Page 24 of Sold to the Nalgar
And below them… a planet.
Red and white clouds swirled in slow, hypnotic spirals across its surface. Oceans gleamed in scattered patches: blue, dark,mysterious. The whole world glowed under the light of a massiveredsun, suspended low in the black void.
It wasn’t Earth.
Nothing about it was Earth.
She wasn’t anywhere near Earth.
Her hands curled into the fabric of her robe, heart hollowing as the reality punched through her again.
She was light-years from home. Being taken to a place she didn’t know. By someone—something—she couldn’t understand.
And still… he said nothing.
At last, he lowered her to her feet.
There was a seat beside the pilot’s chair—minimal, cushioned, fitted with thin harness straps. He looked at her. Pointed to it.
Not violent.
Not even unkind.
Just…expectant.
As if obedience were a given.
She hesitated.
But she didn’t fight.
Not now.
Not with her heart still racing and her knees unsteady and the aftermath of near-death still coursing through her veins like fire.
She sank slowly into the seat.
And he—silent, smooth—settled into the pilot’s chair beside her. His armor creaked softly. Lights flickered across the controls, symbols she couldn’t read pulsing faintly to life under his gauntleted hands.
She couldn’t look away from the view.
The planet grew larger in the viewport. Swallowing everything. Red light bathed the cockpit in eerie glow. The ship tilted.
They began to descend.
She gripped the seat.
Because she was no longer just in space.
She was heading down.
To his world.
CHAPTER 13
TheTurakresponded to his touch like an extension of his own mind.
Sleek. Deadly. Faster than any other vessel in the skies of Anakris, it carved through the upper atmosphere in silence, the inertial dampeners absorbing the descent as crimson clouds streaked past the curved canopy. Below, the jagged ridgelines of his domain stretched out like the spines of a great beast—harsh, untamed terrain wrapped in the blood-red light of the dying sun.
