{"id":3933,"date":"2019-04-15T00:00:57","date_gmt":"2019-04-15T04:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3933"},"modified":"2019-04-14T17:12:42","modified_gmt":"2019-04-14T21:12:42","slug":"fourteen-03-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3933","title":{"rendered":"Fourteen – 03"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\u201cShe asked for our help,\u201d Matt said quietly, his brow furrowing as his gaze drifted between them, finally settling on Hecate.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd she\u2019ll get it,\u201d Hecate said, swallowing hard and glancing at him. Her voice didn\u2019t shake and she was shocked by that. \u201cI owe her that much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seamus swallowed hard. \u201cI\u2019m sorry, Hecate. I didn\u2019t\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no way for you to realize<\/em> anything,\u201d she said, more acid to her tone than she intended. Hecate scrubbed a hand over her face again, leaning into Matt\u2019s chest and trying to calm down. \u201cSorry. I\u2014sorry.\u201d She took another breath, then started again. \u201cThere were so many secrets then. There had to be\u2014there wasn\u2019t a choice. If people were going to stay safe, there had to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt\u2019s arms cocooned her and she closed her eyes for a few seconds. His touch helped her center, but it didn\u2019t ease the old pain that had suddenly risen to the surface again.<\/p>\n

She was so tired of hurting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like you said, you made a devil\u2019s bargain,\u201d Hecate said, her voice quieter, closer to normal again. \u201cIt\u2019s okay. You didn\u2019t know what would happen. No one did. You didn\u2019t know what the consequences would be.\u201d She squeezed her eyes shut. \u201cBesides, part of the blame for this is on me, if it is<\/em> really Orcus and he has Persephone. I\u2019m the one who killed Pluton. I know I didn\u2019t have a choice but his blood is still on my hands. We all share some blame for this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt pressed a kiss to her neck through her hair. She sighed quietly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI violated the terms of the agreement,\u201d she said in a whisper. \u201cThe bargain you made with him. I still went. I was still there from time to time. Never for long and usually not to do any harm. But I was still there.\u201d Matt\u2019s arms tightened around her a little more. Her voice was barely audible. \u201cI was still there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Hecate’s point of view.] \u201cShe asked for our help,\u201d Matt said quietly, his brow furrowing as his gaze drifted between them, finally settling on Hecate. \u201cAnd she\u2019ll get it,\u201d Hecate said, swallowing hard and glancing at … 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":[299,318,14],"tags":[150,171,170,194,166,152,181,149,173,148,159,168,147,165,215,158,200,146],"class_list":["post-3933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-7","category-chapter-14-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-11r","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3933","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=3933"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3934,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3933\/revisions\/3934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}