{"id":3682,"date":"2018-08-06T00:00:20","date_gmt":"2018-08-06T04:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3682"},"modified":"2018-08-05T17:55:34","modified_gmt":"2018-08-05T21:55:34","slug":"forty-three-06-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3682","title":{"rendered":"Forty-three – 06"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Even hours later, there was a strange tension in the air, an energy that gave off a low-level hum, perceptible to the sensitives among us\u2014which, truth be known, was most of us. We stuck close to each other, all of us, as if driven by safety in numbers even though the threat had passed and we were, for the moment, safe. Thom and I certainly weren\u2019t immune, nor was my brother and Hecate. As night fell and the rain continued unabating, we found ourselves by the fire, clustered together with some of the others while Tala worked on a later dinner for those of us who\u2019d found our appetites lacking at the usual hour\u2014herself included. Phelan was there, a half-asleep Jacqueline leaning against him, exhausted after working on the wounded with J.T for hours. Carolyn had been able to convince him to go to bed after he\u2019d eaten, but Jacqueline hadn\u2019t had an appetite at the time. Now she cradled baby Gwen and stared blankly at the fire, Phelan\u2019s head resting against hers. He was only here because she was\u2014I knew that beyond a shadow of a doubt. He was exhausted beyond reason after what he\u2019d done on the wall and I could easily foresee a conversation later between he and I with him telling me that he didn\u2019t think he\u2019d be able to do that again.<\/p>\n

Somehow, he always managed it. I feared the day he wouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Tala hummed a soft tune as she stirred the stew. It smelled wonderful, though it was still hard to muster an appetite. My mind wouldn\u2019t seem to quiet down, though the thoughts were ones that I couldn\u2019t quite master, couldn\u2019t quite gasp. They were just there<\/em>, a low-level hum like the tension, something I couldn\u2019t quell and couldn\u2019t shake and couldn\u2019t address.<\/p>\n

Thom was asleep leaning against me, Lin fast asleep against his chest. I didn\u2019t have the heart to wake him to send him to bed\u2014he wouldn\u2019t have listened, anyway. I knew he was worried and I couldn\u2019t blame him. I was, too.<\/p>\n

I was worried about a lot of things, including him. I was worried about Hecate, too, nestled in Matt\u2019s arms. So far as I knew, she hadn\u2019t spoken a word since waking, as if the trauma of whatever had happened to her up on the wall was too much to articulate, too much to put into words.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t want to push her\u2014I didn\u2019t want to push any of them\u2014but my gut told me I\u2019d have to.<\/p>\n

I hated it, but it would need to be done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Marin’s point of view.] Even hours later, there was a strange tension in the air, an energy that gave off a low-level hum, perceptible to the sensitives among us\u2014which, truth be known, was most of us. … 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":[240,295,14],"tags":[150,171,170,228,194,174,152,181,149,173,148,168,147,165,215,158,200,146],"class_list":["post-3682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-6","category-chapter-43-book-6","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-gwen-johanson","tag-hecate","tag-jacqueline-bell","tag-marin-astoris","tag-matthew-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-phelan-ocredne","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-tala-johanson","tag-thom-ambrose","tag-thomas-merlin-ambrose","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-Xo","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3682","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=3682"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3683,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3682\/revisions\/3683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}