{"id":3165,"date":"2017-03-15T00:00:58","date_gmt":"2017-03-15T04:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3165"},"modified":"2017-03-14T09:49:04","modified_gmt":"2017-03-14T13:49:04","slug":"six-01-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3165","title":{"rendered":"Six – 01"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Panic dimmed her vision and she felt herself starting to retreat even as Matt\u2019s arms closed around her. The shakes were coming, her heart hammering at twice its normal speed. She stared at Matt\u2019s sister, at Marin, whose expression was stricken and mournful all at once.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t do this now. You have to stay with him. Stay yourself. Hang on. You can do this. You need to do this.<\/em><\/p>\n

Hecate closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep, ragged breath. Pain lanced through her side and she tried to use it to stay focused. It was something tactile, something real, another touchstone that she could cling to beyond Matt. \u201cIs he here? Has he come to demand my answer\u2014to force my allegiance?\u201d<\/p>\n

She had no doubt that he would do just that\u2014force her to work with him. He would use any leverage he could muster to bring her into the fold, to ensure her obedience if not her loyalty.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re in the line of fire. I\u2014no. Even if I hadn\u2019t come, they\u2019d still be in danger.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Marin said softly. \u201cNo, he\u2019s not here. He waylaid Cameron on the road.\u201d Her gaze flicked toward Matt. \u201cHe was coming home from the settlement south of here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one with Nyx\u2019s girl,\u201d Hecate murmured. She pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes. Matt\u2019s arm tightened.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know it?\u201d Marin asked. Her tone was curious, not wary. That helped Hecate\u2019s stomach settle, though only a little.<\/p>\n

She nodded slowly. \u201cI knew there were survivors there. I haven\u2019t been since the fall.\u201d She let her hands drop away from her face. Everything ached\u2014still ached, even after days spent mostly in bed, mostly trying to recover. \u201cI\u2019ve lived near here for years, been to a lot of places, see and sensed a lot of people and tried to keep people from noticing me. It hasn\u2019t been easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marin\u2019s brows knit. \u201cWith as much power as you seem to have, why would you hide?\u201d The question came as a whisper.<\/p>\n

Matt\u2019s arms tightened again. His body was tense alongside her. Hecate stroked one of his hands, finding the question didn\u2019t hurt, didn\u2019t scare her like maybe it would have before. It was the faint thread of fear in Marin\u2019s voice that hurt, not the question itself. The question was something to focus on, even if it meant revealing more about herself than she usually liked.<\/p>\n

But she\u2019s my sister now, too. If I can\u2019t trust them, who could I ever dream of trusting? I want to trust her.<\/em><\/p>\n

I want her to trust me, too.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I didn\u2019t want them to find me,\u201d Hecate answered, her whisper matching Marin\u2019s. \u201cWith power comes people who want to use that power and I didn\u2019t ever want to be used again.\u201d Her eyes itched; her cheeks were wet. When had the tears begun? Her voice was still steady. How could she be crying? \u201cI made a mistake when I went after Teague and Phelan in Chicago. I\u2014in\u2014I made a mistake.\u201d She took a shaky breath and tried to exhale slowly. Her thoughts were scattering. Why was this so hard<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Marin stared at her and Hecate swore that she saw sympathy in the other woman\u2019s gaze. Somehow that made the ache inside worse, made the guilt worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cC\u00edar was the only man I ever loved before your brother,\u201d Hecate said, the words spilling out before she could stop them. \u201cGoing after the Princes of the \u00c1es D\u00e1na, that was the only way that my crazy brain could figure out to get anywhere close to that feeling again. I knew that C\u00edar had been their friend, was related to them, at least as distant blood kin and I thought that maybe, just maybe…\u201d She squeezed her eyes shut. Matt\u2019s arms were still around her as she reached up to wipe away the tears on her face with the heel of her hand. \u201cIt was a mistake and I am so sorry. My control has never been what it should be, not since they took me away from home and made me into their monster.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWho?\u201d Marin asked, her voice quiet.<\/p>\n

\u201cOlympium,\u201d Hecate whispered. \u201cOlympium made me what I am and I hate it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Hecate’s point of view.] Panic dimmed her vision and she felt herself starting to retreat even as Matt\u2019s arms closed around her. The shakes were coming, her heart hammering at twice its normal speed. She stared … 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":[240,247,14],"tags":[150,171,170,194,152,181,149,148,168,147,165,146],"class_list":["post-3165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-6","category-chapter-06-book-6","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-hecate","tag-marin-astoris","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-P3","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3165","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=3165"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3166,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3165\/revisions\/3166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}