{"id":3057,"date":"2016-11-28T00:00:34","date_gmt":"2016-11-28T05:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3057"},"modified":"2016-11-27T10:40:34","modified_gmt":"2016-11-27T15:40:34","slug":"forty-five-06","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3057","title":{"rendered":"Forty-five – 06"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

The knock on the door echoed through the whole house. Matt froze up, holding onto Hecate a little tighter. She drew a rasping breath but stayed limp in his arms, either too exhausted to care or too emotionally wrung-out to react.<\/p>\n

He pressed a kiss to her temple. \u201cI\u2019ll get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll come with you,\u201d she whispered.<\/p>\n

His heart crept up into his throat but he nodded, his arms loosening. She got up first, then him, both moving silently in the dimness of the bedroom. Rain lashed the window and Matt thought that maybe, just maybe, he could hear the sound of hail against the shingles above their heads.<\/p>\n

Her fingers caught his and squeezed for a second before she went to the closet even as he headed for the bedroom door.<\/p>\n

Whoever was at the door knocked again, the sound a little more impatient now\u2014or was that simply Matt\u2019s imagination?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the back door,\u201d she said as she took a pair of glittering silver blades from the closet, a pair of blades made of two half-crescents crossed, wrapped hilts along the inside of one crescent each. Matt\u2019s heart gave a strange double-beat as he watched her take out the weapons, objects he knew he\u2019d never seen in this life but had in another.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow long has it been since you touched those?\u201d he asked softly.<\/p>\n

One corner of her mouth twitched upward into a rueful smile. \u201cCenturies,\u201d she said. \u201cI usually only handle the box he made me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The urge to go to her was strong, to hug her and hold her and promise that everything would be all right\u2014even if the words would be a lie\u2014was damnably strong, but Matt managed to hold himself in check. She shot him a brave, if slightly wavering, smile.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have your back,\u201d she said softly as she hefted the pair of crescent moon knives. \u201cNothing hurts you as long as I\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt nodded slowly. \u201cRight back at you.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was a third knock on the door, the sound more rapid-fire, more staccato. Matt took a deep breath.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it comes to that, yes,\u201d she said. \u201cThe boar-spear, the axe, the warhammer. I have all of them. They\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n

He nodded slowly. \u201cBring the hammer. I\u2019m going to answer the door.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt turned but was stopped by her hand on his shoulder. She spun him gently back toward her, to face her, and pressed a kiss to his lips so hard that it nearly stole his breath.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love you,\u201d she said after she drew back, staring up at him with fear in her eyes. Matt brushed a tear away as it tracked down her cheek.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgat mo chro\u00ed, mo ghr\u00e1<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

She bit her lip and nodded, letting go. \u201cBe careful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlways,\u201d he said softly before he left the bedroom.<\/p>\n

Another knock hadn\u2019t come, but it was only a matter of time and he knew that as he moved quickly and quietly across the wooden floors toward the back door. Who it might have been was a mystery to him\u2014but it was a mystery that he\u2019d unravel soon enough.<\/p>\n

That much, at least, he was certain about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Matt’s point of view.] The knock on the door echoed through the whole house. Matt froze up, holding onto Hecate a little tighter. She drew a rasping breath but stayed limp in his arms, either too … 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":[124,234,14],"tags":[150,171,170,194,181,149,148,168,147,165,146],"class_list":["post-3057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-5","category-chapter-45","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-hecate","tag-matthew-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-Nj","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3057","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=3057"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3058,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3057\/revisions\/3058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}