{"id":3041,"date":"2016-11-14T00:00:08","date_gmt":"2016-11-14T05:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3041"},"modified":"2016-11-13T09:53:03","modified_gmt":"2016-11-13T14:53:03","slug":"forty-four-04","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3041","title":{"rendered":"Forty-four – 04"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

My stomach twisted and I bit my lip. \u201cBecause you couldn\u2019t stand by and watch her throw herself at us and maybe lose her life over a fight she never really wanted to be in\u2014a fight she never should have been in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething like that,\u201d he whispered, then looked down. \u201cThey turned her into a weapon they could point at people, much like they in turn did with the Ridden Druid\u2014with your brother. After time, as her utility as a weapon of fear decreased, they groomed her for other things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLike leashing and unleashing weapons,\u201d Phelan said, his voice grim.<\/p>\n

Cariocecus met his gaze and nodded slowly. \u201cAye.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe loved him,\u201d I said. Next to me, Phelan startled and even Neve looked at me strangely.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you mean, Marin?\u201d<\/p>\n

I squeezed my eyes shut. \u201cHecate. She loved C\u00edar. He never\u2014\u201d I broke off, sucking in a deep breath and trying to steady myself before I continued, emotions I couldn\u2019t control welling up from the dark place where I\u2019d been trying to keep them locked up since J.T. and Er\u00edu had told me the truth of it all. \u201cHe never talked about it to anyone but Er\u00edu. She was the only one who ever knew. I think…I think Brigh\u00edd knew he was sad sometimes but never knew why, never asked why and got the real answer. He had to suffer with the hate they all felt, the resentment they all felt. He never got to go back to help her, to get her away from that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe disappeared for a while,\u201d Cariocecus said softly. \u201cAfter he was back with his people, after he was freed from the Hunt. She disappeared and no one knew why, no one would talk about it\u2014not that many of us actually dared ask. She was a terror in the field, unpredictable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe appeared a few times,\u201d Phelan said. \u201cWhile we were fighting. I know that I saw her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut was it really her?\u201d I asked, looking at him.<\/p>\n

Neve took a deep breath. \u201cOr was she somehow being controlled by Aietes or someone else when we saw her?\u201d She shook her head, chewing on her lower lip. \u201cHow the hell can we know at this point?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t,\u201d I said. \u201cNot unless we talk to her and gods know that\u2019s not going to happen anytime soon. She\u2019s completely vanished and taken my brother with her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is why you called off the search for him,\u201d Phelan said. \u201cWhy you said it was time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was part of the reason,\u201d I admitted. \u201cEr\u00edu told J.T. and then they both told me.\u201d I sighed. \u201cI don\u2019t think she\u2019ll let anything happen to him. Right now, if Olympium\u2019s out there and gunning for us, he\u2019s safer with her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil they hunt her down,\u201d Cariocecus said quietly.<\/p>\n

I shivered. \u201cYeah. Until that happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

All I can do at this point is hope it doesn\u2019t.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Marin’s point of view.] My stomach twisted and I bit my lip. \u201cBecause you couldn\u2019t stand by and watch her throw herself at us and maybe lose her life over a fight she never really wanted … 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":[124,233,14],"tags":[150,226,171,170,152,151,149,173,148,168,147,165,146],"class_list":["post-3041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-5","category-chapter-44","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-cariocecus","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-marin-astoris","tag-neve-vaughan","tag-original-fiction","tag-phelan-ocredne","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-N3","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3041","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=3041"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3042,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3041\/revisions\/3042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}