{"id":2988,"date":"2016-09-21T00:00:51","date_gmt":"2016-09-21T04:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=2988"},"modified":"2016-09-20T17:18:55","modified_gmt":"2016-09-20T21:18:55","slug":"forty-04","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=2988","title":{"rendered":"Forty – 04"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

My heart stopped, freezing in my throat as I met Phelan\u2019s wide-eyed but seemingly sightless gaze. His eyes were unfocused, pupils shrunk to almost nothing. My fingers tightened again, squeezing hard enough to leave marks, to bruise.<\/p>\n

Energy crackled and the hairs on my arms and the back of my neck stood straight up on end. I could see<\/em> him now, see him as clear as if we sat outside under the blazing sun, bathed in the bright light of day.<\/p>\n

I said his name again. He didn\u2019t blink, but his mouth opened. A whisper emerged, faint and nearly lost amid the thundering in my ears.<\/p>\n

\u201cHelp,\u201d he breathed.<\/p>\n

Just the single word. I didn\u2019t know what to do\u2014didn\u2019t know how<\/em> to do what he\u2019d just asked of me. I didn\u2019t even know what was wrong<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow?\u201d I blurted. \u201cPhelan, how do I help you? What do you need<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBreak\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBreak what<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBreak it.\u201d<\/p>\n

I almost shook him. \u201cBreak what<\/em>, Phelan? I don\u2019t know what you\u2019re\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

The connection. Whatever started this is still there, still has claws\u2014<\/em><\/p>\n

Claws.<\/p>\n

Claws in him.<\/em><\/p>\n

I breathed a curse and squeezed my eyes shut. I wasn\u2019t sure if I could do it, but I had to try\u2014there was no other choice.<\/p>\n

I sucked in a deep breath, reaching down into the deep, dark well of power I\u2019d only tapped into a few times\u2014maybe twice, three times, and I didn\u2019t have a single clear memory of any of those times, truth be known.<\/p>\n

Just as long as it doesn\u2019t hurt my son.<\/em><\/p>\n

I felt a warm sense of reassurance, as if my little boy was already trying to tell me it was going to be okay. Maybe it was my imagination.<\/p>\n

I sort of hoped it wasn\u2019t as I started wrapping Phelan and I in a shield of my own making, cutting us off from the outside world.<\/p>\n

The last thing I heard before I blacked out was Phelan\u2019s voice breathing, \u201cLeann\u00e1n<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Marin’s point of view.] My heart stopped, freezing in my throat as I met Phelan\u2019s wide-eyed but seemingly sightless gaze. His eyes were unfocused, pupils shrunk to almost nothing. My fingers tightened again, squeezing hard enough … 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":[124,219,14],"tags":[150,171,170,152,149,173,148,168,147,165,200,146],"class_list":["post-2988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-5","category-chapter-40-book-5","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-marin-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-phelan-ocredne","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-thomas-merlin-ambrose","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-Mc","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2988","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=2988"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2989,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2988\/revisions\/2989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}