{"id":4607,"date":"2021-05-10T10:19:48","date_gmt":"2021-05-10T14:19:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4607"},"modified":"2021-05-10T10:19:48","modified_gmt":"2021-05-10T14:19:48","slug":"ninteen-05","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4607","title":{"rendered":"Ninteen – 05"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\u201cWhat are you going to ask them?\u201d\u00a0 My question was designed to distract him from worrying about me, which seemed safer than the alternative.\u00a0 It occurred to me that perhaps my parents\u2014my father especially\u2014had used that tactic more than once when I was young and before I was born, but I brushed that thought aside.<\/p>\n

This wasn\u2019t about them so much as it was about what they\u2019d left behind in me\u2014and my friends.<\/p>\n

Tory sighed again.\u00a0 \u201cProbably start with why they\u2019re here and see what happens from there.\u00a0 A lot of what comes out of my mouth depends on what comes out of theirs.\u201d\u00a0 He scrubbed a hand over his face and looked sidelong at me.\u00a0 \u201cLin, I just want answers.\u00a0 I want to know why they\u2019re here and if it\u2019s like you and my mom said.\u00a0 I don\u2019t understand any of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou should.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether or not I should is pretty immaterial at this point but either way I\u2019d argue the point.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got zero clue what\u2019s going on here and I think I have zero clue for damned good reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat reason being?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause my parents tried to protect me from\u2014from whatever this is.\u00a0 The same way everyone else has with all of us.\u00a0 Even you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMe?\u201d<\/p>\n

He glared at me.\u00a0 \u201cYes, you.\u00a0 They\u2019ve tried to protect you, too, y\u2019know?\u00a0 It\u2019s just that you\u2019ve had all of those books and Angie told you things and because Angie told you things, Uncle Phelan didn\u2019t have a choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

I stopped, rocking back against my heels.\u00a0 \u201cWhat the hell do you\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

He turned, brow furrowing.\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t tell me that you didn\u2019t realize.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRealize what<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUncle Phelan\u2019s told you a hell of a lot more than he\u2019s told anyone else, Lin.\u00a0 There are stories that you know that none of us do.\u00a0 It\u2019s not the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s because of the magic,\u201d I protested even as my stomach tightened.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou really think so?\u201d<\/p>\n

I wanted to say yes, but the certainty in his voice made me stop, made me hesitate.<\/p>\n

I swallowed hard.\u00a0 \u201cHow can you be so sure?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe same way you\u2019re so sure about a lot of stuff,\u201d he murmured, then started walking again.<\/p>\n

I shivered and followed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thomas Merlin Ambrose’s point of view.] \u201cWhat are you going to ask them?\u201d\u00a0 My question was designed to distract him from worrying about me, which seemed safer than the alternative.\u00a0 It occurred to me that perhaps … 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":[336,337,368,14],"tags":[340,271,150,171,170,149,148,168,147,165,200,146],"class_list":["post-4607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ambrose-cycle","category-book-8","category-chapter-19-book-8","category-story","tag-ambrose-cycle","tag-artorius-mackenzie","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","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-1cj","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4607","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=4607"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4608,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4607\/revisions\/4608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}