{"id":3834,"date":"2019-01-09T00:00:15","date_gmt":"2019-01-09T05:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3834"},"modified":"2019-01-08T19:41:09","modified_gmt":"2019-01-09T00:41:09","slug":"nine-04-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3834","title":{"rendered":"Nine – 04"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\u201cThink what?\u201d<\/p>\n

The soft voice belonged to Hecate, who was wrapped in a shawl and a knee-length dress over leggings as she appeared from the gloom beyond the cookfire\u2019s light. She was pale and Phelan\u2019s stomach dropped. He set down his plate and started to stand up.<\/p>\n

Leinth glanced at him, frowning, then turned back to Hecate. \u201cCan you feel it, too?\u201d<\/p>\n

Hecate stayed quiet for a few long moments, then said softly, \u201cI\u2019d hoped it was nothing more than my imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phelan stopped, staring at her for a second, even as Leinth moved toward her and put a hand on her arm, shawl-shrouded though it was. There were dark circles under Hecate\u2019s eyes, ones he\u2019d thought were simply a trick of the light but something he could see now was far more than that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is it?\u201d Leinth whispered, reaching up to brush a stray lock of unbound hair back from Hecate\u2019s face. It was a tender, almost maternal gesture that made Phelan swallow. Hecate looked at Leinth, her expression a little strange, though not exactly upset\u2014not at the gesture, at least.<\/p>\n

She shook her head slightly. \u201cI had nightmares.\u201d She moved past Leinth toward Phelan\u2019s abandoned seat near the fire, sinking down to sit next to where he now stood. \u201cEvery time I tried to get back to sleep and thought that maybe they wouldn\u2019t come, that maybe I\u2019d reached the end of them, but they just kept coming, over and over again.\u201d She drew her knees to her chest, hugged them, stared at the fire. Leinth watched her.<\/p>\n

Then she asked, softly, \u201cHave you told him?\u201d<\/p>\n

Phelan frowned. \u201cDoes it\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

Leinth held up a hand to silence him, watching Hecate. Tala glanced between them, but wisely kept quiet. Hecate took a deep breath and shook her head.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t you think you should?\u201d<\/p>\n

Hecate said nothing, just stared at the fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cHecate,\u201d Leinth said, her voice gentle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know,\u201d Hecate whispered. \u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Phelan’s point of view.] \u201cThink what?\u201d The soft voice belonged to Hecate, who was wrapped in a shawl and a knee-length dress over leggings as she appeared from the gloom beyond the cookfire\u2019s light. She was … 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":[299,311,14],"tags":[150,171,170,194,166,149,173,148,168,147,165,215,146],"class_list":["post-3834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-7","category-chapter-09-book-7","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-hecate","tag-leinth","tag-original-fiction","tag-phelan-ocredne","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-tala-johanson","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-ZQ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3834","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=3834"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3835,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3834\/revisions\/3835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}