{"id":4230,"date":"2020-02-26T18:15:57","date_gmt":"2020-02-26T23:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4230"},"modified":"2020-02-26T18:16:16","modified_gmt":"2020-02-26T23:16:16","slug":"thirty-01-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4230","title":{"rendered":"Thirty – 01"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

It was three days before they made it home, carrying with them the wounded\u2014many of the Hunt were, but those from the ridge were little worse for wear. They didn\u2019t talk about what had happened, though\u2014not on the field. None of them did, not in any sort of real or specific way.<\/p>\n

Their family came last\u2014Marin with Phelan and Thom, Matt and Hecate, Cameron and Leinth, Thordin and Sif. They seemed exhausted, worse for wear, but alive and relatively intact. They came on foot, leading their horses, as if needing to stretch their legs after the ride. Perhaps they did.<\/p>\n

Neve and Seamus met them at the gates. If any of them were surprised, it didn\u2019t show. Leinth moved right for Seamus even as Cameron went to Neve. She wrapped her arms around him and pressed a kiss to his ear.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was worried,\u201d Neve murmured.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know,\u201d Cameron said, kissing her temple as he leaned back slightly. \u201cBut here we are, back safe and sound.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of us, anyway,\u201d Marin said, leading her horse through the gates. \u201cThe battlefield is hallowed ground, now. Their dead and ours rest together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWarded?\u201d Seamus asked, leaning against Leinth, who\u2019d tucked herself under his arm.<\/p>\n

Marin nodded. \u201cWarded with the beginnings of a forest growing over it. Give it ten years and no one will be able to tell what happened there unless they start digging.\u201d<\/p>\n

Behind her, Thom shivered. \u201cHopefully, no one ever does.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat did their blood buy us?\u201d Seamus asked softly. \u201cWhat was their sacrifice for?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeace,\u201d Marin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut for how long?\u201d<\/p>\n

She smiled wryly. \u201cThey said twenty years. I figure it actually holds for fifteen before they completely break the bargain. They\u2019ll start testing us in ten or thirteen years. Either way, it buys us time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey,\u201d Neve echoed. \u201cI thought it was just Orcus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phelan shook his head. His voice came raspy. \u201cNo. Leviathan was there, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd there were watchers,\u201d Hecate added. \u201cWord will spread that we\u2019re not to be trifled with. There will be some that will test us, but not nearly as many. Not like what you\u2019ve already faced.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLike what we\u2019ve already faced,\u201d Matt corrected gently.<\/p>\n

She smiled up at him.<\/p>\n

Marin took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly. \u201cWe\u2019ve won at least a childhood for our children,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd if that\u2019s all the time we have, I\u2019ll count us lucky. It buys us time to figure all of this out. One way or another\u2014we have time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Time<\/em> was all they\u2019d ever really needed, all they really wanted. Now, a year in, perhaps they would actually be able to settle down and sort it all out.<\/p>\n

Now they had time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

End of Book Seven<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Neve’s point of view.] It was three days before they made it home, carrying with them the wounded\u2014many of the Hunt were, but those from the ridge were little worse for wear. They didn\u2019t talk about … 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":[299,335,14],"tags":[150,161,171,170,194,166,152,181,151,149,173,148,159,168,147,167,165,158,169,146,195],"class_list":["post-4230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-7","category-chapter-30-book-7","category-story","tag-awakenings","tag-cameron-mackenzie","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-hecate","tag-leinth","tag-marin-astoris","tag-matthew-astoris","tag-neve-vaughan","tag-original-fiction","tag-phelan-ocredne","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-seamus-vaughan","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-sif","tag-story","tag-thom-ambrose","tag-thordin","tag-web-fiction","tag-wild-hunt"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-16e","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4230","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=4230"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4232,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4230\/revisions\/4232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}