{"id":4044,"date":"2019-08-02T00:00:04","date_gmt":"2019-08-02T04:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4044"},"modified":"2019-08-01T18:20:53","modified_gmt":"2019-08-01T22:20:53","slug":"twenty-02-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4044","title":{"rendered":"Twenty – 02"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\u201cThings,\u201d Anselm echoed softly.\u00a0 \u201cWhen you say that, you mean we have people<\/em> he wants.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo us, they\u2019re people,\u201d Matt said.\u00a0 \u201cTo him, they\u2019re things<\/em>.\u00a0 My wife is a weapon as far as he\u2019s concerned.\u00a0 Leith is an object<\/em> that he\u2019s wanted to possess for almost as long as she\u2019s been alive.\u00a0 And Seamus\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSeamus is an obstacle and a thorn in his side, an embarrassment that needs to be dealt with,\u201d Anselm finished.\u00a0 He leaned back for a second, his eyes half-lidding.\u00a0 \u201cSeamus and I have a long association, Matthew.\u00a0 I know what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt looked away.\u00a0 Thom frowned, still watching Anselm.<\/p>\n

What <\/em>did happen?<\/em>\u00a0 \u201cIf you know what happened,\u201d Thom said slowly, \u201cdo you have any insights on how we can make Matt\u2019s plan work?\u201d<\/p>\n

Anslem inclined his head slightly.\u00a0 There was a directness to his gaze that sent a chill down Thom\u2019s spine, though somehow it seemed to allay some of the chaos going on in his gut.\u00a0 \u201cI am sure there are holes will need filling, but that\u2019s the point of asking us to gather information, isn\u2019t it?\u201d\u00a0 The ghost of a smile curved the Huntsman\u2019s lips.\u00a0 \u201cThough I imagine that Cameron would be equally skilled in information gathering, if one were to ask him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thom glanced at Matt, his brow arching.\u00a0 Matt winced slightly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just\u2014I don\u2019t feel right asking him,\u201d Matt said.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t feel right sucking him into this.\u00a0 He never asked for any of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of you did,\u201d Anselm reminded him.\u00a0 \u201cThis was something that happened to you, just the same as it happened to him.\u00a0 In a lot of ways, he had more choices than all of you.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t have to come here, now did he?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Matt said.\u00a0 \u201cNo, he didn\u2019t.\u00a0 But he did and I\u2019m not sorry he did, but I just\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019d be a target,\u201d Thom said quietly.\u00a0 \u201cIf Orcus figured out who and what he was?\u00a0 He\u2019d be a target and everything we\u2019re trying to do\u2014the scouting run, our preemptive strike\u2014would be tanked.\u00a0 It\u2019s a risk we can\u2019t take.\u00a0 Not on this one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anselm smiled, nodding slightly.\u00a0 \u201cNow<\/em> you\u2019re thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thom’s point of view.] \u201cThings,\u201d Anselm echoed softly.\u00a0 \u201cWhen you say that, you mean we have people he wants.\u201d \u201cTo us, they\u2019re people,\u201d Matt said.\u00a0 \u201cTo him, they\u2019re things.\u00a0 My wife is a weapon as far … 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":[299,325,14],"tags":[178,150,171,170,181,149,148,168,147,165,158,146,195],"class_list":["post-4044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-7","category-chapter-20-book-7","category-story","tag-anselm","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-matthew-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-thom-ambrose","tag-web-fiction","tag-wild-hunt"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-13e","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4044","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=4044"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4045,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4044\/revisions\/4045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}