{"id":2838,"date":"2016-04-22T00:00:03","date_gmt":"2016-04-22T04:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=2838"},"modified":"2016-04-21T17:50:18","modified_gmt":"2016-04-21T21:50:18","slug":"thirty-03-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=2838","title":{"rendered":"Thirty – 03"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Both were silent for a long moment before \u00c9riu took a step out of J.T.\u2019s shadow, a step closer to me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not telling you this to cause you pain,<\/em>\u201d she said, and of course my heart seized up for a moment before it began beating normally again.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s going to upset me,\u201d I guessed. The ghost glanced down at her feet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know, honestly. I\u2019m not sure how you\u2019ll take it. I don\u2019t think he…no. I know he never told Mother.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

My brows knit and I glanced at J.T., who leaned against the bridge\u2019s railing, stone-faced and watching both \u00c9riu and I. For a second, I wondered if he already knew what \u00c9riu was about to tell me.<\/p>\n

I shook my head. \u201cYou won\u2019t know until you spit it out, \u00c9riu. What did you want to tell me?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI needed to tell you that she won\u2019t hurt him.<\/em>\u201d She stared up at me and a shiver crept down my spine. I knew exactly who she was talking about, but the words frightened me as much as they comforted me. A thousand questions exploded in my head, one louder than the rest.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you know that?\u201d<\/p>\n

She stared at me, then wet spectral lips with the tip of her tongue, steeling herself to respond. \u201cI know because she loved my uncle, and your brother <\/em>is my uncle. I know because he told me everything, everything that he could never tell you or Finn or anyone else. I know because C\u00edar used to cry at night sometimes, used to whisper her name in his sleep when no one else was around. I know because she loved him and protected him when no one else could, when you were too far and didn\u2019t know where he was. She was a port in the storm that battered him, the soft place he was able to fall. He could never tell you because of everything that happened after and\u2014<\/em>\u201d She broke off, looking at J.T. He sighed quietly.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause she\u2019s crazy,\u201d J.T. said. \u201cThe Hecate isn\u2019t sane. \u00c9riu didn\u2019t tell me all of it, but she told me enough for me to sort that out, at least. She\u2019s got some kind of mental disorder. I\u2019m pretty damned sure of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

I leaned against the railing, feeling like I\u2019d been gut-punched. \u201cYou\u2019re telling me that she\u2019s probably certifiably nuts and she took my brother because she was in love with the Ridden Druid? How\u2014how does that explain everything that she\u2019s done? Why the hell would she want Phelan, or Seamus, or Teague? Why the hell has she been after them<\/em>\u2014and now Cameron<\/em>\u2014for as long as she\u2019s been if she loved C\u00edar mac D\u00fabhshl\u00e1in?\u201d I sucked in a breath, looking at \u00c9riu. \u201cAnd how does that convince you that she won\u2019t hurt<\/em> him? For all we know, she could believe he abandoned her all those centuries ago and be looking to get even.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe won\u2019t hurt him, Marin,<\/em>\u201d \u00c9riu whispered. \u201cI know it\u2019s hard to accept\u2014to believe\u2014but she won\u2019t hurt him. I\u2019ve been doing a lot of thinking back on what I\u2019d seen and what I remember and the more I do, the more I know it must be true that she wouldn\u2019t hurt him. She\u2019d never knowingly hurt him. It\u2019s why she stayed her blade against Brigh\u00edd and Phelan and Teague back then. She could have killed them more than once, but she never took advantage. Please believe me.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

My voice came soft but harsh, as if the words had been torn from my throat. \u201cIt\u2019s hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know,<\/em>\u201d she said. \u201cI know it is, but please believe me.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t tell anyone,\u201d I said, looking between her and J.T. \u201cNot about this. No one else can know.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you believe her?\u201d J.T. asked quietly.<\/p>\n

Closing my eyes, I nodded, feeling hollow but somehow lighter at the same time. There was something about her certainty that tipped me over the edge\u2014she was so certain<\/em> that I couldn\u2019t bring myself to tell her that she had to be mistaken.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe her, but I still have questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I had the answers,<\/em>\u201d she said. \u201cIf I had them, I\u2019d give them to you, but I fear the only one who could tell you is\u2014<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIs Hecate herself,\u201d I finished, then nodded slowly. \u201cWe\u2019ll just have to hope that someday we can figure it out, then.\u201d<\/p>\n

I guess this does make me feel a little better\u2014and a little worse\u2014about what I said to Phelan and Thom.<\/em> I glanced at J.T. \u201cI told Thom and Phelan that I thought maybe we should stop looking.\u201d<\/p>\n

He winced. \u201cHow\u2019d they take it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to discuss it as a group,\u201d I said, then shoved my hands deeper into my pockets. \u201cI don\u2019t know that I need to be a party to those discussions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are going to wonder if you\u2019re not there,\u201d he said quietly.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah. Yeah, I know.\u201d I turned away, folding my arms across the bridge\u2019s railing and staring out at the trees, at the creek that was high with the spring melt. \u201cI miss him, Jay.\u201d<\/p>\n

He put his arm around my shoulders. \u201cHe\u2019s your brother.\u201d<\/p>\n

I nodded. \u201cI\u2019ve always been there to help him when he\u2019s needed it, always been there to come to his rescue when it\u2019s been warranted. Except for this time.\u201d My eyes fluttered shut. \u201cAnd now I\u2019m finding out that maybe, just maybe, he doesn\u2019t really need rescuing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess we\u2019ll find out,\u201d J.T. said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah,\u201d I whispered. \u201cYeah, we absolutely will. We absolutely will.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Marin’s point of view.] Both were silent for a long moment before \u00c9riu took a step out of J.T.\u2019s shadow, a step closer to me. \u201cI\u2019m not telling you this to cause you pain,\u201d she said, … 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":[124,204,14],"tags":[150,205,171,170,160,152,149,148,168,147,165,146],"class_list":["post-2838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-5","category-chapter-30-book-5","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-eriu","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-j-t-mackenzie","tag-marin-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-JM","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2838","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=2838"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2839,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2838\/revisions\/2839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}