Page 47 of Resisting the Alien Rider

It wasn’t a full, formal wedding dress. More of a strappy sundress. But I loved it anyway. It was beautiful and whimsical and edged with gorgeous lace. I’d been so excited when I’d chosen it. So honoured to wear it for my wedding. I’d kept it as clean as possible, packing it as carefully as I had wrapped up the little ship in a bottle Nelson had given me.

I shook it out and held it up, running an appraising gaze over its shape. Before, when I’d looked at this dress, I’d seen love and longing and hope for something better. It had represented something magical,something nearly miraculous. My own happily ever after.

Now, when I looked at it, I simply saw a dress. A dress with a flowy skirt which gave me plenty of fabric to work with.

I grabbed my scissors and my suture kit from the med kit.

And then I got to work.

18

GARREK

The next morning, we fully circumvented the forest. The mountains came into unobstructed view.

I would have been able to hear Magnolia’s gasp of wonder even if she weren’t riding right beside me, and even if I didn’t have such excellent hearing. It was like every sense I had was entirely attuned to her these days.

“Oh. It’s beautiful,” she breathed, clutching Shanti’s reins together in her hands.

The ground rose slowly, up and down like waves, growing steeper and steeper until the vast hills were no longer golden green with grass but the piercing peaks of mountains. In the distance, it appeared a few of them were still capped with snow.

“Do you have mountains where you come from?”

“Yes. But it feels a bit different,” Magnolia said, her gaze still turned forwards. “Terratribe II is mostly agricultural and tourism-focused. Everything is very… manicured, I guess. Everything has humanity’s stamp on it. I’ve never seen anything like the landscapes here. It all feels so untamed and wild.”

I could show you more of the wild places of this world. I could take you anywhere you wanted.

“Why do you look so tired?” I asked. I’d seen her rubbing at her eyes a lot today, and I did not think it was due to dust. I remembered the words I’d spoken to her last night in anger, and hated that something I said might have disturbed her sleep.

“Oh. Nothing. I was just up a bit late working on your…” She stopped, cutting herself off. “Um. I was up late reading.”

“A romance book?”

From the side, I saw her smile, and I briefly felt time halt.

“Always a romance book,” she said, turning that smile on me.

“You could… You could tell me about it. If you want.”

Stupid. So colossally stupid. I’d spent every day trying to drag myself further and further away from Magnolia. I’d limited conversation with her. Made sure there was never a reason for her to touch me, or me her.

It hadn’t done a thing to help.

And now, here I was, looking at all those sacrifices I’d made – and they were sacrifices, because every time I stepped back from her I earned another invisible scar – and I was acting like they had never happened at all. All that work, and here I was falling back into her theway I’d fall from a shuldu. A breathless careen. With a potentially lethal end.

But I could not stop wanting to talk to her. I needed her happiness the way I needed air. I remembered her mentioning how much it had meant to speak about her books with the old man Nelson.

And I wanted her to speak about them with me.

“You want to hear about the romance book I’m reading?” Magnolia regarded me with wide eyes.

“Yes.”

“Oh!” She dropped her gaze, a shyness entering her voice and her posture that made me feel fidgety and feral with the need to protect her.

“Well, alright, then,” she said.

As soon as she began to speak about the story, her eyes lit up as surely as a Zabrian’s would when something deeply excited them.

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