{"id":3006,"date":"2016-10-10T00:00:05","date_gmt":"2016-10-10T04:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3006"},"modified":"2016-10-09T20:29:41","modified_gmt":"2016-10-10T00:29:41","slug":"forty-two-01","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3006","title":{"rendered":"Forty-two – 01"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\u201cThey stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neve stopped a few steps from the tunnel, ignoring the way that baby Kurt tugged on the wisps that had worked their way free from her braid, straining her ears, wondering if she\u2019d misheard. But no. The drums had stopped and for a moment, all was silent.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat does that mean?\u201d Tala asked from the far end of the stretcher Cariocecus lay on, her brows knitting. Even Angie had stopped, cradling Tala\u2019s daughter, Gwen, in her arms.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes that mean we don\u2019t have to go down to the tunnels?\u201d Angie asked, her voice curious and afraid at the same time.<\/p>\n

Neve winced and was glad when Jacqueline answered for her.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, we\u2019re still going down there,\u201d the healer said firmly. \u201cThey haven\u2019t sounded an all-clear and they\u2019ll want you safe either way. Keep moving.\u201d Her gaze flicked toward Tala. \u201cAre you comfortable leaving the twins down there and coming back up with me? They\u2019ll need you on the wall.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a brief hesitation, Tala nodded. \u201cYeah. Yeah, I\u2019m with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neve sucked in a deep breath and exhaled it slowly. \u201cWe\u2019ll keep them safe,\u201d she said to Tala. The other woman managed a weak smile.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know. I trust you guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the stretcher, Cariocecus groaned. Tala startled so badly she jostled it, nearly dumping the former godling onto the ground\u2014Neve was more than half convinced that if they\u2019d still been moving, Cariocecus would have been laid out on the ground in the blink of an eye.<\/p>\n

\u201cSet it down,\u201d Jacqueline said. \u201cCarefully.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tala sucked in a breath and nodded. The pair lowered the stretcher to the ground and Jacqueline came alongside, crouching down next to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cCariocecus?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s here,\u201d he whispered. \u201cShe\u2019s here with the ones pulling her strings. Not the one they wanted but the one they\u2019ve gotten.\u201d<\/p>\n

His eyes were open and he stared at the sky, his color ashen, but there was no panic in his expression\u2014only resignation, perhaps a little regret.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried,\u201d he whispered. \u201cI tried.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Neve’s point of view.] \u201cThey stopped.\u201d Neve stopped a few steps from the tunnel, ignoring the way that baby Kurt tugged on the wisps that had worked their way free from her braid, straining her ears, … 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":[124,224,14],"tags":[225,150,226,171,170,228,174,227,151,149,148,168,147,165,215,146],"class_list":["post-3006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-5","category-chapter-42","category-story","tag-angie-van-rijn","tag-awakenings","tag-cariocecus","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-gwen-johanson","tag-jacqueline-bell","tag-kurt-johanson","tag-neve-vaughan","tag-original-fiction","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-tala-johanson","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-Mu","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3006","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=3006"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3007,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3006\/revisions\/3007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}