and when i breathed
my breath was lightning
She thought, so foolishly, that if she went, it would be enough. Rhy should have known better. Somewhere in the pit of her stomach, perhaps she did know better, and she had decided she didn’t care anymore. The truth is, she’s not sure. “Straia, no. Not others too.” She says, reaching for her electric or her claws to fight back, only to find she cannot reach her traits at all.
It’s only then that she can feel the hold Straia has on her heart already, controlling her so delicately she hadn’t even noticed at all. “How could you?” she breathes, the hurt on her face so evident and impossible. Hurt more because she had failed, so completely. She had tried to sacrifice only herself, but she should have known. Should have known Straia had tricks up her sleeve.
When the raven lands on her back, talons digging into her flesh, she has no choice. Her powers are gone, and without them, she is nothing against her cousin. Eye on the ground of the Desert, she walks with Wichita by her side. The mare says something, a tiny glimmer of hope in those words, but mostly fear, Rhy thinks. She doesn’t even know for sure. Her empathy is gone too.
“I thought so, but now, I’m not sure,” she says softly, miserably. It was just supposed to be her. Rhy could die – hell, she was already dead. But not this mare, who simply got unlucky. She didn’t deserve this. None of them did, and while her cousin may be the instigator, she knows they are all to blame. They all wanted war. And this is what happens in war.
They find the group and Straia speaks through the raven’s mouths. Rhy flinches at the sound, so loud coming from her back. Wichita drops in the blink of an eye. A quick death, at least. Rhy is not so lucky. Straia clenches her heart, sending Rhy to her knees as her threats ignite Mast and Lagertha and Vanquish. It’s Lagertha’s eyes that she finds as Straia grips tighter, color draining from Rhy’s face, all the electric gone for her eyes.
She’s not pleading to be saved. She’s asking for death. If Straia doesn’t do it, then someone else should. She’s failed, and she cannot live with it. Not anymore. She’s been too close to death’s doorstep too many times. The grim reaper calls her home, and she wants to go. She wants to scream at Straia to kill her, but there’s no air in her lungs, all the blood stilled in her veins now.
But the lightning finds her before anything else happens, turning to a blanket around her. For a moment, it burns and singes without her powers, but suddenly her heart is released, and she can pull the electric to her. Tucks it around herself, infusing her veins, wondering if somehow the power in that blast could kill her. She had hoped, in the moment before her heart was hers again, that she would succumb to it.
She hardly even registered that Kratos was the one to send the lightning. Hardly registers as the rest leave, screaming for Straia and the Chamber and war. She simply pulls the electric tighter, trying to hide within its comfort, when she’s smashed by a stray bit of magic and the world goes black.
***
She comes to with lightning still crackling on her skin, though the worst of it is gone now. Absorbed into her veins, feeding life back into the electric mare. She blinks a few times as everything comes into focus and slowly, though steadily, gets to her feet. Home. She’s home. Something nibbles at the back of her mind, like that thought is wrong, but she shakes it off. There’s smoke in the distance, some sounds of screaming and flashes of light and dark. All coming from the Chamber.
Right, war. That must be the nagging feeling in the back of her mind. Though she doesn’t remember war breaking out. Doesn’t really know why. She just wonders why she isn’t there fighting beside the Desert. Why is she still back here?
She’s about to leave, join Yael and Vanquish and the others in the battle, when she finally notices him still there. “Oh, hi. Kratos, right? Shouldn't we be, you know, over there?” She asks, nodding toward the smoke. She's pretty sure this is Vanquish’s son, if she’s not mistaken, and would think he'd be fighting with his Dad. But he’s not around much, and she might be wrong. Besides, she confuses him with Krieos too.
There are no memories of the Jungle left. There are no memories of their times there, all their meeting full of power and a strange, improbable sort of love. There are no memories of her play fights with Lagertha. She only knows the mare as the Amazonian Queen. It’s all gone. All the pieces of her life. All she knows is what she is capable of, that her family is dead, that her sister left Beqanna to look for their brother, that her name is Rhy, and her life belongs to the Deserts.
There’s not even a trace of her tattoo.
rhy
the electric lioness of riagan and rayelle
