{"id":3924,"date":"2019-04-05T00:00:23","date_gmt":"2019-04-05T04:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3924"},"modified":"2019-04-04T19:30:28","modified_gmt":"2019-04-04T23:30:28","slug":"thirteen-08-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3924","title":{"rendered":"Thirteen – 08"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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

I hadn\u2019t realized I\u2019d spoken until well after the word left my throat and I found everyone looking from Seamus to me and then back again. My heart felt like lead even as it rose into my throat, threatening to choke me. Thom put a hand on my knee, squeezed hard.<\/p>\n

Seamus, for his part, closed his eyes, exhaling a sigh even as his fingers tightened around his mug of tea. \u201cThere was a time long ago when I ran afoul of one\u2014mostly because my presence offended him, but also because I had the temerity to be in love with someone who claimed as his own.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leinth made a choked sound, easing closer to Seamus, her eyes wide and bright with the moisture of tears she tried to suppress. \u201cYou never told me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know,\u201d he whispered, turning to press a tender kiss to her cheek. Leinth wrapped her arms around his shoulders and I felt a pang somewhere deep inside.<\/p>\n

I pressed closer to Thom and he wrapped his free arm around me, holding me close, as if he could sense what I was feeling. Gods and monsters. I scarcely dared to imagine what he went through\u2014maybe I should have.<\/em><\/p>\n

Seamus took a slow breath. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t something that I wanted you to worry about, nor was it something that I was exactly proud of, after I\u2019d dealt with it. I had to make a deal I hoped I would never regret.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you regret it now,\u201d Phelan said, eyeing his cousin. \u201cWhat did you do?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI made a deal with the devil. My soul was already lost, but I thought that if I made the deal offered, if I controlled it and made sure it was binding that I\u2019d save the better angels, if you\u2019ll pardon all the metaphor. I exacted my price and so far as I was ever able to gather, he kept his end of the bargain.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Marin’s point of view.] \u201cWhat?\u201d I hadn\u2019t realized I\u2019d spoken until well after the word left my throat and I found everyone looking from Seamus to me and then back again. My heart felt like lead … 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":[299,317,14],"tags":[150,171,170,194,166,152,181,149,173,148,159,168,147,165,215,158,200,146],"class_list":["post-3924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-7","category-chapter-13-book-7","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-hecate","tag-leinth","tag-marin-astoris","tag-matthew-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-phelan-ocredne","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-seamus-vaughan","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-tala-johanson","tag-thom-ambrose","tag-thomas-merlin-ambrose","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-11i","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3924","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=3924"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3925,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3924\/revisions\/3925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}