Page 160
Story: The Unfinished Line
“Even you, Ddraig Fach,” her dad had razzed when her swimming prowess had gotten too big for her boots. “Get caught in that, and I’d be scooping you up in England.” Dillon had rolledher eyes, her twelve-year-old ego blustering that she could swim anything.
Turning her attention to the south, where the horizon disappeared across the Bristol Channel, Dillon ventured off the pathway onto the jagged cliff edge. It was her favorite part of the island, the steep rockface giving way to the gaping mouth of a colossal cave stretching deep beneath the ocean’s surface.
The Dragon’s Lair, her father pointed out on her first trek to the lighthouse. He’d spent the afternoon spinning a tale of a fierce sea dragon—the protector of Wales—who preyed on poaching fishermen sailing too close to the Gower.
“What’s his name?” Dillon had worried a loose tooth with one hand while clutching the safety of her father’s arm in the other. Anxious to catch a glimpse of translucent scales, she’d risked a glance over the edge to stare into the black opening of the cavern.
She could still feel the warmth of her father’s strong forearm. See the way he had smiled. “Who said it was a he?” He ruffled her hair. “It’s well known the bravest hunters are female.”
Banishing the memory, Dillon picked her way onto a rocky crag jutting over the water. The wind had risen, stirring the ocean into a canvas of white caps, the spindrift misting her sea-soaked trainers.
Uncomfortable with the height, she dropped to sit amongst the pink blossoms of long-stemmed Sea Thrift and yellow clusters of Bird’s-foot trefoil sprouting from the sparse soil. In a nearby thicket, a joyful birdsong chafed against her unraveling nerves.
She wanted to scream. To curse the boundless beauty all around her.
Angry, she plucked the tender white petal off a bindweed corolla and flicked it over the edge, watching the flower drift into the abyss of the cave’s mouth.
She’d given up. When it mattered most, she’d done what she did best—she’d run away. She’d buckled.
She could blame it on her knee. She could blame it on the agonizing toll the months of recovery and return to form had taken on her body. Or point to the fatigue she’d been battling.
But it was none of that. If she had raced, she could have won. Even hurting. Even tired.
The truth was, she’d simply not been strong enough to handle the pressure.
If the mind is willing, the body will follow. Had that not been the mantra she’d risen to every morning? The proverb that filled her dreams at night? The creed she had lived by? It had gotten her through thousands and thousands of exhausting miles. Through injury. Through burnout. Through sheer moments of misery.
But this time it had failed her.
This time she’d been—shewas—weak. Weak in ways that had nothing to do with her physically.
The media would be on a feeding frenzy. All the doubters, all the haters, all those who’d been waiting, willing her to fail—it was finally their moment ofI told you so.
None more so than Henrik.
Drückeberger, he’d taunted.Quitter. Coward.
And all she’d done was prove him right.
Tearing another petal from the bindweed, she crumpled the delicate flower, bitter at its determination to blossom in the unforgiving terrain.
What did it matter now, any of it? She’d never race again.
For a long time, she sat looking across the channel, thinking about her mam. About the way she fought to hide her quiet disappointment. Her unspoken resentment. And Seren, who was always there to lift her up, never asking anything in return.How tired she must be of catching someone always one step away from a fall.
And then, of course, there was Kam. Kam, who had changed her life, making it all feel worthwhile. Kam, who had gifted her her generous heart, her selflessness, her unending capacity for love—receiving so little in exchange.
But also Kam, who lived in the shelter of her ivory tower, where she could hide behind her optimistic naivety, pretending there were no disparities, no adversities, no unscalable obstacles driving them apart.
Dillon pressed her palms against her temples, trying to clear her mind.
It wasn’t real. A fleeting part of her—distant, stifled, smothered beneath her sinking despair—cried to be heard. These thoughts were invasive. Untrue.
Her mam didn’t blame her.
Seren was strong, capable of supporting the weight of two.
And Kam?—Kam loved her.Fortheir differences.Forthe circumstances that made their relationship unique. She didn’t care about anything else. She just loved her—forher.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 140
- Page 141
- Page 142
- Page 143
- Page 144
- Page 145
- Page 146
- Page 147
- Page 148
- Page 149
- Page 150
- Page 151
- Page 152
- Page 153
- Page 154
- Page 155
- Page 156
- Page 157
- Page 158
- Page 159
- Page 160 (Reading here)
- Page 161
- Page 162
- Page 163
- Page 164
- Page 165
- Page 166
- Page 167
- Page 168
- Page 169
- Page 170