{"id":4373,"date":"2020-07-27T16:13:57","date_gmt":"2020-07-27T20:13:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4373"},"modified":"2020-07-27T16:13:57","modified_gmt":"2020-07-27T20:13:57","slug":"nine-01-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4373","title":{"rendered":"Nine – 01"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\u201cNo one fires until I give the signal,\u201d Matt said, his gaze raking over the archers on the wall. \u201cSif has the warning shot.\u201d His voice lowered as he glanced at Kailey, who clung to the wall, pale and shaky.<\/p>\n

I never expected it to be like this.<\/em> She bit her lip, meeting her father\u2019s gaze.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou said they were armed,\u201d he said quietly.<\/p>\n

She nodded. \u201cYeah. Six of them, looked like they were armed. Couldn\u2019t make out what they were saying, but I know what I saw.\u201d<\/p>\n

He nodded, then wrapped an arm around her. \u201cStay close to me or your mother\u2014no matter what. Okay?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay, Dad.\u201d The words came as barely more than a whisper. She swallowed hard against the lump in her throat.<\/p>\n

She hadn\u2019t seen anything like this since she was a little girl, not since her aunt and uncle had died. Things had seemed to quiet down after that, though she\u2019d never bothered to consider why. Maybe there wasn\u2019t a connection.<\/p>\n

Maybe there was.<\/p>\n

Kailey looked up and down the wall, taking in grim faces, determined looks. None of them seemed all that afraid.<\/p>\n

Why not?<\/em><\/p>\n

Deep down, she was terrified.<\/p>\n

Hell, even right below the surface, she was terrified.<\/p>\n

Who are they? Why are they here?<\/em><\/p>\n

In the distance, she could hear the soft drone of hoofbeats. She held her breath.<\/p>\n

Whoever it was, they were nearly here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Kailey Astoris’s point of view.] \u201cNo one fires until I give the signal,\u201d Matt said, his gaze raking over the archers on the wall. \u201cSif has the warning shot.\u201d His voice lowered as he glanced at … 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":[336,337,352,14],"tags":[340,150,171,170,345,181,149,148,168,147,165,146],"class_list":["post-4373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ambrose-cycle","category-book-8","category-chapter-09-book-8","category-story","tag-ambrose-cycle","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-kailey-astoris","tag-matthew-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-18x","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4373","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=4373"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4374,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4373\/revisions\/4374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}