{"id":3659,"date":"2018-07-13T00:00:32","date_gmt":"2018-07-13T04:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3659"},"modified":"2018-07-12T18:02:26","modified_gmt":"2018-07-12T22:02:26","slug":"forty-two-02-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3659","title":{"rendered":"Forty-two – 02"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Matt squeezed his eyes shut, reaching in.\u00a0 Steady.\u00a0 She\u2019s not going to leave you.\u00a0 This is the chance you both waited for and it will <\/em>not be squandered, not after all this time.<\/em>\u00a0 The deep, dark well of magic buried inside of him responded to his call, surging upward in a torrent he was barely able to get a grip on before it raged beyond his ability to control.<\/p>\n

No, no.\u00a0 Focus.<\/em><\/p>\n

For a few seconds, it was like trying to catch a stream of water with both hands and hang on, washing through his fingers and away.\u00a0 It shifted a few heartbeats later, his grip firming, then solidifying into something he could use, something that felt real.<\/p>\n

Just hang on.<\/em><\/p>\n

He swallowed hard, trying to steady himself even as he held onto his power.\u00a0 His senses reached for the thin connection between be and Hecate, the one that had been growing stronger day after day but now seemed too thin, too fragile.<\/p>\n

Stay with me.<\/em><\/p>\n

He followed that line, diving deeper.\u00a0 Shadows swallowed him and cold began to seep into his flesh, down deep to the bone.\u00a0 His teeth began to chatter but even the sense of that felt distant, nearly beyond his reach.<\/p>\n

But he could feel<\/em> her, and she was down deeper still.<\/p>\n

Stay with me, <\/em>mo chro\u00ed.\u00a0 Stay with me.<\/em><\/p>\n

There were red lights in the darkness, tiny pinpricks in pairs, ones that grew larger and more defined the deeper he went, the nearer he got to her.\u00a0 Sounds began to echo in his ears, otherworldly and strange, not quite screams, not quite sobs, nor voices, but something different, something beyond his ability to adequately describe.<\/p>\n

He knew<\/em> those sounds, those voices from another when<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t keep her,\u201d he whispered.\u00a0 \u201cI won\u2019t let you.\u201d<\/p>\n

He let his magic fill him like a vessel, then, as the faces of the dead came into focus, let it run over like a pot left to boil over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Matt’s point of view.] Matt squeezed his eyes shut, reaching in.\u00a0 Steady.\u00a0 She\u2019s not going to leave you.\u00a0 This is the chance you both waited for and it will not be squandered, not after all this … 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":[240,294,14],"tags":[150,171,170,194,181,149,148,168,147,165,146],"class_list":["post-3659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-6","category-chapter-42-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-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-X1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3659","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=3659"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3660,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3659\/revisions\/3660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}