Chapter 69
Lightning rips through my veins, lighting me up from the inside out. The world stills, except for the electricity sparking around me, casting everything in sharp relief. I can only see Wake’s outline, blurry at the edges, his figure whited out by the arcs of light surrounding me.
My breath is shallow, my heart racing, but then, out of nowhere, a voice cuts through the crackling static, cold and unimpressed.
"It’s as if you want to die."
I gasp, struggling to focus. “W-what?”
The voice is closer now, calm but cutting, “Your male gave you a simple command, and yet here you are, defying it. I expect my heir to be smarter than this.”
"Electra?" I whisper, the sea goddess's name tumbling from my lips before I even realize it.
She appears before me, a figure shrouded in light, her very form composed of pure energy—no, she *is* the lightning. Electra, the goddess of the sea, and she’s breathtaking, more beautiful than the last time I saw her, more alive, more dangerous. Now, she’s in her element.
“I expected you to be stronger than this,” she says, disappointment hanging heavy in her voice.
Frustration bubbles up inside me. “You seem to expect a lot from someone who didn’t even know you existed a few days ago.”
Electra sighs, long and deep. “How quickly the blood thins.”
“Hey! lay off,” I snap, my anger spilling over now that, if only for a moment, that awful pain is gone. “Can I get a fucking minute here? You have no idea what I’ve been through in the last twenty-four hours—or maybe you do, I don’t know what goddesses get up to in their free time.”
She tilts her head, unamused by my outburst. “You have not endured anything you weren’t meant to. This is your birthright, Phoebe. Take it.”
“I can’t!” The words come out as a sob, raw and broken. “Physically, I can’t. My body… it can’t take any more. I need to rest.”
Electra’s expression hardens, her form growing larger, darker, her white hot lightning shifting to a dangerous, glowing purple. When she speaks the ocean trembles around us. When she speaks again, her voice is booming, shaking the very water that surrounds us. “You’ll get your rest when you earn it, child.”
“I’m begging you,” I whisper, tears blurring my vision. “Please.”
Her form expands, blotting out the light as she transforms into a thunderstorm incarnate. Purple bolts arc around her, sizzling with raw power.
“You are the Storm Mother's chosen, daughter of Twilight. You do not get to escape your destiny by hiding behind a man. Thunder and lightning pour from your veins—this fate is yours alone. You will take it, or you will die like the coward you are.”
A crash of thunder louder than anything I’ve ever heard rattles the sea, and then she’s gone.
I’m left gasping for air, pain wracking my body once more. But this time, I don’t scream. I don’t cry. I clench my fists, my teeth grinding together as I growl through the agony.
“I am the Storm Mother’s chosen,” I snarl, my voice low and determined, forcing myself to believe it, forcing my body to listen.
Wake’s gaze sharpens, the concern melting from his face, replaced by the same fearsome resolve I feel. “Yes,” he growls back at me, bolstering me.
“I am the daughter of Twilight,” I pant, feeling something shift deep within me. Sparks flare beneath my skin, flickering like tiny stars breaking free from the core of my very being. Electricity hums through me, coursing through my veins like molten fire.
“Phoebe,” Wake mutters my name, but it’s barely a whisper, his voice filled with awe as the lightning in my blood begins to blaze brighter, no longer contained beneath my skin. It arcs out of me, swirling around my body in a halo of light.
The pain vanishes, replaced by the molten glow of electricity flooding through every part of me. “Thunder and lightning flow from my veins!” I shout, my voice ringing through the water as a deafening crack of thunder erupts around us.
From the depths, shadows stir. Something is coming.
But I don’t care. The power coursing through me feels unstoppable, like I’ve become one with the storm. The sea around us seems to hum in response, and soon, the shadows take shape. Creatures rise from the darkness—electric eels as long as school buses, and rays with wingspans that could block out the sun, their bodies pulsing with the same energy that’s sparking from my skin. Giant, glowing octopi drift closer, and jellyfish the size of cars sizzle and shimmer as they surround us as far as the eye can see, drawn to…me.
I glance down at myself, and my breath catches in my throat. My legs… they’re gone. In their place is a magnificent tail, pulsing with light, its scales a shimmering purple edged in silver. The deep violet of my fins fades into lilac as it reaches my hips. Intricate patterns of delicate lavender and diamond bright scales trail up my arms and shoulders. Like my great-aunt, ribbon-like fins flow from my forearms. When I move, light catches me in a hundred-thousand different ways, making me flash like lightning.
A coil of violet floats past my vision, and I realize with a start—it’s my hair. My dark chestnut locks are gone, replaced by a rich purple that seems to shift and glow with the light around me. I bet when I’m back on land, it’ll return to its usual color, the violet a mere hint in the sun. But here, in the sea, in my element—it’s alive with color.
I meet Wake’s eyes, and I see the quiet pride in his expression. His lips curl into a small, approving smile as he bows his head slightly, placing a fist over his chest. “Heiress,” he says, his voice filled with reverence.
I swim toward him, wrapping my arms around him in a fierce embrace. “I can’t believe this!” I exclaim, laughing with pure joy, the exhilaration of the transformation still coursing through me, all of the pain of rebirth flung to the fringes of my memory.
Wake grins, his sharp teeth gleaming in the dim light of the ocean depths. “Believe it,” he says. “There are many who have been waiting for this moment. They have been waiting for you.”
I glance around, my eyes widening as the sea creatures begin to circle us, their bodies glowing with the same electricity that flows through my veins. They’re celebrating.
My kingdom is celebrating.
Their heiress has finally come home.
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