{"id":3991,"date":"2019-06-12T00:00:49","date_gmt":"2019-06-12T04:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3991"},"modified":"2019-06-11T18:29:57","modified_gmt":"2019-06-11T22:29:57","slug":"seventeen-01-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=3991","title":{"rendered":"Seventeen – 01"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cold shot through her.\u00a0 The only warm thing was Matt\u2019s hand, and it was hot, burning hot, a touchstone that kept her grounded, that kept her from completely dissociating.\u00a0 Dimly, she could hear Thordin and Carolyn moving with them, could hear Carolyn\u2019s voice as if coming through a tunnel, muffled by distance that only existed in her imagination.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cOrcus?\u00a0 Who\u2019s Orcus?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ll explain later,\u201d Matt said.\u00a0 \u201cShort version is the next big bad to take aim.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cWhat did he want?\u201d\u00a0 Hecate asked, her voice faint.\u00a0 \u201cMatt.\u00a0 What does he want?\u00a0 Is he after Seamus and Leinth?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Matt stopped walking.\u00a0 Hecate\u2019s heart seized, climbing up into her throat.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Oh no.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cMatt,\u201d she whispered, her fingers tightening around his.\u00a0 \u201cHe has her, doesn\u2019t he?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He nodded, lips thinning as he stared at the ground.\u00a0 No sound escaped him, but his shoulders got tense.\u00a0 Hecate sucked in a breath, exhaled it shakily as she bore down harder on his hand, squeezing so tightly her knuckles went white.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cWhat did he ask for in return?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Matt said nothing.\u00a0 Thordin cleared his throat, only to have Matt hold up a hand to forestall his answer.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cYou,\u201d Matt finally croaked.\u00a0 \u201cHe asked for you and I said no.\u00a0 I told him you weren\u2019t mine to give or his to take, almost verbatim.\u201d\u00a0 He finally looked at her, tears shimmering in his eyes.\u00a0 \u201cGiving you up would gut me, Hecate.\u00a0 I won\u2019t lose you again.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It was hard to breathe.\u00a0 On the one hand, if she did what Orcus asked, if she went, she\u2019d save her friends\u2014her family<\/i>\u2014from Orcus and maybe free her friend.\u00a0 On the other, she knew what he would probably ask her to do and there were no guarantees that anyone would be safe, least of all her.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And our baby.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She wrapped her arms around Matt, holding him tightly.\u00a0 He pressed his face to her shoulder, his arms encircling her, crushing her against him as he began to cry.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Hecate’s point of view.] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cold shot through her.\u00a0 The only warm thing was Matt\u2019s hand, and it was hot, burning hot, a touchstone that kept her grounded, that kept her from completely dissociating.\u00a0 Dimly, she … 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":[299,321,14],"tags":[150,163,171,170,194,181,149,148,168,147,165,169,146],"class_list":["post-3991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-7","category-chapter-17-book-7","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-carolyn-roberts","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-hecate","tag-matthew-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-thordin","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-12n","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3991","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=3991"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3992,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3991\/revisions\/3992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}