{"id":4351,"date":"2020-07-01T10:15:10","date_gmt":"2020-07-01T14:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4351"},"modified":"2020-07-01T10:15:10","modified_gmt":"2020-07-01T14:15:10","slug":"eight-03-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4351","title":{"rendered":"Eight – 03"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\u201cOh hell<\/em> no.\u201d Kailey crossed the room in two seconds flat and grabbed my arm before I could stop her\u2014or warn her.<\/p>\n

Hell, someone should have warned me<\/em>. The pain that lanced through me had molten claws that dug into the marrow of my bones. Even trying to suppress the cry that tore from my lips resulted in a sound I\u2019d never heard before, one that indicated pain even more extreme than I\u2019d realized I was feeling. I jerked it from her grasp, gasping like a fish out of water as the pain stole my breath.<\/p>\n

All the blood drained from her face, her eyes saucer-wide. \u201cOh gods, Lin, I\u2019m sorry, I\u2019m sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Breath hissed through my teeth as I hugged my arms to my body, trying to push the pain aside. It wasn\u2019t working.<\/p>\n

Is <\/em>this what Mom and Dad dealt with every time something like this came at them? If that\u2019s the case it\u2019s sure as hell not going to be fun. Not ever.<\/em><\/p>\n

Stubborn as I was, though, it wasn\u2019t going to stop me.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fine,\u201d I rasped. \u201cJust please don\u2019t do that again.\u201d I gritted my teeth, trying to ignore the way my eyes were tearing and the way that my nerves seemed to be misfiring.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have<\/em> to go below,\u201d she whispered. \u201cPlease, don\u2019t fight with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s going on?\u201d I asked her again, my voice still raspy, but steady.<\/p>\n

Her lips thinned. \u201cLin\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDammit,\u201d I snarled, starting to stand up. She was quick to slide her arm around my waist to support me. I tried to shove her away. \u201cNo, Kay. No<\/em>. Not if you\u2019re not going to tell me what I need to know. If you don\u2019t tell me, I\u2019ve got to go find out myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important.<\/em><\/p>\n

I just don\u2019t know why.<\/em><\/p>\n

Now my eyes were watering for an entirely different reason. I reached up to swipe at the tears that stung. Frustration had always been the most upsetting thing for me\u2014more than pain, more than loss, more than anger, anything<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Her jaw trembled as I glanced at her sidelong.<\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t tell if that meant she was going to tell me or if she was going to haul off and slug me, bandages and all.<\/p>\n

It wouldn\u2019t have been the first time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thomas Merlin Ambrose’s point of view.] \u201cOh hell no.\u201d Kailey crossed the room in two seconds flat and grabbed my arm before I could stop her\u2014or warn her. Hell, someone should have warned me. The pain … 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":[336,337,351,14],"tags":[340,150,171,170,345,149,148,168,147,165,200,146],"class_list":["post-4351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ambrose-cycle","category-book-8","category-chapter-08-book-8","category-story","tag-ambrose-cycle","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-kailey-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-thomas-merlin-ambrose","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-18b","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4351","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=4351"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4352,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4351\/revisions\/4352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}