{"id":3106,"date":"2017-01-13T00:00:38","date_gmt":"2017-01-13T05:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3106"},"modified":"2017-01-12T10:48:04","modified_gmt":"2017-01-12T15:48:04","slug":"forty-nine-03","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3106","title":{"rendered":"Forty-nine – 03"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Phelan let go of his shoulder, wrapping both hands around the haft of the carved staff he\u2019d brought with him up onto the wall. The Taliesin\u2019s hands began to glow the faint green of summer leaves and the darker green of evergreen trees and Matt felt his breath catch.<\/p>\n

Powers that are, smile on us today.<\/em><\/p>\n

The earth responded to Matt\u2019s gentle urging, a rumble starting to grow. On the field below, the ranks marching on the walls slowed slightly, peppered by arrows and assaulted by lightning, looking around warily as if they could feel the ground shaking beneath their feet.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t\u2014not yet\u2014but there was more to come.<\/p>\n

Phelan hummed something softly under his breath, the tune a familiar one, something that tugged at Matt\u2019s core and made his throat tighten. It was a song of a home he\u2019d never known, a home that C\u00edar had known all too well. It made his heart beat a little faster.<\/p>\n

We can do this. We have to do this.<\/em><\/p>\n

A woman\u2019s voice shrieked beyond the ranks of soldiers and Phelan went rigid, a curse tearing loose from his throat as his magic abruptly flared, then faded. Matt jerked toward him.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhelan\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s her,\u201d the Taliesin grated. \u201cThesan. She\u2019s\u2014\u201d he broke off, breathing a curse through clenched teeth.<\/p>\n

Shit.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI see her,\u201d Leinth called, her voice calm and ice cold. \u201cSif?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFifth rank, just left of center. I do have a shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt could almost hear the chilly smile in Leinth\u2019s voice. \u201cTake your shot when I say go. Matt, whatever you\u2019re going to do, start it then.\u201d<\/p>\n

His mouth suddenly dry, Matt nodded, swallowing hard. You can do this. Phelan can\u2019t help, not yet, not until Thesan\u2019s not a problem anymore.<\/em><\/p>\n

He glanced at his friend, whose knuckles were white against the wood of his staff, his complexion more washed out than it had been a few moments before.<\/p>\n

He may not be able to help at all.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s on me, then.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cNow.\u201d<\/p>\n

A single arrow shot from Sif\u2019s bow into a world that was abruptly cloaked in nearly impenetrable shadow and at least twenty degrees colder than it had been a moment before. The rain that had been falling turned abruptly to ice, shards pelting down like tiny razors from the sky. Earth geysered upward, engulfing the first few ranks of men, who had not quite<\/em> reached the column of lightning that represented Hecate and whoever she was facing down on that field. A single fork of lightning struck from that column in the direction Sif\u2019s arrow had disappeared in. Another shriek sounded, abruptly cut off.<\/p>\n

For a moment, everything was silent and still, evening the lightning ceasing for the barest fraction of time.<\/p>\n

Then all hell broke loose.<\/p>\n

With a shout, Phelan wrenched free of Thesan\u2019s grip\u2014whether through his own wherewithal or thanks to the efforts of their friends, Matt didn\u2019t know or care\u2014and light flared green around his hands and his eyes. Vines and brambles erupted from the already-broken ground, tangling around the advancing army. Matt refocused his efforts, sending shards of rock shooting upwards from the ground and into the ranks, smaller but no less deadly than the mud that had been shooting skyward a moment before. The shadows grew darker until it was as black as pitch on the field, the chaos beyond the walls illuminated only by the flashes of lightning which gave it all a strobe light effect. The defenders on the wall\u2014archers, Huntsmen, former students, all of them\u2014could only see bits and fragments of what was going on beyond the barrier that Thordin held in place.<\/p>\n

Only seeing fragments was more than enough to be seared into their collective memories as the stuff of nightmares for months and years to come.<\/p>\n

Forgive me,<\/em> Matt begged, not knowing where the plea was directed. Perhaps it didn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n

The blast of a horn sounded once, twice, then a third time. As lightning flared and stroked, they could begin to see the ranks retreating, moving quickly, dragging their dead and dying along with them as they went.<\/p>\n

It was hard to breathe and his head spun slowly, spots that weren\u2019t from the after-images of the lightning dancing before his eyes.<\/p>\n

He felt the caress of a thought, heard Hecate\u2019s voice softly in his head.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll be born into a world with one less monster in it. This I swear to you.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Lightning flared one last time, turning even the shadows Leinth had called into daylight.<\/p>\n

Everything went perfectly, achingly still.<\/p>\n

Phelan released his magic and Matt let go of his, wavering. The field was empty except for a few scattered bodies\u2014and Hecate standing at the center of the field, still holding onto the man in a dark cloak, the one that had come to negotiate with her.<\/p>\n

She dropped him and his body fell into a heap at her feet. Hecate wavered there, staring at her handiwork for the span of a few heartbeats, then one of her crescent-shaped blades slipped from her fingers, glinting silver and red as it dropped to the ground.<\/p>\n

Then she slumped, collapsing into a heap where she\u2019d stood, half on her side, her face tilted toward the roiling sky.<\/p>\n

No. Gods, no.<\/em><\/p>\n

This time, no one stopped Matt from going over the wall.<\/p>\n

He landed in a crouch and sprinted toward her, his heart in his throat. It wasn\u2019t until he saw the slow, weak rise and fall of her breathing that he finally was able to breathe himself. He dropped to a knee in the mud and brushed her sodden hair back from her face. She was bleeding from some minor cuts and a wound that looked like more than just a scratch in her side.<\/p>\n

He glanced momentarily to the blade on the ground next to her and wondered if the blood on it was hers. A glance toward the corpse she\u2019d dropped told him that even if some of it was, far more belonged to the dead man, whose throat had been slashed nearly to the spine. Matt\u2019s jaw tightened.<\/p>\n

One less monster.<\/em><\/p>\n

He could hear the gates being opened behind him, could hear the others, could hear Seamus still giving orders. He didn\u2019t listen to any of them as he gathered Hecate into his arms, cradling her like something precious\u2014because she was.<\/p>\n

Then, with her head against his shoulder and her hair brushing against his cheek, he carried her through the gate. Someone moved to protest, to stop him. He didn\u2019t notice who it was, but he saw Phelan hold out a hand to stop them, heard his friend\u2019s words.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeave them be. She saved us today as much as him or me or Leinth or any of us did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt held his lover\u2014his wife<\/em>\u2014a little tighter as he carried her toward the fire. J.T. would come soon. Once her wounds were tended to, he\u2019d take her to his bed and he\u2019d see to his sister.<\/p>\n

He owed them both that much.<\/p>\n

Then he heard his nephew\u2019s first newborn cries and he smiled.<\/p>\n

Somehow, it would be all right, despite Leviathan and Olympium and Thesan and the end of the world and everything else they\u2019d already faced and would have to face again, no matter what tomorrow held, everything would be all right.<\/p>\n

Somehow.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

End of Book Five.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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