{"id":3429,"date":"2017-12-04T00:00:29","date_gmt":"2017-12-04T05:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3429"},"modified":"2017-12-03T10:44:28","modified_gmt":"2017-12-03T15:44:28","slug":"twenty-eight-02-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3429","title":{"rendered":"Twenty-eight – 02"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Hecate tugged a shirt and pants on, smoothing the former carefully over her bandaged midsection. It was hard to tell if she was still running a fever or not, but if she was, no one seemed to have noticed\u2014or, at least, they hadn\u2019t said that they\u2019d noticed.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s only a matter of time.<\/em><\/p>\n

She blew out a quiet breath and sat down on the edge of the bed, dreading putting on actual shoes\u2014dreading the need to bend over so far, mostly, and twist her wound. After a few seconds of staring, she shook her head and stood, thrusting her feet into an old pair of Birkenstocks and slipped outside.<\/p>\n

The air smelled of summer, blooms and distant rain and warmth. She could smell breakfast, too\u2014eggs, some sort of meat and potato hash, she thought. She took as deep of a breath as she dared and smiled.<\/p>\n

This is it. This is my life now.<\/em> It felt good.<\/p>\n

\u201cHecate.\u201d A door clicked shut behind her and she turned toward the sound of Marin\u2019s voice. Marin smiled back at her as she came a few more steps down the hall to meet her. \u201cMorning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMorning,\u201d Hecate echoed. \u201cYou\u2019re getting a late start. Matt\u2019s been up for hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know, I\u2019ve been back and forth,\u201d Marin said, scrubbing a hand over her face. \u201cI just left Lin with Thom. They\u2019re both asleep again for the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow is Thom?\u201d Hecate asked, barely managing to suppress a wince. Marin sounded utterly exhausted, and not the exhausted that came along with caring for a young infant.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo worse, at least,\u201d Marin said, mustering up a smile. \u201cThat\u2019s something, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

Hecate nodded slightly, the two women falling into step with each other as they headed toward the cookfire and breakfast. \u201cThank goodness for small favors?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd big ones,\u201d Marin said with a slight grin and a shake of her head. \u201cThe lines have blurred between which is which, to be perfectly honest. Either way, though, I\u2019m just glad it\u2019s not any worse, especially considering the way he was when we dragged him inside.\u201d Her expression went slack, eyes distant. \u201cI nearly lost him and wouldn\u2019t have known why.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo we have any idea what actually happened?\u201d<\/p>\n

Marin shook her head. \u201cNo. Not sure why he reacted the way he did and the only way we\u2019ll know if something\u2019s changed about him or the camazotzi<\/em> is him getting attacked again and I don\u2019t know about you, but I\u2019m not entirely keen on seeing a repeat of that anytime soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to go with no on that one,\u201d Hecate murmured.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you and my brother okay?\u201d<\/p>\n

Hecate blinked, startled by the question. \u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSorry, I shouldn\u2019t pry, but I know this hasn\u2019t exactly been easy for you. I just\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, no,\u201d Hecate said. \u201cNo, it\u2019s okay. We\u2019re fine. We\u2019re\u2014we\u2019re great, actually. I…I really love him. You know that, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

Marin nodded, smiling gently. \u201cI do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hecate bit her lip and smiled weakly. \u201cGood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marin put her arm around her shoulders and gave her a brief squeeze. \u201cCome on. Let\u2019s get some breakfast.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Hecate’s point of view.] Hecate tugged a shirt and pants on, smoothing the former carefully over her bandaged midsection. It was hard to tell if she was still running a fever or not, but if she … 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":[240,278,14],"tags":[150,171,170,194,152,149,148,168,147,165,146],"class_list":["post-3429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-6","category-chapter-28-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-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-Tj","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3429","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=3429"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3430,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3429\/revisions\/3430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}