Jim Gem's Arc

Chapter 8 of 23

The night after their session at the waterfall, Jim held Lena in her bed until she slept. He stayed awake a while, listening to the water outside hush the loft. Her hand still rested on his chest, where it had pulled his shift back all day. He'd fought that wolf alone for ten years. Now she pulled it under with a touch. He fell asleep with her breath warm against his neck. He woke first. Gray light came through the window. Lena slept against him, one arm thrown over his ribs. Her dark hair spilled across the pillow. Off the trapeze, off the tower, she looked younger. No stage smile. No quick joke ready. Just her, breathing slow. Jim watched her and understood something he'd been dodging. He'd come back to Mosswood for a place to practice. A guard. An anchor for his shift. He hadn't planned on this. He hadn't planned on loving the girl who used to dare him off rooftops when they were kids. He moved slow so he wouldn't wake her. He stroked her hair, brow to crown, the same way she'd stroked his the day before. Her face stayed soft. His heart picked up, and this time no shift woke under his skin. Only this. He bent and kissed her forehead. "I'm not leaving again," he said, quiet. "Whatever I become. I'll come back to you." Her eyes opened. She'd been awake. Of course she had. "Big words for a man in his underclothes," she said. But her voice cracked on the last one. Jim didn't laugh. He held her gaze. "I mean it, Lena." He caught both her hands and pressed them flat against his chest, over the heartbeat she trusted more than his promises. "Feel that," he said. "When it races, you calm it. That's not a stage trick. That's you and me. I need you at the waterfall. But I want you here too. In this bed. After." Lena stared at their joined hands. A tear slid down and she didn't wipe it. "Okay," she whispered. The same word she'd given him the day before. This time it meant more. She kissed him, slow, and his pulse climbed. He waited for the heat, the wolf, the bones wanting to bend. It didn't come. He held the kiss and stayed a man the whole way through. Her touch had done what ten years of will never could. Jim pulled back and looked at her. Something had shifted, and not his skin. He'd found his anchor and named it. Now he could push the wolf further, chase the dragon further, knowing she'd catch him. The finding was done. The mastering could begin.