{"id":3193,"date":"2017-04-10T00:00:19","date_gmt":"2017-04-10T04:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3193"},"modified":"2017-04-09T19:41:51","modified_gmt":"2017-04-09T23:41:51","slug":"eight-03-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3193","title":{"rendered":"Eight – 03"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

It was hard to breathe and the tears wouldn\u2019t stop coming. Hecate leaned into Marin, turned her face into her new sister\u2019s shoulder. Marin squeezed her and then gently ran her hand up and down Hecate\u2019s arm.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll protect you,\u201d Marin whispered. \u201cWe\u2019ll protect you as much as we can, Hecate. I promise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t deserve it,\u201d she said in a broken voice, her words barely intelligible through the sobs. \u201cI\u2019ve brought this on myself. Everything is\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t say it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hecate squeezed her eyes more tightly shut. She wanted to believe the woman next to her, but it was hard to ignore the cacophony inside of her, the old voices that never really went away, the ones she knew<\/em> weren\u2019t really telling her anything she should listen to, but it was just so hard<\/em>. She sucked in a few shaky, hiccuping breaths, trying to master herself again.<\/p>\n

You can do this. You can be better. Matt wants to help. <\/em>She wants to help, too. You can do this.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHere,\u201d Marin said softly, jarring her. Hecate didn\u2019t know how long she\u2019d been quiet, how long she\u2019d been crying, how long they\u2019d been sitting there. For a second, she wondered if she\u2019d dissociated somehow. If she had, Marin didn\u2019t let on, at least not yet.<\/p>\n

Hecate opened her eyes, turning to look at her. They felt swollen and ached from crying.<\/p>\n

I must have dissociated. I don\u2019t remember crying for that long.<\/em><\/p>\n

She realized what Marin was doing a second later. \u201cWhat? No, I\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShh,\u201d Marin hushed, gently manipulating Hecate\u2019s arms into the correct position. A second later, before Hecate could stop her, she settled her newborn in Hecate\u2019s arms.<\/p>\n

For a split second, Hecate stiffened, her throat going tight as panic began to set in. Don\u2019t. Don\u2019t. You can handle this.<\/em> She stared down at the baby, who stared up at her in silence, as if he was studying her, somehow committing her to memory. Her breath caught in her throat.<\/p>\n

Hecate started to relax, slowly lifting one hand to brush it lightly over the infant\u2019s downy hair, dark like his parents\u2019. \u201cI don\u2019t think anyone told me what you named him,\u201d she said, her voice weak.<\/p>\n

Marin smiled. \u201cThomas Merlin Ambrose.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Hecate’s point of view.] It was hard to breathe and the tears wouldn\u2019t stop coming. Hecate leaned into Marin, turned her face into her new sister\u2019s shoulder. Marin squeezed her and then gently ran her hand … 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":[240,249,14],"tags":[150,171,170,194,152,149,148,168,147,165,200,146],"class_list":["post-3193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-6","category-chapter-08-book-6","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-hecate","tag-marin-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-thomas-merlin-ambrose","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-Pv","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3193","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=3193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3194,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3193\/revisions\/3194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}