{"id":4159,"date":"2019-11-25T00:00:23","date_gmt":"2019-11-25T05:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4159"},"modified":"2019-11-24T17:43:53","modified_gmt":"2019-11-24T22:43:53","slug":"twenty-seven-02-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4159","title":{"rendered":"Twenty-seven – 02"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Marin reached across the gap to squeeze his arm. Phelan met her gaze and forced a smile. She shook her head.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t,\u201d she said softly. \u201cDon\u2019t force it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone has to,\u201d he said, one corner of his mouth quirking upward into a smile that was more genuine. \u201cBesides, if anyone looks this way and sees nothing but grim faces, that\u2019s not going to go over very well, now is it? I\u2019m bloody Puck, remember?\u201d<\/p>\n

She winced and looked away. Phelan sighed.<\/p>\n

\u201cMar,\u201d he said softly, gently. \u201cIt\u2019s okay. I\u2019m used to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know,\u201d she said, her voice barely audible over the sound of the wind and the rain and the horses. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean I don\u2019t hate it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He reached across the gap this time and squeezed her shoulder. \u201cDon\u2019t worry about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s going to worry about it whether you tell her to or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now the smile was very real as he glanced toward Matt. \u201cOh, trust me. I\u2019m aware.\u201d<\/p>\n

He nodded slowly, twisting his reins around his hands. \u201cTell me that I didn\u2019t talk all of us into making a mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phelan deadpanned even as his stomach sank a little. \u201cYou haven\u2019t talked everyone into making a mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat wasn\u2019t terribly reassuring,\u201d Matt muttered.<\/p>\n

Phelan sighed. \u201cWhat do you want from me, Matt? Honestly, I don\u2019t think that this is a mistake. All the reasons we\u2019re going are right. I just can\u2019t predict the ultimate outcome and that\u2019s got me as unsettled as anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor good reason,\u201d Thordin said. \u201cBut we\u2019re going anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAye,\u201d Phelan said. \u201cWe are. And we\u2019ll do what we need to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Phelan’s point of view.] Marin reached across the gap to squeeze his arm. Phelan met her gaze and forced a smile. She shook her head. \u201cDon\u2019t,\u201d she said softly. \u201cDon\u2019t force it.\u201d \u201cSomeone has to,\u201d he … 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":[299,332,14],"tags":[150,161,171,170,194,152,181,149,173,148,168,147,165,158,169,146],"class_list":["post-4159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-7","category-chapter-27-book-7","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-cameron-mackenzie","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-hecate","tag-marin-astoris","tag-matthew-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-phelan-ocredne","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-thom-ambrose","tag-thordin","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-155","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4159","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=4159"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4160,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4159\/revisions\/4160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}