{"id":4682,"date":"2021-08-06T17:44:16","date_gmt":"2021-08-06T21:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4682"},"modified":"2021-08-06T17:44:16","modified_gmt":"2021-08-06T21:44:16","slug":"twenty-four-01-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4682","title":{"rendered":"Twenty-four – 01"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\u201cUncle Matt?\u201d<\/p>\n

The hammer rang off-key against the edge of the anvil as Matt twisted toward the open doorway.\u00a0 For a moment, his heart climbed into his throat at his nephew standing silhouetted there, looking so achingly like his father that for the span of a few heartbeats, Matt was a dozen years and more in the past and it was Thom standing there in the doorway of the forge, not Lin.\u00a0 It was enough to make his throat grow tight, his eyes almost misting.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been too many years.\u00a0 Gods and monsters, I miss them.<\/em><\/p>\n

Matt took a ragged breath and winced, turning fully.\u00a0 \u201cWhat\u2019re you doing up?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been up for hours,\u201d Lin said, slipping into the forge and collapsing onto one of the benches.\u00a0 The teenager seemed tired and sore, but not nearly as worse for wear as he\u2019d seemed the night before.\u00a0 \u201cLaying around isn\u2019t doing me any good\u2014except for making me a little less sore.\u00a0 I\u2019ll have Aunt Jac give me something tonight so I\u2019ll sleep hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt\u2019s brow quirked and he shook his head.\u00a0 \u201cSometimes you remind me a lot of your dad, you know that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Lin smiled wryly.\u00a0 \u201cAnd the rest of the time I remind you of Mom.\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 I know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shaking his head slightly, Matt thrust the piece he was working on back into the coals to heat.\u00a0 \u201cYou didn\u2019t come up here to talk about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot really, no,\u201d he admitted.\u00a0 \u201cBut I did come up to talk to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s on your mind?\u201d\u00a0 Matt glanced over his shoulder at him, watching his nephew\u2019s thoughtful, almost distant expression.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they go, I\u2019m going with them,\u201d Lin finally said after a lengthy silence.\u00a0 \u201cI think I have to.\u00a0 They\u2019re going to need me and I think it\u2019s the only way I\u2019ll understand what happened with Mom and Dad.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Matt Astoris’s point of view.] \u201cUncle Matt?\u201d The hammer rang off-key against the edge of the anvil as Matt twisted toward the open doorway.\u00a0 For a moment, his heart climbed into his throat at his nephew … 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":[336,337,374,14],"tags":[340,150,171,170,181,149,148,168,147,165,200,146],"class_list":["post-4682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ambrose-cycle","category-book-8","category-chapter-24-book-8","category-story","tag-ambrose-cycle","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-matthew-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-1dw","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4682","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=4682"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4683,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4682\/revisions\/4683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}