{"id":3702,"date":"2018-08-27T00:00:13","date_gmt":"2018-08-27T04:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3702"},"modified":"2018-08-26T18:08:07","modified_gmt":"2018-08-26T22:08:07","slug":"forty-four-07","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3702","title":{"rendered":"Forty-four – 07"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\u201cYour father sounds like he was a complicated man,\u201d Cameron said carefully. He always felt as if he might be walking on eggshells when the subject of her father came up. There was a part of him that was grateful that he\u2019d never have to formally meet the man, but at the same time, part of him ached for her and her brothers\u2014even for Phelan\u2014because of their obviously difficult relationship with him. While he\u2019d never been terribly<\/em> close to his parents, their loss still stung. When Neve and the others talked about her father, their late king, it was with relief tinged with bitterness\u2014relief that he was gone, bitterness because of all that had gone before.<\/p>\n

At least, that\u2019s what it felt like to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s putting it mildly,\u201d Neve said softly. \u201cBut rather succinctly, really. He was <\/em>pretty complicated. I loved him\u2014he was my father\u2014but he was difficult. I think in a lot of ways Seamus and Teague had it worse off, though. He threw them to the wolves. Me he always tried to protect.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKnowing you, I\u2019m sure that went over just swimmingly,\u201d Cameron murmured.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, you have no idea. I was a nightmare\u2014I was defiant and willful and those are the mild terms that were applied to me in my father\u2019s court. As far as half of them were were concerned, I was some kind of hellcat incarnate, that if anyone somehow managed to bring down the entire structure of society, it wouldn\u2019t be my brothers. It would somehow be me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Neve said, reaching over to rub his arm gently, smiling at Artorius, fingertip brushing against his soft cheek on its way to Cameron\u2019s arm. \u201cNo, I didn\u2019t. Things started to change, but slowly, and then he gave the order to leave, to go away\u2014so we did. We had to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cExcept you didn\u2019t, really.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPhelan didn\u2019t,\u201d she said. \u201cSeamus didn\u2019t. But Teague and I\u2014we did. For the most part, we did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you regret it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day.\u201d She sighed. \u201cAnd at the same time, no. I look at Phelan and I think about the hell he\u2019s been through and wonder if maybe leaving really was the right choice. He\u2019s suffered so much and while it wasn\u2019t easy for Teague and I, it was a lot easier for us than it was for him. That leaves an ache, you know? It leaves a mark\u2014on both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt least you\u2019re here now.\u201d<\/p>\n

That made her smile. \u201cYeah. Yeah, I am.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Cameron’s point of view.] \u201cYour father sounds like he was a complicated man,\u201d Cameron said carefully. He always felt as if he might be walking on eggshells when the subject of her father came up. There … 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":[240,296,14],"tags":[275,271,161,171,170,151,149,148,168,147,165,146],"class_list":["post-3702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-6","category-chapter-44-book-6","category-story","tag-anne-mackenzie","tag-artorius-mackenzie","tag-cameron-mackenzie","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-neve-vaughan","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-XI","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3702","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=3702"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3703,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3702\/revisions\/3703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}