Jim Gem's Arc

Chapter 21 of 23

The pains started at dawn. Lena gripped the bedpost and breathed through her teeth. Jim knelt beside her, one hand on her back. His heart slammed. The scale on his chest flared hot, and black edges crept up his wrist. He looked at his own arm and made it stop. Not with her touch. With his will. He would not shift today. Not now, not while she needed his hands to be hands. "Get her," Lena said. "The silver one. You promised." Jim ran. He came back with the elf who had delivered Kai and Azure's son. Seraphina Silverleaf moved through the wide door without a wasted step. She was calm in a way that filled the room. She set down a cloth bundle and studied Lena's face. "How far apart?" she asked. "Close," Lena gasped. "Real close." Seraphina pressed both hands to Lena's belly. Green light glowed under her palms. "The child is ready. So are you." She looked at Jim. "You hold her shoulders. Do not let go." Jim slid behind Lena and braced her. Her nails dug into his forearms. He felt the scale pulse with every wave of her pain. His hands wanted to change. He pictured claws against her skin and pushed the picture down. He kept his fingers soft. "Push," Seraphina said. Lena screamed. She threw a joke through her teeth. "Worst crowd I ever had." Then the joke was gone and only the work remained. She pushed. Jim held. The room narrowed to her breath and the elf's steady voice. "Again," Seraphina said. Jim pressed his mouth to Lena's ear. "I've got you. I'm not going anywhere." His voice shook. His hands did not. Lena bore down one last time. A cry rose that was not hers. Small and furious. Seraphina lifted a wet, squirming shape into the gray morning light. A girl. Dark hair, matted to her scalp. And along the baby's forearm, faint under the skin, a line of black scales caught the light with a purple glow. Jim went still. His own scale answered, warm against his chest. Seraphina wrapped the child and laid her on Lena's chest. The elf looked at the scales, then at Jim. She said nothing, but her green eyes held his a moment longer than they needed to. She had seen. She knew. "She's got your mark," Lena whispered. Tears cut down her face. She touched the tiny arm. The scales did not frighten her. They never had. Jim looked at his daughter. His blood ran in her, and the dragon with it. Not a thing he had chased alone anymore. A thing he had passed on, breathing in Lena's arms. He had spent years trying to master a form for himself. Now the form had a second heir, and she was hours old. Lena cried tears of joy and kissed her husband.