{"id":4404,"date":"2020-08-31T09:15:52","date_gmt":"2020-08-31T13:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4404"},"modified":"2020-08-31T09:15:52","modified_gmt":"2020-08-31T13:15:52","slug":"eleven-01-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4404","title":{"rendered":"Eleven – 01"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\u201cWhat the hell were you thinking?\u201d<\/p>\n

Closing my eyes and trying to ignore the continued thumping in my skull, for a few seconds I contemplated pretending that I hadn\u2019t heard her question.\u00a0 For the moment, I was just silently grateful that I hadn\u2019t been sent straight back to bed when my uncle had made it back to the gates behind Phelan, who\u2019d breezed back through carrying one of the riders unconscious in his arms.<\/p>\n

Aunt Jac had been there in seconds flat, and she and Uncle Jay had headed off to see to the stranger and whatever was wrong with him.\u00a0 Most of the rest of the little council had headed off to speak with the rest of the riders.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalm down, Kailey,\u201d Hecate said softly.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m sure Lin had good reasons for what he did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yeah, mostly that I figured if I didn\u2019t do something, something bad was going to happen\u2014like someone getting hurt or worse when it wasn\u2019t necessary.<\/em>\u00a0 I took a deep breath, leaning back against the log behind me.\u00a0 My aunt sat nearby, roasting marshmallows as if nothing was wrong.\u00a0 I knew without looking that she wore a distant expression, a familiar faraway expression she got when she was especially contemplative\u2014like now.<\/p>\n

\u201cMom\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKailey.\u201d\u00a0 Hecate\u2019s voice was firm but not unkind.\u00a0 \u201cSettle down.\u00a0 They don\u2019t mean any harm.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut they could,\u201d she protested quietly.\u00a0 \u201cThey could be dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything\u2019s dangerous,\u201d I murmured.\u00a0 \u201cBut they\u2014these people are here for a reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you don\u2019t know what it is,\u201d Kailey said.\u00a0 \u201cDid you hear?\u00a0 Did you see the look on Uncle Phelan\u2019s face?\u00a0 I haven\u2019t seen him pale like that except for when he thought that Tory got stabbed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or when I got clawed today.<\/em>\u00a0 I swallowed the words even as I opened my eyes, glancing at my aunt.\u00a0 Hecate gazed back at me with a measured look, probing, but gently.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always a reason,\u201d Hecate said softly, gently.\u00a0 \u201cYour father and the rest will figure out what it is one way or another.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think Lin\u2019s instincts have steered us wrong in this regard.\u00a0 Clearly, they did need some kind of help, if only for the injured man.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have no idea who these people are,\u201d Kailey whispered.\u00a0 \u201cHow do we know we can trust them?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t,\u201d Hecate said.\u00a0 \u201cNot until we sort it out for ourselves.\u00a0 But we can\u2019t do that until we talk to them, can we?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Kailey said grudgingly.\u00a0 \u201cI guess not.\u201d<\/p>\n

I closed my eyes again.\u00a0 Was this what it had been like for Mom and Dad back then?\u00a0 I doubted it.\u00a0 They\u2019d trusted on instinct more than once.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t think it had ever led them astray.<\/p>\n

If it had, they\u2019d never written it down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thomas Merlin Ambrose’s point of view.] \u201cWhat the hell were you thinking?\u201d Closing my eyes and trying to ignore the continued thumping in my skull, for a few seconds I contemplated pretending that I hadn\u2019t heard … 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":[336,337,355,14],"tags":[340,150,171,170,194,345,149,148,168,147,165,200,146],"class_list":["post-4404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ambrose-cycle","category-book-8","category-chapter-11-book-8","category-story","tag-ambrose-cycle","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-hecate","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-192","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4404","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=4404"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4405,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4404\/revisions\/4405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}