{"id":3482,"date":"2018-01-24T00:00:25","date_gmt":"2018-01-24T05:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3482"},"modified":"2018-01-23T20:58:02","modified_gmt":"2018-01-24T01:58:02","slug":"thirty-one-02-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3482","title":{"rendered":"Thirty-one – 02"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Hecate stared at him, wishing her heart would settle down, wanting it to be easier to breathe. \u201cHow?\u201d She managed to croak, reaching up to wrap her fingers around one of Matt\u2019s hands, squeezing tightly and hard. Her palm already ached; she\u2019d likely drawn blood.<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t done that in forever.<\/em><\/p>\n

J.T. took a deep breath, kneeling down. \u201cYou knew her, right? You were close?\u201d<\/p>\n

Hecate nodded, feeling hollow. \u201cMy only friend, really.\u201d Aside from C\u00edar, but he was far more than my friend, wasn\u2019t he?<\/em> \u201cWe protected each other as best we could\u2014she more than I, I think, sometimes, but there were moments…\u201d her voice trailed away and she pressed against Matt. He buried his nose in her hair.<\/p>\n

His voice came as a whisper. \u201cSteady, mo chro\u00ed<\/em>. Steady. You can do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s right. I can. But flame and ashes, I\u2019d rather not have to.<\/em><\/p>\n

But she\u2019s alive. By all the powers above and below, she\u2019s still out there and alive and I didn\u2019t lose the only other person in the world left that really mattered to me.<\/em> One breath, then another. Steady.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThere were moments that it felt like she was doing more protecting of me than I was of her,\u201d Hecate finished softly, then exhaled a quiet breath. \u201cIt\u2014they never really loved each other. She was like me. She didn\u2019t have a choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of us didn\u2019t,\u201d Matt said, squeezing her briefly. Hecate sighed, squeezing her eyes shut.<\/p>\n

Us. Accurate, if painful.<\/em> Her eyes blinked open again. \u201cHow do you think I could help? You mean in finding her?\u201d<\/p>\n

J.T. shrugged slightly. \u201cIf you think it\u2019s possible. Your\u2014your magic is more powerful than any of ours, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n

She choked on a laugh. \u201cThat\u2019s not entirely true,\u201d she said softly. \u201cI think in a lot of ways there are a lot of you more powerful than I am. I just have more practice, that\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n

But if my practice can help\u2014<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cJust tell me what you need me to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Hecate’s point of view.] Hecate stared at him, wishing her heart would settle down, wanting it to be easier to breathe. \u201cHow?\u201d She managed to croak, reaching up to wrap her fingers around one of Matt\u2019s … 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":[240,281,14],"tags":[150,171,170,194,160,166,181,149,148,168,147,165,146],"class_list":["post-3482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-6","category-chapter-31-book-6","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-hecate","tag-j-t-mackenzie","tag-leinth","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-Ua","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3482","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=3482"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3483,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3482\/revisions\/3483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}