{"id":3906,"date":"2019-03-18T00:00:53","date_gmt":"2019-03-18T04:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3906"},"modified":"2019-03-17T17:38:48","modified_gmt":"2019-03-17T21:38:48","slug":"twelve-08","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3906","title":{"rendered":"Twelve – 08"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

His worry only increased as they headed back toward the cookfire. Matt, his arm wrapped protectively around Hecate\u2019s shoulders, watched Seamus as they walked and felt a weight settle over him and his stomach go sour. The former Taliesin looked like hell and didn\u2019t seem like he felt much better, either. The wounds he\u2019d taken in Matt, Hecate, and Marin\u2019s defense up on the wall that day a few weeks back had taken a heavier toll than any of them suspected.<\/p>\n

He swallowed down bile, his arm tightening around Hecate\u2019s shoulders. Her arm snaked around his waist, squeezing him close for a second.<\/p>\n

\u201cSettle,\u201d she whispered, voice too low for anyone but him to hear. \u201cIt\u2019s all right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d he murmured back, gaze still on Seamus. \u201cNo, it\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll be all right,\u201d Hecate said softly, though Matt could hear the thread of doubt in her voice. Ice sluiced down his spine. He took a deep breath and tried to force his stomach to settle. It didn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe shouldn\u2019t be up,\u201d Matt murmured.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Hecate agreed, following his gaze. \u201cBut that wasn\u2019t our decision to make or our war to fight. That\u2019s between the two of them.\u201d She nodded toward Leinth, her brow furrowing. \u201cWe have to trust them\u2014trust that they weighed their options and decided what the necessary course would be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNecessary isn\u2019t always best.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Hecate sighed. \u201cNo, it\u2019s not. But it\u2019s what has to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt held her a little tighter, swallowing hard again. Maybe they would be wrong. Maybe things wouldn\u2019t be as bad as they feared.<\/p>\n

Somewhere deep in his heart, though, he knew that wasn\u2019t meant to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Matt’s point of view.] His worry only increased as they headed back toward the cookfire. Matt, his arm wrapped protectively around Hecate\u2019s shoulders, watched Seamus as they walked and felt a weight settle over him and … 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":[299,316,14],"tags":[171,170,194,166,181,149,173,148,159,168,147,165,146],"class_list":["post-3906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-7","category-chapter-12-book-7","category-story","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-hecate","tag-leinth","tag-matthew-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-phelan-ocredne","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-seamus-vaughan","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-110","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3906","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=3906"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3907,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3906\/revisions\/3907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}