{"id":3750,"date":"2018-10-17T00:00:29","date_gmt":"2018-10-17T04:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3750"},"modified":"2018-10-16T21:41:10","modified_gmt":"2018-10-17T01:41:10","slug":"three-05-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3750","title":{"rendered":"Three – 05"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Staring down at a blank page of his sketchpad, Thom cleared his throat. \u201cSo. Persephone?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRight,\u201d Matt said, tone slightly rueful. He shifted the metal again in the coals, then let go, stretching slightly and seeming to marshal his thoughts before he started to explain. \u201cI\u2019d be lying if I said it wasn\u2019t a complicated thing but it\u2019s something that kind of got shunted aside with that last attack and all. Hecate thought she was dead and probably wouldn\u2019t know anything otherwise if she hadn\u2019t found a way to ask J.T. for help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thom glanced up from the page, brow furrowing. \u201cHecate asked Jay for help?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Matt said quietly as he shifted the iron in the coals one more time. \u201cPersephone found a way to reach out to J.T. That\u2019s how we know she\u2019s alive\u2014J.T. came to Hecate to ask for help. She\u2019s out there somewhere, probably\u2014almost definitely\u2014a prisoner of Olympium.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShit,\u201d Thom breathed. \u201cYou\u2019re sure?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as we can be,\u201d Matt said. He pulled the iron back out of the fire, settling it against the anvil and taking up his hammer again. \u201cLike I said, with the mess that last attack left us with, we haven\u2019t had much of a chance to do anything about it\u2014not yet, anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou sound like you\u2019re planning something,\u201d Thom said, attention drifting back toward his sketchbook. He finally put pencil to paper, starting to sketch without quite knowing what he was designing. He glanced up, pencil still moving, watching as Matt started to hammer a blade into shape.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing solid,\u201d Matt said. \u201cNothing certain<\/em>. She still hasn\u2019t recovered from dealing with the dark nymphs in the last battle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thom winced. \u201cI\u2014I\u2019m sorry, I shouldn\u2019t have sent her to the wall without warning her why I was doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt turned out all right.\u201d Matt sighed. \u201cAnd you weren\u2019t wrong to send her. She told me how it happened and even she thinks you were right. Once she was on her way to us she understood and you were right, trying to explain it would have taken too long and she might have hesitated. It would\u2019ve been a hesitation we couldn\u2019t afford.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut she\u2019s all right?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe will be,\u201d Matt said, then smiled. \u201cYou\u2019re worried.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course,\u201d Thom said, glancing down. \u201cShe\u2019s your wife, and that makes her my sister. She\u2019s family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt grinned. \u201cShe said the same thing about you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thom snorted softly. \u201cGood to know I\u2019m someone\u2019s sister.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt laughed. \u201cThat\u2019s not\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know,\u201d Thom said, staring blankly at the sketchpad in his lap.<\/p>\n

A cradle? But I\u2014<\/em><\/p>\n

He stared at the page for another few seconds, then looked up at Matt.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s wrong?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing,\u201d Thom said. \u201cJust thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n

He turned the page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thom’s point of view.] Staring down at a blank page of his sketchpad, Thom cleared his throat. \u201cSo. Persephone?\u201d \u201cRight,\u201d Matt said, tone slightly rueful. He shifted the metal again in the coals, then let go, … 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":[299,305,14],"tags":[150,171,170,181,149,148,168,147,165,158,146],"class_list":["post-3750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-7","category-chapter-03-book-7","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-matthew-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-thom-ambrose","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-Yu","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3750","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=3750"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3751,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3750\/revisions\/3751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}