{"id":3652,"date":"2018-07-06T00:00:22","date_gmt":"2018-07-06T04:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3652"},"modified":"2018-07-05T18:19:28","modified_gmt":"2018-07-05T22:19:28","slug":"forty-one-05","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3652","title":{"rendered":"Forty-one – 05"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Breath burned in her chest and throat as she flung herself through the rain toward the wall, casting glances up toward the sky, tracking what she\u2019d seen.\u00a0 Bile slicked the back of her throat and her tongue, stomach roiling.<\/p>\n

They were supposed to be gone when it all came apart centuries ago, even before I managed to flee.\u00a0 How are they here now?\u00a0 And who are they answering to?<\/em><\/p>\n

They had been her maids, once, a thousand thousand yesterdays ago in another place, another time.\u00a0 They had been her heralds and her companions\u2014the shadowed, nameless nymphs of realms beyond and below where she\u2019d dwelt for long centuries under the thumb of her Olympium masters.\u00a0 Now someone else held their tethers and it frightened her.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s their plan?<\/em><\/p>\n

Her breath hitched.\u00a0 Would the wards hold?<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t know one way or another.<\/em>\u00a0 Even Marin wouldn\u2019t have known, she was certain of it.<\/p>\n

The rain was frigid and she could barely feel her fingers as she dashed past the watchtower where Paul perched, rifle trained beyond the wall.\u00a0 She could hear the screams of dying dirae<\/em> and more now, could hear the echo of drums and the sound of Marin\u2019s voice guiding the archers on the wall.<\/p>\n

Steady.<\/em>\u00a0 Her gaze swept the rampart, landing on Matt as he stiffened and twisted.\u00a0 Blood drained from his face even as she scrambled up to join him, the still-healing wound in her side itching and burning at the same time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought I\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThom saw something,\u201d she blurted, breathless and gasping as Matt and Phelan pulled her up to the top, the latter sliding a little further down the rampart to make space for her next to Matt.\u00a0 \u201cSaid you would need me and he\u2019s right.\u00a0 They have the lampades<\/em>, Matt.\u00a0 The dark nymphs are here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d\u00a0 He blinked rapidly.\u00a0 She could see the traces of magic in his eyes, swirling and twisting in his irises.\u00a0 His power was still up and he didn\u2019t even know it.\u00a0 \u201cWhere?\u00a0 How?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLook up,\u201d she whispered, fingers tangling in his sleeve, nails digging into the flesh of his arm through the fabric.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t know how they\u2019re here, but look up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Hecate’s point of view.] Breath burned in her chest and throat as she flung herself through the rain toward the wall, casting glances up toward the sky, tracking what she\u2019d seen.\u00a0 Bile slicked the back of … 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":[240,293,14],"tags":[150,171,170,152,181,149,173,148,168,147,165,146],"class_list":["post-3652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-6","category-chapter-41-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-WU","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3652","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=3652"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3653,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3652\/revisions\/3653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}