{"id":2888,"date":"2016-06-13T00:00:12","date_gmt":"2016-06-13T04:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=2888"},"modified":"2016-06-12T20:18:13","modified_gmt":"2016-06-13T00:18:13","slug":"thirty-four-02-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=2888","title":{"rendered":"Thirty-four – 02"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Aoife spun to grab her pack. Gray shot to his feet to intercept her, his fingers closing around her wrist just in time to keep her outstretched fingers from wrapping around the strap. Her jaw tightened and her gaze snapped up to meet his.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet go, Gray.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot until you calm down,\u201d he murmured, gently turning her to face him. \u201cI\u2019m worried about you, Aoife.\u201d<\/p>\n

She groaned, titling her head back and squeezing her eyes shut. \u201cNot you, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHey, none of that.\u201d He reached up to tug at her chin until she looked at him again. Her eyes were bright with the tears she was fighting to hold back. \u201cI\u2019ve stood with you through a lot of shit already, Aoife,\u201d he murmured. \u201cWe both know that. I\u2019ve gone out on a limb and believed you when I didn\u2019t have to, I walked away from my friends to follow you because I couldn\u2019t let you come here alone. I\u2019ve always stood with you, so don\u2019t start this now. I just want to understand what you\u2019re doing and why, Aoife, and I want you to be safe while you\u2019re doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you can\u2019t be safe,\u201d she countered. \u201cSometimes you have to just…just do it. Bite the bullet and rush in headlong and pray you make it out the other side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gray shook his head slowly. \u201cThis doesn\u2019t make sense, Aoife.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do anything for family,\u201d she whispered. Gray stiffened.<\/p>\n

\u201cAoife, your family\u2019s asking you not to go!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re just afraid,\u201d she whispered. \u201cAnd why shouldn\u2019t they be? She\u2019s an ancient witch who\u2019s done nothing but hurt and hunt us for thousands of years. Of course they\u2019d be afraid\u2014I\u2019m afraid. I\u2019m not going to say that I\u2019m not because I am. Why do you think I\u2019m doing this? This is our chance to stop her so we can all stop being afraid. She\u2019s distracted\u2014at least I hope she is. This might be our only chance to stop the cycle. That\u2019s all I want. I want to stop the cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat if one doesn\u2019t exist, Aoife? What if it\u2019s all in your head?\u201d<\/p>\n

She squeezed her eyes shut and he wrapped his arms around her as she began to cry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Gray Miller’s point of view.] Aoife spun to grab her pack. Gray shot to his feet to intercept her, his fingers closing around her wrist just in time to keep her outstretched fingers from wrapping around … 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":[124,209,14],"tags":[176,150,171,170,177,148,168,147,165,146],"class_list":["post-2888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-5","category-chapter-34-book-5","category-story","tag-aoife-ocredne","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-gray-miller","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-KA","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2888","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=2888"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2889,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2888\/revisions\/2889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}