{"id":3738,"date":"2018-10-03T00:00:42","date_gmt":"2018-10-03T04:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3738"},"modified":"2018-10-02T17:58:34","modified_gmt":"2018-10-02T21:58:34","slug":"two-02-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3738","title":{"rendered":"Two – 02"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\u201cA shift,\u201d Jacqueline echoed, watching him almost warily for a moment even as her fingers flexed in his. \u201cI don\u2019t follow. What kind of shift?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just it,\u201d Phelan said quietly. \u201cI can\u2019t quite describe it, not adequately. It\u2019s something you feel more than know.\u201d<\/p>\n

She studied him for a few more moments, then simply nodded. \u201cI think that I can understand,\u201d she said, squeezing his fingers again before tugging at his hands. \u201cBut you don\u2019t know what it all means?\u201d<\/p>\n

He shook his head and smiled ruefully. \u201cI don\u2019t, but at the same time, there\u2019s a part of me that likes<\/em> not knowing.\u201d<\/p>\n

She shot him a quizzical look, one that made him smile a little more broadly.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt least now I have a good excuse for things to not make sense anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jacqueline squinted at him for a second, then snorted a laugh. \u201cOh. Oh, I get it. The stories and the prophecies rattling around inside your head from, what, the past three thousand years?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething like that.\u201d It was longer than that, but he wasn\u2019t going to correct her.<\/p>\n

\u201cHave you told anyone?\u201d<\/p>\n

He shook his head, drawing her toward him so he could wrap his arms around her waist. She leaned into him, draping her arms around his neck and staring him straight in the eye.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy not?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I\u2019m not ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her brow quirked. Phelan smiled sheepishly.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan you really blame me for not being ready for some kind of interrogation where I don\u2019t have good answers to the questions I\u2019d be facing?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay, point.\u201d She stood on tip-toes to kiss him gently. \u201cI\u2019m sorry I pressed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad you did,\u201d he admitted, resting his forehead against hers. \u201cSomeone has to and if that\u2019s the case, I don\u2019t think I mind that it\u2019s you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, it would either be me or Marin.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOr Kel, or Neve.\u201d He smiled briefly, though the smile faded a second later. \u201cSeamus can\u2019t right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jacqueline winced and looked down. Phelan sighed, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and drawing her tight against his chest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d he whispered into her hair. \u201cI didn\u2019t mean it like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know you didn\u2019t,\u201d she said, her voice muffled by his shirt. \u201cIt\u2019s okay. I know you\u2019re worried. I\u2019m worried, too. I just\u2014he\u2019s so important to you guys, Phelan. I don\u2019t want to be the one to fail him and neither does J.T.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll be fine,\u201d Phelan said. For all he knew, the words might have been a lie, but he needed them to be true for all the reasons that Jacqueline left unspoken. Seamus was his cousin, former heir to a throne that no longer existed, though its people did and now looked to the younger of the two brothers, Teague, for guidance\u2014not that there was much to be found with the shattering of the world. Phelan wasn\u2019t even sure how many of their people had returned from the T\u00edr to Earth before the end, and now\u2014so far as any of them knew\u2014there was no way to get there and no way to come back to Earth, either.<\/p>\n

Then again, for all he knew, they might be wrong about that<\/em>, too.<\/p>\n

For all that they thought they knew, all of it could have been wrong.<\/p>\n

Maybe that\u2019s why I have the feeling that\u2019s something\u2019s changed. Maybe now, almost a full year later, I\u2019m finally starting to realize that not everything I thought I knew was right. Maybe I was wrong about more of it\u2014maybe <\/em>we were wrong about more of it.<\/em><\/p>\n

Or maybe it\u2019s something else entirely.<\/em><\/p>\n

He just wasn\u2019t sure.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you know?\u201d Jacqueline murmured.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just do,\u201d Phelan said, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. \u201cHe\u2019s too damned stubborn to die now\u2014especially with everything that\u2019s happened. He has Leinth and his freedom and a second chance. He\u2019ll be fine. He has to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

He will be. There\u2019s no other way this ends. That\u2019s just how it has to be.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Phelan’s point of view.] \u201cA shift,\u201d Jacqueline echoed, watching him almost warily for a moment even as her fingers flexed in his. \u201cI don\u2019t follow. What kind of shift?\u201d \u201cThat\u2019s just it,\u201d Phelan said quietly. \u201cI … 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":[299,304,14],"tags":[150,171,170,174,149,173,148,168,147,165,146],"class_list":["post-3738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-7","category-chapter-02-book-7","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-jacqueline-bell","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-Yi","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3738","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=3738"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3739,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3738\/revisions\/3739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}