{"id":3171,"date":"2017-03-20T00:00:55","date_gmt":"2017-03-20T04:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3171"},"modified":"2017-03-19T09:01:55","modified_gmt":"2017-03-19T13:01:55","slug":"six-03-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3171","title":{"rendered":"Six – 03"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Matt had gone tense again next to her, but she was remarkably relaxed. Perhaps she\u2019d finally gone numb. Or maybe, just maybe, it was something else.<\/p>\n

Maybe I\u2019m finally safe and maybe I\u2019ve decided they really do care.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve probably told you about how the Otherlands would go to war with each other. It was always about influence and territory and power, especially for Olympium. They wanted as much as they could get and to hell with whoever they hurt.\u201d Hecate stared at her knees, worried the fabric of her nightshirt stretched over them with her thumb. \u201cThere were thousands of Otherlands with toeholds here. Most of them withdrew. Others were destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYours was one of the ones destroyed,\u201d Marin murmured.<\/p>\n

Hecate nodded. \u201cWe were practically wiped out. They took a few of us. Some cooperated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

A brief, rueful smile curved her lips. \u201cI didn\u2019t. Not until they broke my will.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not until they broke <\/em>me.<\/em><\/p>\n

Her smile faded. \u201cI was just a girl\u2014powerful, raised from the cradle to do things like watch over travelers on the roads, to help midwives and their charges, to sanctify and protect boundaries and gateways and crossroads. I helped<\/em> people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen they stole me, killed my family and people who cared about me right in front of me.\u201d She could feel the hot, red stickiness on her face though it was just a memory, feel her brother\u2019s life slip through her fingers as she begged him not to leave her, too, as her mother\u2019s blood slowly dried on her face. The hem of her gown was stained with blood and soot and she could taste bile and tears and the acrid sting of smoke at the back of her throat.<\/p>\n

Thousands of years and it was still fresh as if it had happened yesterday, no matter how long or how deep she\u2019d tried to bury it.<\/p>\n

Hecate jerked when Marin touched her arm, blinking rapidly at the other woman. The hand she didn\u2019t remember raising fell away from her cheek and she swallowed hard, meeting Marin\u2019s gaze.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d Hecate managed. Her throat was thick; she was choking on the memories that had flooded into her mind\u2019s eye, memories she struggled to force back into the shadows where she hid them, where they wouldn\u2019t distract her or make her bleed again.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s okay,\u201d Marin said, her voice quiet. \u201cYou just got so quiet for so long we were starting to worry.\u201d<\/p>\n

One glance at Matt\u2019s face bore out the truth of that statement. Hecate shivered.<\/p>\n

I did it again. Damn it all.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d she said again, her voice more quiet this time. Matt squeezed her tightly and she closed her eyes.<\/p>\n

She had fooled herself into thinking that telling them would be easy, would make it easier.<\/p>\n

Now she knew that she\u2019d been wrong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Hecate’s point of view.] Matt had gone tense again next to her, but she was remarkably relaxed. Perhaps she\u2019d finally gone numb. Or maybe, just maybe, it was something else. Maybe I\u2019m finally safe and maybe … 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-3171","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-P9","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3171","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=3171"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3172,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3171\/revisions\/3172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}