{"id":3586,"date":"2018-05-04T00:00:31","date_gmt":"2018-05-04T04:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3586"},"modified":"2018-05-03T19:45:59","modified_gmt":"2018-05-03T23:45:59","slug":"thirty-seven-04-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3586","title":{"rendered":"Thirty-seven – 04"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Phelan held his peace for so long I feared that he wasn\u2019t going to say anything at all. Then, softly, gently: \u201cWhat do you remember about her?\u201d<\/p>\n

A weak, broken sound escaped me. \u201cBarely anything. But enough to know that she\u2019s dangerous and she\u2019s not going to stop unless she\u2019s somehow forced to.\u201d My eyes stung and I shook my head, hands curling into fists. \u201cI don\u2019t think that I can stop her, Phelan. I don\u2019t know that any of us can.\u201d<\/p>\n

His arms closed around me and I leaned into his chest, the lump in my throat threatening to choke me as I buried my face against his shoulder. He held me tightly and I could feel the dam break, felt the tears coming.<\/p>\n

He held me as I wept silently into his shoulder, rubbed my back gently and rested his cheek against my hair. \u201cYou were never alone,\u201d he murmured softly. \u201cNot then and certainly not now. You have us to help you and I daresay a brother that\u2019s a lot more sane<\/em> than C\u00edar was back then.\u201d<\/p>\n

I choked on a laugh and hugged him tighter. \u201cDammit, Phelan.\u201d<\/p>\n

I felt him smile. \u201cWell, it\u2019s true.\u201d<\/p>\n

I drew back, mopping at my eyes. The dread had ebbed slightly, but it was far from gone. \u201cHow am I going to pull this off, Phelan? I don\u2019t even remember how I stopped her the last time, not really.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou told her she was unwelcome,\u201d Phelan murmured. \u201cWith the tip of a spear.\u201d<\/p>\n

A derisive sound escaped me and I shook my head, jaw tightening. I stepped away from him, reclaimed my coffee cup from the old concrete bench that stood nearby. \u201cSomething tells me that\u2019s not going to work this time, Phelan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou might be surprised,\u201d he muttered, watching me as I gulped down coffee and mopped at my eyes. \u201cBesides, you don\u2019t even know for sure that it\u2019s her coming. It could be no one\u2014just a storm.\u201d<\/p>\n

My gaze flicked toward the clouds above, twisting back on each other, dark like foul smoke in the sky.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t just a storm,\u201d I told him softly. \u201cWe\u2019re fooling ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen we\u2019d best be mustering the troops instead of standing around out here, shouldn\u2019t we?\u201d<\/p>\n

He was right\u2014I knew he was right and he knew that I knew. But for some reason I couldn\u2019t bring myself to go back, to face them. Not yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s more eating you, isn\u2019t there?\u201d<\/p>\n

I swallowed hard and nodded, tearing my gaze from the sky, staring instead at the trees in the ravine, starting to grow shadowed as the clouds overtook the sun.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is it?\u201d<\/p>\n

My mouth grew dry, my throat tightening again.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t. I can\u2019t say those words.<\/em><\/p>\n

How can I tell him that I\u2019m afraid that the vision I thought was dead is starting to come true?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Marin’s point of view.] Phelan held his peace for so long I feared that he wasn\u2019t going to say anything at all. Then, softly, gently: \u201cWhat do you remember about her?\u201d A weak, broken sound escaped … 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":[240,289,14],"tags":[150,171,170,152,149,173,148,168,147,165,146],"class_list":["post-3586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-6","category-chapter-37-book-6","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-marin-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-phelan-ocredne","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-VQ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3586","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=3586"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3587,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3586\/revisions\/3587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}