{"id":3862,"date":"2019-02-06T00:00:07","date_gmt":"2019-02-06T05:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3862"},"modified":"2019-02-05T22:00:08","modified_gmt":"2019-02-06T03:00:08","slug":"eleven-02-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3862","title":{"rendered":"Eleven – 02"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\u201cNone of us do, I think,\u201d Hecate said softly, looking up over her shoulder at him. \u201cI feel like our imaginations would pale in comparison to the truth, regardless.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLikely,\u201d Phelan agreed. There was an intensity to his gaze that Matt found familiar and slightly uncomfortable all at once. He\u2019d felt the weight of that stare before, both in this life and his past one as C\u00edar. \u201cYou saw it, then? The ruthlessness, the violence?\u201d<\/p>\n

He nodded. \u201cClearly. I never told anyone about it. I decided it was safer not to, both so not to invite a repeat performance on Orcus\u2019s part, but also not to encourage any sort of encounter between him and anyone else. C\u00edar insulted him once to his face and he took exception, which was the source of the first encounter. The second was about the Hunt. The third\u2014\u201d he broke off, exhaling. He could feel the pain of broken bones, long distant, the ache of torn muscles and deep bruises, and the fear<\/em>\u2014fear that he wouldn\u2019t make it back, fear that this was, in fact, the end for him.<\/p>\n

It hadn\u2019t been, but the fear still left him cold.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could be something as seemingly small as a broken promise,\u201d Matt said in a voice suddenly choked. He swallowed hard against the lump and bile that had risen, probably in response to the memories that belonged to C\u00edar and the soul they shared. \u201cIt could be an insult, something else. He was a god of death, just like she was.\u201d He meant Leinth. He wasn\u2019t entirely certain how their duties were different\u2014he wasn\u2019t sure they were\u2014but then again, that had never much mattered to C\u00edar, whose world before the Hunt had concerned him with the powers in the north, not the south. When he\u2019d led the Hunt, all that had really mattered was the job that needed to be completed next, the work of the Hunt. Politics had never mattered.<\/p>\n

Nor had it truly mattered when he had worked with Hecate so long ago\u2014only her safety, if he were brutally honest.<\/p>\n

\u201cA broken promise,\u201d Phelan echoed, his brow furrowing. \u201cAnother god of death.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt nodded, arms tightening around Hecate. \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wonder,\u201d Phelan said.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t complete the thought.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Matt’s point of view.] \u201cNone of us do, I think,\u201d Hecate said softly, looking up over her shoulder at him. \u201cI feel like our imaginations would pale in comparison to the truth, regardless.\u201d \u201cLikely,\u201d Phelan agreed. … 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":[299,313,14],"tags":[150,171,170,194,152,181,149,173,148,168,147,165,215,200,146],"class_list":["post-3862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-7","category-chapter-11-book-7","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-hecate","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-thomas-merlin-ambrose","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-10i","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3862","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=3862"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3863,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3862\/revisions\/3863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}