Keeper

BONUS CHAPTER FIVE: Ash

What if... Cersei got to kill Jaime first? 

It's the dig of the blade, the way his brain slowly registers the impact in his chest, the feeling of his own blood trickling out onto his fingers the same way it had when Euron had stabbed him. 

Jaime felt the world begin to give out beneath him. I can't do this. I can't keep fighting. There's the vague recognition of someone else's voice in the distance, someone who isn't Cersei, and he hopes for a fleeting moment that Rhaella has come at last. His silent savior. 

Rhaella. Rhaella. Rhaella. 

His wife does not come until it's too late. 

Part of Jaime wonders as things begin to fade at the corners of his vision if he will be graced with the sight of his wife's tears one last time. There's no such thing. There's a raw, unbridled fury that lingers in the back of those enchanting blue eyes that he has not seen in quite some time. 

A fury that only comes from a dragon. 

Rhaella holds him against her chest as he goes. Jaime allows his head to loll on his wife's shoulder, whimpering something about wanting to stay, but all he can feel is the warmth of her around him and how safe he is. 

  "I love you," Rhaella whispers. Her eyes are solely focused on his despite Cersei still standing there with the blade dripping with Jaime's blood. "Be peaceful." 

He is. 

*** 

There isn't enough time for Cersei to comprehend what happens next. She sees her twin's body - her soul, her heart, her lover, the other half of her - laid on the ground of the remains of the Throne Room. She sees Rhaella's shoulders tremble, and she sees her remove her dagger from its scabbard. 

Then the eldest living Targaryen meets her eyes, and the whole world comes to a standstill. 

Now.. you don't want to wake the dragon, do you? 

Rhaella lunges. 

*** 

When Daenerys finds her sister later, Rhaella is sitting several feet away from the Iron Throne with Jaime Lannister's body nestled in her arms. Rhaegal is poised above her. The dragon seems to be keeping a watchful eye over his rider, eyeing Daenerys as she enters the throne room, but makes no noise of discontent otherwise. 

The first indication something is amiss is the smoldering pile of ashes at the foot of the Iron Throne. 

The second is that Cersei is missing, and the only thing ever indicating she was there to begin with is her crown. 

  "Rhaella," Dany starts, grimacing as she swallows the knot in her throat. The air is pungent with the smell of blood and ash. She thought after all that had happened since the destruction of the city at her hands that she would've grown accustomed to it by now. It's different whenever it's at the hands of your sister who would rather spare lives than take them. "What happened here?" 

Rhaella's eyes flickered upward to Daenerys. Any sign of the Dragon's Keeper was gone. All Dany could see staring back at her was a desire for fire and blood. 

Maybe loving Jaime Lannister had been the best choice for Rhaella, in the end. 

  "Cersei killed the love of my life," She replied, shrugging her shoulders absently as she did so. Rhaella adjusted Jaime's body and buried her face in grey hair. Dany understood. She too had a difficult time letting go of Khal Drogo in the hours following his passing. They'd had to tear her away from him in order for him to be buried. 

  "And so she woke the dragon."