{"id":3361,"date":"2017-09-25T00:00:05","date_gmt":"2017-09-25T04:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3361"},"modified":"2017-09-24T23:37:00","modified_gmt":"2017-09-25T03:37:00","slug":"twenty-two-05-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3361","title":{"rendered":"Twenty-two – 05"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\u201cAre you all right?\u201d Hecate asked me.<\/p>\n

My gaze flicked up from the infants to meet hers, where I saw a flicker of fear almost overshadowed by concern. I took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly, nodding. \u201cYeah. Yeah, I\u2019m okay. I should\u2014I should really get back to Thom, now that you\u2019re all out here. You\u2019re going to stay a bit, aren\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot very long,\u201d she said quietly. \u201cI\u2019ll need to get Tory back to Neve and Cameron, and then I think it\u2019s probably time that Matt and I get some sleep. It\u2019s been a long night.\u201d Her smile was radiant, though small. For the span of a few heartbeats, I saw the girl she\u2019d been trained to be so many yesterdays ago in a time and place long erased by time. It was a glimpse of who she had been before she\u2019d been broken and remade. Matt wrapped his arm around her shoulders, staring down at Tory for a moment.<\/p>\n

For a second, I could see another tomorrow\u2014not long in the future, either, it seemed\u2014one where I could see them together, but it was their<\/em> child, another member of our slowly growing family. There was relief and love in both of their gazes and it made my throat tighten.<\/p>\n

Then I blinked and it was gone.<\/p>\n

Lin had wrapped his tiny fingers in the swaddling around Tory. I smiled weakly and reached to disengage them. Hecate shook her head.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet them be for a moment,\u201d she said softly. \u201cThey\u2019re bonding and that\u2019s as important as him bonding with anyone, isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose so,\u201d I whispered softly, reaching with my free hand to gently smooth my hand over the newborn\u2019s dark hair. He had Neve\u2019s eyes, but I knew in my heart of hearts that he would grow up to take more after his father than his mother, would grow up to look remarkably like his uncle as well. \u201cHe\u2019s beautiful. Tell them for me?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course.\u201d Hecate smiled at me, warm but tired. I reached up and squeezed her shoulder gently.<\/p>\n

\u201cGet him back to his mother and father and sister, then,\u201d I said softly. \u201cThen pack yourself off to bed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo I look that bad?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWorse,\u201d my brother said, then pressed a kiss to Hecate\u2019s temple. \u201cCome on. There\u2019s some blankets with our names on them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Marin’s point of view.] \u201cAre you all right?\u201d Hecate asked me. My gaze flicked up from the infants to meet hers, where I saw a flicker of fear almost overshadowed by concern. I took a deep … 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":[240,270,14],"tags":[271,150,171,170,194,152,181,149,148,168,147,200,169,146],"class_list":["post-3361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-6","category-chapter-22-book-6","category-story","tag-artorius-mackenzie","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-thomas-merlin-ambrose","tag-thordin","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-Sd","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3361","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=3361"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3362,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3361\/revisions\/3362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}