{"id":3079,"date":"2016-12-21T00:00:08","date_gmt":"2016-12-21T05:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3079"},"modified":"2016-12-21T13:19:51","modified_gmt":"2016-12-21T18:19:51","slug":"forty-seven-04","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3079","title":{"rendered":"Forty-seven – 04"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

His heart stutter-stepped at the idea of leaving her and he felt sick, but in the end, he knew he had to listen. He squeezed her hand one last time, ignoring the pain, then let go. The blade he\u2019d made her in another life lay next to her foot and she stooped to pick it up.<\/p>\n

\u201cHurry,\u201d she said. \u201cI won\u2019t draw from you until you\u2019re beyond those walls and safe, Matt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hecate wavered on her feet and his stomach twisted. She didn\u2019t look back at him. His injured hand curled into a fist.<\/p>\n

\u201cGo,\u201d she said, her voice little more than a whisper. \u201cGo, Matt.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be waiting for you,\u201d he said, then turned. The first few steps were slow, then became a jog, then finally a sprint to cover the last two dozen meters between him and the gates. He could see Thom above, white-faced even as Thordin ordered someone below to open the gate.<\/p>\n

The gates opened barely a crack and Matt ducked through that crack, warhammer and all. The looks on his friends\u2019 faces wrenched at his heart almost as badly as leaving Hecate out in the field had. Carolyn reached him first, her hand closing around his arm even as J.T. and Jack secured the gates again behind him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere have you been?\u201d she asked in a shaking voice. \u201cYour sister\u2019s been worried. We\u2019ve all been worried.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was safe,\u201d Matt murmured, glancing up toward his ashen-faced brother-in-law.<\/p>\n

How do I tell them?<\/em><\/p>\n

Maybe they already know.<\/em><\/p>\n

The look on Thom\u2019s face told him that he\u2019d seen everything out on the field and was trying to fathom what it meant\u2014probably correctly, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s Hecate out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t a question. All Matt could do was nod.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe brought you here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was her idea,\u201d Matt said, his voice weak. What else was he supposed to say?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re bleeding,\u201d Carolyn said, looking down at his hand. \u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt didn\u2019t answer, just kept staring at Thom until his brother-in-law winced and looked away.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoesn\u2019t matter,\u201d Matt said. \u201cI\u2019ll be okay. She\u2019s going to try to end this by herself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey wanted both of you,\u201d Thom said. \u201cWe told them we didn\u2019t know where you were.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t a lie.<\/em><\/p>\n

Matt felt sick. \u201cNow they\u2019ll think you lied.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey thought we were lying anyway,\u201d Thordin said quickly. \u201cPut it out of your head, Matt. We\u2019ve got work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

In that, he was certainly right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Matt’s point of view.] His heart stutter-stepped at the idea of leaving her and he felt sick, but in the end, he knew he had to listen. He squeezed her hand one last time, ignoring the … 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":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[124,236,14],"tags":[150,163,171,170,194,160,237,181,149,148,168,147,167,165,158,169,146],"class_list":["post-3079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-5","category-chapter-47","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-carolyn-roberts","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-hecate","tag-j-t-mackenzie","tag-jack-schmidt","tag-matthew-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-sif","tag-story","tag-thom-ambrose","tag-thordin","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-NF","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3079","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=3079"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3081,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3079\/revisions\/3081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}