Page 44 of Exiles on Earth

His skin burns as if with a fever, and I curl my fingers back sharply. “Wow, that’s warm.”

“Too warm? Have I burned you?” he barks.

“No, it’s fine.” He really does care. It warms my heart. “Put me down.”

Slowly, he lowers me to the floor, and I lean against him, legs wobbly with shock. Soon I’ll be embarrassed, then fucking pissed I totalled my dad’s car, but for now, I’m just grateful we’re alive.

“Let me carry you home.” Ilia’s voice is a dark rumble at my side. “I… I would prefer it if I could hold you.”

I look up at the strong alien who only uses his strength tohelp me. Who’s only just learned it’s safe to express an opinion around me, and is doing it now.

“Okay,” I breathe.

He hesitates. “Okay affirmative, or okay negative?”

I wrap my arms around his neck. “Affirmative.”

Without missing a beat, he sweeps my legs into his arms, cradling me against his chest, and starts walking back up the track.

I watch the Landrover recede over his shoulder. “Fuck, what a mess. I don’t have the money to repair that.”

“We’ll do what we can. The internal combustion engine is ancient technology, so we’ll develop something more efficient.” His arms tighten around me. “At least you’re safe. You can’t be repaired or replaced.”

I rest in his arms, rocking gently back and forth as he makes it over the brow of the hill. Just when the house comes into view, a trickle of rain meanders down the cap of his shoulder muscle, magnifying the dark red scales. Except… it isn’t raining. The scales on his arms shiver loose like ruffled feathers. I put my finger to his arm, coming away red.

I gasp. “You’re bleeding.”

He glances down at the blood seeping along the joins of his scales, as if he’s only just noticed. “I had to push past my physical limits. My nanites will repair the damage overnight.”

“Put me down, you’re injured.”

“I… It’s not my preference,” he grumbles, a stubborn edge to his voice.

“Do I have to order you to take care of yourself?” I seethe.

“El-len…” He closes his eyes, holds me closer for one more heartbeat, and then sets me on my feet.

I feel terrible ordering him around, but really, it’s for his own good. “You’re always looking after everyone else, you need someone to tell you when you’re overstretching yourself.”

“So do you,” he challenges right back, but before I canrespond to that a shout goes up from the farmyard and he snaps into action.

Gara comes running up the hill, shouting, “Ilia, quickly. We need you, we need you to snap him out of it.”

“Who? What’s happening?” Ilia barks, back to leadership mode.

The green alien pants, “It’s Arture. He’s unraveling.”

The blue-gray alienlies in a corner of the lean-to, two of the purple aliens holding his arms to keep him on his back. The pilot twists like he’s being tortured, legs kicking, screams tearing from his throat.

A purple triplet rocks nearby, gray eyes haunted. “All splintered, no sense. Numbers streaming helplessly. Arture’s in agony.”

Another triplet glares up at Ilia, tears in his eyes. “We can euthanize him,” he offers quietly.

“Wait, what? What’s wrong with him?” I ask.

Ilia shakes his head, not looking at me.

Gara quietly explains, “He’s gone too long lacking knowledge of where he is in relation to Oloria. It’s… part of him, to know. Without it, Pranastocks break.”