Ride the lightning

The wind whipped my shoulder length ebony hair into my eyes. The rain pelted my skin, stinging my face. Thunder boomed and lightning struck all around me. Smoke kicked up under my feet with every step I took. Sweat poured down my face mixing with the rain. My fingers are bloody and burned as I cling to the jagged rocks on fire, clawing my way painfully to my destiny. I've come too far to let it end with me falling down this cliff, risked too much. An eerie whistle on the wind makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. He's coming. I crawl faster no longer caring about the pain coursing through my body. I can feel my blood, hot and dripping down my fingers. Almost there. Just a few more steps. My boot slips on the next rock and I slide back down a few feet, scraping my ribs and stomach, my hands scrambling to cling to whatever I can latch onto. I grit my teeth, my whole body screaming at me, and continue to haul myself the last little way. My fingers grapple for the edge of the cliff and I find a foothold that I use to push my shaking legs up and finally roll up onto the smoldering ground. My whole body is hot and cold all at once. Shivering from both the cold and the exertion. I breathe a sigh of relief at my success, thinking of my brother I have saved and simultaneously lost with this fateful quest. The deal with the King of death that I would do his bidding and complete this quest to prove my worthiness to rule the people of the night and my brother stays safe in the human lands untouched and provided for the rest of his life. My reprieve is short lived. I feel him before I see him. In the glow of the lightning strike, I see him standing there silent as a ghost. The whistle sounds again, sliding over my skin like a promise, a promise I know I don't want. A deal is a deal though and I'm no coward. Slowly and shakily, I rise to my feet to face my fate. I wipe my hair out my cerulean eyes and match his gaze, never flinching from his cruel silver-grey eyes. "Give me my kingdom and hand me my crown. I've done everything you asked of me, and I'm prepared to seal my fate." I stare him down never once breaking contact. He smiles a deadly smile with teeth like razor blades. I know then that he is out for blood. My blood. I can see the hunger in him burning like a flame and my very blood he seeks goes cold. "You truly thought you were a child of the night? Fool. The fact that you accepted this quest to save your precious human brother proves you are no child of the night. Love is weakness. Our agreement is void since you have no night blood in your veins, you never did but you served well to do my dirty work and now I have no more use for you." His look of triumph was ruthless. Somewhere in the back of my mind I could hear my father's voice whispering to me, "don't let it slip away." over and over again. I could never figure out what "it" was. I had always felt a small seed of power within me, always assuming that it was darkness, that I was a child of the night but now my faith in myself faltered, and I had an empty feeling of hopelessness within me. I don't know who I am or what I am and now I am going to die, and my brother will surely die as well. It was all for nothing. Suddenly a light exploded behind my eyes dropping me to my knees and a vision of my father holding me on his lap as a child appeared. His voice sounded so far away but I could hear what he said to me. "Astrie you must worship the nights that the fire lights the sky, that is where your power is found." Astrie? I've don't remember him ever calling me that, my name is Astelle. He died not long after this memory and even this one is fuzzy. His voice floats back and I listen hard to what he says, "Draw it into yourself and..." his voice faded, and I snapped back into my senses, but I heard exactly what I needed. The King of death before me was grinning manically. "So little one, how would you like your life to end? I am willing to let you choose how you'd like to go, I'm not a complete monster." It was my turn to smile at him though and I repeated to him the last words my father spoke to me as they finally clicked into my mind and my soul, "I'm going to ride the lightning." I raised my hands above my head, reaching out towards the sky. At that same moment a glorious crack of lightning appeared above me and struck my outstretched hands, and I drew it all into myself. That small seed of power was now an unleashed beast coursing through my veins, "I feel alive!" I screamed in my head. My hair stood on end and crackling energy skittered across my skin. The King of death's face fell into a mask of fear as he realized what had just happened. He was no longer the predator, but the prey. The lightning crawled up my body and up the side of my face to form a crown of sizzling energy atop my head. My crown and my kingdom. Not of darkness but of light. The King of death dropped to his knees and bowed his head "Your Grace, Astrape goddess of lightning." He spoke loudly, his voice quivering with fear. "Please show mercy, I had no idea." he pleaded for his life. I looked down my nose at him, considering. "My smile was wolfish as I met his steely eyes and sent a bolt of lightning into his chest knocking him off his feet and over the edge of the cliff where he hung on only by his fingers. Fire smoldered all around me as I leaned down to whisper near his face "Oh your majesty, I'm not a complete monster." and pried his fingers off the cliff watching as he fell to his death. Mercy indeed. Tipping my head to the sky I yelled into the storm "I am Astrape, and I was born to ride the lightning."