Page 43 of Exiles on Earth
“Dogs,” he says without hesitation, earning a laugh from me.
“Why’s that?”
He turns wide eyes to me, like I’ve trapped him.
“Again, no right or wrong answer,” I reassure him. “I just want to understand.”
Scales settling, he begins, “Starhounds are adventurous, yes, and supposedly loyal. I like how free they are whilst also tending to those they care about, and I can see the same in Floss.”
That was so beautiful, my eyes prickle with tears. “I prefer dogs, too. I love how utterly devoted they are.”
Ilia nods eagerly, like he’s filing away the information.
I gesture to the rain pattering the Land rover windows. “What about weather, what kind of weather do you like?”
“I can survive in any weather… but that’s not a preference,” he corrects himself before I can.
“Right. I suppose if you like changeable weather, you can get it all here in the UK. Rain, snow, sunshine, the lot.” I chuckle.
“It rains here a lot, but I suppose… I like the rain.” He turns toward me. “I like it here.”
And my heart just about stops. His earnest face strips everything from me, all my careful justifications, my secret worries. He’s with me, here and now. And isn’t that all humans have, the present moment, with the future never guaranteed?
He takes a deep breath. “What about you, El-len, do you like spicy?—”
My phone vibrates in the console, and I automatically pull it out in case it’s a call from Mum about Dad. Instead, my stomach hits my boots on the bouncing floor of the Landrover.
Terry. Terry’s calling me.
Why the fuck is he calling me? Now?
Ilia grips the dashboard. “El-len, the ledge?—”
The Landrover slips, my breath catching as it hurtles forward. The vehicle lurches, tilting at a gut-wrenching angle. Before I can process it, we’re tipping, and my stomach flips as the world outside blurs into a frantic swirl of sky and hillside.
A sharp crunch echoes through the cabin as the side of the rover strikes the ground, jolting me with the force of a punch. My head collides with the doorframe, and the vehicle groans under its weight. But we keep tipping, and I white-knuckle the steering wheel as if it can stop the inevitable. As we tip onto the roof, I brace myself for the metal to crumple in and crush us.
“Ilia!” I scream.
Red light bathes the cabin. Ilia’s massive hands, glowing with barely-contained power, thrust against the ceiling above me as the rover comes to a rest upside down. His scales shimmer like fire burning beneath his skin, and the muscles of his arms bulge big enough for his scales to rupture, ripped open. His face sets in a fierce snarl, veins standing out like cords along his neck as he pushes back the collapsing roof.
The rover groans, metal bending under his strength, but it doesn’t cave in. It holds. He holds.
“Drok na,” he growls through gritted teeth. “I’ve… got it. Get out, El-len.”
I nod, head radiating pain, and scramble to unbuckle my seatbelt. My hands are shaking too much to work the button, but I don’t have to. Ilia twists his body, one massive arm still braced against the roof, and rips the belt free like it’s paper. Then he punches my door, and it flies out in a crumpled heap of metal and shards of glass.
“Out,” Ilia orders, the first command I’ve heard from him. Before I know it I’m crawling out, dragging myself through thecrumpled doorway. The second I’m clear, I drop onto the loose dirt outside, trembling as adrenaline courses through me.
Behind me, the metal gives another tortured groan. Ilia pushes himself out of the overturned rover, his glowing arms flexing as he hauls his massive frame out like the crushed vehicle is nothing more than an inconvenient obstacle. He heaves in breaths, his skin shimmering with that eerie red glow, but his eyes lock onto me, steady and unyielding. And then he paces down, scooping me up gently, turning me over in his arms looking for bruises. It’s impressive since I’m no lightweight; I have a sturdy body honed from pulling sheep out of the scrapes they find themselves in, but he’s handling me like a toy in his hands.
“Are you okay?” he asks, his voice rough but calm.
I nod, though my fingers won’t stop shaking. “You… you saved us.”
Rolling his massive shoulders as the glow begins to fade, he nods. “Of course. Now, I need to get you home.”
I swallow hard to test if that eases my breathing, but it doesn’t, my breaths coming short and fast. I put a hand flat on his chest.
