Jim Gem's Arc

Chapter 16 of 23

The wedding happened at the waterfall, where else. Ire tied their wrists with a strip of cloth and half of Mosswood cheered. Lena flipped off a rock into the pool, her costume under her dress, and came up laughing. Jim watched her and knew the tower was easy compared to this. The dragon in his blood came from a line he'd never met. The woman from his old dreams had a face he couldn't place. Now the face was Lena's. He wanted to give her a place that made both true at once. A home worth the dragon and worth her. He started the next morning. He shifted large forms to haul stone from the hidden cave east of town, then shifted back to lay each block by hand. Day after day, the walls rose beside the falling water. Lena climbed the scaffolds and passed him mortar, quick and sure, like the trapeze taught her feet. On the tenth day she stopped mid-climb. "It's big," she said. "For two people." "For more than two," Jim said. She went quiet. Her hands stilled on the rope. "You want our kids in a stone box on a cliff?" He froze and his heart ached at her harsh words. He stared at her in hurt. “Wow. I was building all of this for you and me and maybe a family like we’d talked about and now you speak like it’s a pile of junk…”