{"id":3528,"date":"2018-03-07T00:00:07","date_gmt":"2018-03-07T05:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3528"},"modified":"2018-03-06T12:11:00","modified_gmt":"2018-03-06T17:11:00","slug":"thirty-four-02-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3528","title":{"rendered":"Thirty-four – 02"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\u201cWill you come down?\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt watched the clouds for a few seconds more, watched as they twisted back on each other, driven by winds at higher levels. A shiver crept down his spine. \u201cYeah. Yeah, just let me close up. Are we bringing everyone in?\u201d<\/p>\n

Hecate nodded, shifting Lin slightly in her arms. \u201cYour sister sent runners out to the greenhouses and the fields across the river. If it looks like the storm\u2019s going to hit before they can make it back, they\u2019ll stay there. Otherwise, hopefully in the next half hour everyone will be battened down.\u201d She followed his gaze to the sky, chewing her lip a little. \u201cHopefully we\u2019ll have that kind of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t sound all that confident,\u201d Matt said as he ducked back into the forge. Hecate followed him into the heat and gloom, leaning against the wall next to the door. He set to the task of banking the forge and closing up for the afternoon. If the storm was going to be as bad as it looked, snug and solid as the forge was, it would be better to be down by the fires and the bunks with everyone else. \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust my instincts screaming,\u201d she said quietly. \u201cThey\u2019re telling me I should run but in the past there\u2019s hardly been a moment when something strange begins and they haven\u2019t, so…\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt turned to her as her voice trailed away, saw the flicker of pain and regret in her eyes. He abandoned his work\u2014only for a moment\u2014and went to her, putting one hand on her arm and brushing the fingertips of the other along the curve of her cheek. \u201cHey,\u201d he whispered. \u201cIt\u2019s okay. I\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n

She leaned into his touch, eyes sliding closed for a few seconds. \u201cI know. And here, I\u2019m safe. I know that, too. It\u2019s just hard to shake after so long.\u201d She turned her face to kiss his palm. \u201cGo on. Finish up. We\u2019ll wait.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her eyes blinked open and she looked down, shifting Lin in her arms again and fussing with his swaddle, making soft noises. Matt watched her for a second, smiling faintly, then turned back to closing up the forge for the day.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll keep you safe and we\u2019ll have that chance. I promise you\u2014both of us. We\u2019ll have that chance.<\/em><\/p>\n

He touched her arm once he\u2019d finished closing up and she looked up, smiling weakly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry, Matt,\u201d she whispered, then stood on tip-toe to kiss his cheek gently.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor what?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking through this shouldn\u2019t be so hard,\u201d she said softly.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes it just is.\u201d He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and guided her out of the forge, back into the sunshine that was rapidly losing ground to the clouds in the southwest. Was it his imagination, or were they darker<\/em> now? \u201cIf this isn\u2019t normal, what do you think it is?\u201d<\/p>\n

She startled at the question as they began to walk down toward the tents\u2014tents that someday, hopefully before the snow flew again, would be replaced by actual buildings with walls. Thom had the sketches done, Matt knew that much, but the excitement of the past few months and Thom\u2019s lingering injury and illness after this last attack had kept them from being realized on more than just paper.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust what I asked,\u201d he said quietly. \u201cIf this isn\u2019t something normal, what do you think it actually is?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the problem,\u201d she said quietly. \u201cI don\u2019t have an answer to that. Hell, it could be anything\u2014it could be something that neither of us have any experience with. This is a question for Thordin, not me. Wouldn\u2019t he know more about who can conjure storms?\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt shrugged slightly. \u201cYou\u2019d think that, but considering how fragmentary what he remembers from that past life is…\u201d<\/p>\n

Hecate shivered and leaned into him as they walked. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders in a protective embrace. \u201cI hadn\u2019t considered that. Intellectually, I suppose I knew it, but he just seems…I don\u2019t know. It just seems like he\u2019s not that different.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAm I?\u201d<\/p>\n

She hesitated, then sighed. \u201cYes and no,\u201d she finally said. \u201cIt\u2019s silly, isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not silly,\u201d Matt reassured her. \u201cIt\u2019s just different\u2014and I guess it\u2019s not a fair comparison, is it? I mean, I wasn\u2019t anyone important then.\u201d He gazed at the clouds. A tongue of lightning licked between them, soundless, too far and too high for thunder to echo.<\/p>\n

Soon.<\/em><\/p>\n

He suppressed a shiver, focusing on the here and now rather than the voice at the back of his mind, the faceless whisper.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes you were.\u201d She pressed a kiss to his jaw as they walked. \u201cAnd not just to me\u2014never forget it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt laughed weakly. \u201cHow could I? No one will let me.\u201d He squeezed her close as they ducked into the tents. \u201cI love you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know,\u201d she murmured, resting her head against his shoulder. \u201cAnd I know that\u2019s not going to change.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Matt’s point of view.] \u201cWill you come down?\u201d Matt watched the clouds for a few seconds more, watched as they twisted back on each other, driven by winds at higher levels. A shiver crept down his … 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":[240,285,14],"tags":[150,171,170,194,181,149,148,168,147,165,200,146],"class_list":["post-3528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-6","category-chapter-34-book-6","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-hecate","tag-matthew-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-UU","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3528","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=3528"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3529,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3528\/revisions\/3529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}