draw blood, was soft, her … 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":[124,201,14],"tags":[150,171,170,194,181,149,168,147,165,146],"class_list":["post-2820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-5","category-chapter-29-book-5","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-hecate","tag-matthew-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-Ju","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2820","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=2820"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2822,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2820\/revisions\/2822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}