{"id":3634,"date":"2018-06-22T00:00:13","date_gmt":"2018-06-22T04:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3634"},"modified":"2018-06-21T12:48:37","modified_gmt":"2018-06-21T16:48:37","slug":"forty-05-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3634","title":{"rendered":"Forty – 05"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

The rumble came quietly at first, a faint sound, lost beneath the thunder and the lightning and the screams. Matt felt it before he heard it, felt it because it was his<\/em> doing. As he poured more power into the lines, the rumble built, the world trembling slightly around them, though the wall held firm.<\/p>\n

Phelan put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. Matt exhaled slowly, took another breath, and then redoubled his efforts.<\/p>\n

Just a little more.<\/em><\/p>\n

There was a loud crack, then another, and the earth geysered upwards at the far end of the field, sending rocks and dirt and bodies<\/em> sailing up and into the air, erupting up from within the mists. The screams grew louder.<\/p>\n

The drums echoed, louder, followed by the blast of a horn, loud and long.<\/p>\n

Matt\u2019s heart shot up and lodged in his throat. His fingers curled, nails and fingertips scraping against the concrete and brick of the wall. He knew<\/em> that sound, knew it well enough that it made him sick to his core.<\/p>\n

Once upon a time.<\/em><\/p>\n

A shudder shot through him and he swallowed bile.<\/p>\n

Steady. Focus.<\/em><\/p>\n

Breath hissed through his teeth. His hands curled into fists, ragged nails digging into his palms.<\/p>\n

The ground exploded again deep in the mists, rolling deeper into them. He could sense someone at their heart, someone familiar. It was hard to breathe all of a sudden and he leaned forward, jaw tightening.<\/p>\n

Stubborn through. You can do this. Damn it all, you can do this\u2014you\u2019ve got to.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cRanged ready!\u201d<\/p>\n

His heartbeat roared in his ears, vision growing shadowed at the edges\u2014Matt wasn\u2019t sure if it was from exertion or something else. It could be anything. Anything.<\/em><\/p>\n

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

Across the field, shadows loomed above the mists, lacking form briefly before they took shape\u2014dirae<\/em> on the wing, the worst of their kind. Matt sucked in a breath, lifted a hand. It felt heavy, too heavy, as if his limbs were made of water and his hand was made of lead.<\/p>\n

Remind them what fear is.<\/em><\/p>\n

The thought chilled him even as it crossed his mind. He set his jaw, teeth grinding. Was there another choice?<\/p>\n

\u201cAim!\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt closed his eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cLoose!\u201d<\/p>\n

A torrent of magic shot from his hand, less a warning shot than a final<\/em> warning, gold and silver and copper and green all woven together in a single, seamless sheet that spread like a banner on the wind over the field, rippling out toward the dirae<\/em> that had taken wing.<\/p>\n

He had forgotten how terrible their screams could be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Matt’s point of view.] The rumble came quietly at first, a faint sound, lost beneath the thunder and the lightning and the screams. Matt felt it before he heard it, felt it because it was 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":[240,292,14],"tags":[150,171,170,152,181,149,173,148,168,147,165,146],"class_list":["post-3634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-6","category-chapter-40-book-6","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-marin-astoris","tag-matthew-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-WC","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3634","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=3634"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3635,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3634\/revisions\/3635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}