{"id":4725,"date":"2022-01-03T19:20:39","date_gmt":"2022-01-04T00:20:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4725"},"modified":"2022-01-03T19:20:39","modified_gmt":"2022-01-04T00:20:39","slug":"twenty-six-02-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4725","title":{"rendered":"Twenty-six – 02"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\u201cIs that why you\u2019re here?\u201d<\/p>\n

The question shouldn\u2019t have startled her, but it did anyway.\u00a0 Kailey took a deep breath, fingers flexing around the ceramic of her mug even as Peril set about pouring himself some tea, eschewing the generous dollop of tea she\u2019d spooned into her own cup.\u00a0 He glanced toward her as the silence stretched, then reached up to flick sodden hair from his eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes it matter?\u201d<\/p>\n

He shrugged.\u00a0 \u201cI mean, if you\u2019re here to be alone, sorry not sorry.\u00a0 I\u2019m not leaving.\u201d<\/p>\n

She turned away, exhaling a sigh that wasn\u2019t quite annoyed.\u00a0 \u201cWe established that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen you did<\/em> come here to be alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t say that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I\u2019m inferring that from your tone and the fact that you\u2019re walking away from me.\u00a0 It\u2019s stupid, though.\u00a0 If you wanted to be alone, you shouldn\u2019t have come here.\u201d<\/p>\n

She almost lied, but the words died on her tongue.\u00a0 She blew out another breath.\u00a0 \u201cHow the hell do you manage to do that, Peril?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo what?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFind the truth and<\/em> annoy me in the same damn breath.\u201d<\/p>\n

The teenager snorted and shook his head.\u00a0 \u201cI guess it\u2019s a gift, Kay.\u00a0 Why the hell are you so surprised by it?\u201d\u00a0 He leaned against the counter, watching her as she moved to one of the tables, sat down.\u00a0 She didn\u2019t look at him, but she could feel the weight of his gaze, could see him in her peripheral vision.\u00a0 \u201cWhatever you\u2019re freaking out over it\u2019s probably not worth this amount of angst.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you know?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAgain, I guess it\u2019s a gift.\u00a0 Are you going to talk?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d she said simply.\u00a0 \u201cNo, I\u2019m not.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Kailey Astoris’s point of view.] \u201cIs that why you\u2019re here?\u201d The question shouldn\u2019t have startled her, but it did anyway.\u00a0 Kailey took a deep breath, fingers flexing around the ceramic of her mug even as Peril … 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":[336,337,376,14],"tags":[340,150,377,171,170,345,149,148,147,165],"class_list":["post-4725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ambrose-cycle","category-book-8","category-chapter-26-book-8","category-story","tag-ambrose-cycle","tag-awakenings","tag-breanainn-cael-ocredne","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-kailey-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-1ed","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4725","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=4725"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4726,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4725\/revisions\/4726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}