Page 16 of Bound to the Marak

The one who had silenced a chamber full of predators with a single word. Who had bought her, caged her, and brought her aboard a ship that pulsed like a living heart. The one whose shadow loomed behind every corner of this impossible place.

Now, he was here.

Leonie couldn’t move. Her limbs refused to obey. Her mind stalled, caught between terror and disbelief.

He didn’t speak. Didn’t shift.

He simplystood, cloaked in shadow and silence, his towering form outlined in the soft, spectral glow of the chamber walls. The mask on his face—a seamless, glistening black—was shaped to reflect nothing. No eyes. No mouth. Just that single vertical ridge that ran down its center like the blade of a sword.

A mask carved for gods, not men.

Leonie’s hands moved without her permission, clutching the soft sheets and pulling them instinctively up to her chest. As if that thin layer of fabric could protect her fromhim. It was laughable. Childish.

But she couldn’t stop herself.

Her heart thundered in her ribs.

He didn’t advance. Didn’t raise a hand. He simply watched her.

And in that long, unbearable silence, awe began to creep through her fear.

She had never seen anything like him.

He was tall—inhumanlytall—and perfectly still. Still in the way deep ocean things are still, motionless only because they are waiting. His cloak shimmered with a barely perceptible motion, as though it flowed through currents no one else could see. His very presence dominated the room. Bent it around him.

This is no ordinary being, she thought, her mind racing.He’s not just some alien warlord. He’s something… more.

“Who…” she began, her voice cracking through the silence. “Who are you?”

A pause.

Then a voice.

Deep. Resonant. So low it vibrated in her bones. A single word, like the stroke of a gong across water.

“Karian.”

She repeated it, dazed. “Karian.”

The name didn’t sound like a name. It sounded like a title. Like something ancient. It echoed in her ears, commanding reverence by its mere utterance.

He raised a hand.

Slowly. Deliberately.

A simple gesture.

Come.

Leonie hesitated. Everything in her body told her to stay where she was. But another force—just as primal—pushed her forward. A need to understand. A deeper current of curiosity that fear couldn’t drown.

She sat up.

The sheets fell from her shoulders as she moved, and she felt the air on her skin. Cool. Expectant.

Karian stepped forward.

And extended his hand.

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