There was a general cry of relief when she was noticed, but it only took one inhale for her to know something had changed, something was wrong. The air tasted different, hostile, and with the threat of violence from the moment she appeared.
A hand grabbed her arm, and she was yanked out of the way as someone began to growl and she looked up.
Anubis was glaring at her, his lips pulled back in a feral show of intimidation that she hadn't ever seen before. He had growled at her and bared his teeth before, but it wasn't like that, it was hostile to the point where he was likely to attack her, his ears back and body crouched.
Glancing around the room, she saw that he was not the only one that was eyeing her warily, or had even taken a step back from her.
There were very few exceptions, Dirdos had grabbed her and Jagum had dropped into a battle stance, his bone claw at the ready, Bast looked confused as she stared at her, but everyone else looked wary.
She couldn't understand it at all, it made no sense to her, but then she looked at Anubis, really looked at him. His posture and reaction to her was incredibly familiar, and she tilted her head, his hostility growing until he took a step forward as their eyes met.
He was behaving exactly like a dog would when it came close to her, exactly like a dog facing a bigger, more dangerous predator.
Turning her eyes from him, she looked at the others and they were looking at her the same way, wary and alert of the threat.
The worst part was when her eyes met Kai's and realised, he had been tracking every movement she made, alert to the danger.
They were seeing her as they were meant to see her, the way they would have always seen her if her magical draw hadn't reached into them first. They saw her as a dangerous predator.
Withdrawing into Dirdos, her eyes stung with tears as he drew her backwards from the room, protective and wary of everyone who might try and attack.
Bast stood and followed after them, immediately followed by Letari, and Jagum brought up the rear, armed and ready to attack anyone who tried to come for her.
"What happened?" Dirdos demanded after he had pulled her into an empty office and the others had piled in, but his eyes had already found her wrists, grabbing her arms and twisting them to see the unbroken lines on her skin.
"Sobek?" Bast asked as she stepped closer to see.
"Yes... how did you know?" Etani asked, looking up at the Goddess and then at Dirdos. It was a surprise that he hadn't reacted to her like the rest.
"It's what he likes to do to bothersome Fae who he wants to punish," she said, looking annoyed.
"He said the Gods decided I needed to be stopped fully."
Bast growled angrily, her long fingers curling around the marks to hide them.
"I'll get him to remove them," she said, but Etani could see the doubt. She was only one voice against the choir of fear.
"Why don't you hate me?" she asked Dirdos, understanding the others, but not him. Felines had never been afraid of her, seeing her as similar to them in the grand scheme of predators. Just another big cat trying to survive, and while they didn't tend to trust her, they had an understanding. Don't kill and move on. It was the others who saw her as a threat, they rarely had the same mentality on her.
"Your magical leash never worked on me. I've always seen you exactly as you are now," he said, stroking back her hair.
"They are afraid of you," Letari said gently, looking pained and Etani felt a spark of annoyance as she had to tilt her chin up slightly to see her sister's eyes. She thought she understood how Letari had felt all those years.
"They see me as a threat, a hungry predator and they're the sheep," she said, narrowing her eyes when Letari grinned at her and rolled up onto the balls of her feet to show off her height.
"I think they will come around after the initial shock wears off. No one was prepared for the fox to be dropped into the henhouse," Bast said gently.
"More like a tiger," Dirdos growled playfully.
"At least the vampires should recover quickly, Daemon should be over it already, but I'm not sure about the rest. It might be in your best interest to avoid Anubis completely," Bast said, trying to hide her smile at Dirdos' comments.
"How are you going to eat?" Letari asked, and all eyes turned on her in alarm.
"I will have to ask Epharis to make more of that arcane blood mix."
"You know that won't work for long," Letari said angrily.
"I can drink human blood, the two should work," she lied, unsure of how long it would last.
"I'll lock you up, we don't want another... incident."
All eyes turned to Letari and Dirdos tilted his head in question, but Etani didn't want to hear it, moving away from the group while Letari whispered the story of the village. Leaning against the wall, she slid down it until she was sitting, wrapping her arms tightly around her legs and staring up at the ceiling.
She didn't want to play anymore, she was sick of their games and their manipulating her, she didn't want to be controlled or contained, and yet they were insistent on it.
"I'll go talk to him. I'll be back soon," Bast said, and throwing a glance in her direction, the Goddess vanished into mist. Jagum prowled over to her and crouched down at her side, the bone claw gripped hard in his paw, and he was alert to any sounds around the area.
"You're not going to use that on me again, are you?" she asked him and he jerked slightly, listening hard to the silence.
"Not this time," he grinned.
"Right to the gut!" Letari cried gleefully, making a motion as though stabbing herself in the stomach.
"You stabbed her?" Dirdos asked, leading Letari over to her and Jagum.
"We were trying to get werecat magic. I knew him from the war, and so Daemon decided to go to him for help. He didn't recognise me, and they darted us. Daemon told me to run, so I did. Was heading back when that bastard steps out from behind a tree and skewers me," she explained.
Jagum boomed out a laugh, ruffling her hair. "You looked like a tiny fire running through the forest so fast none of us could really see your face. Had you have been darted like a good girl, it might have ended differently."
"I might also have ended up in a cage with Uzo and Daemon," she said, swatting at his hand.
"Or eaten. You looked really tasty," he teased.
The door open and everyone turned to it, Jagum stepping forward and dropping into a defensive position between her and the door as someone slipped inside.