---
They slipped back into the city like shadows returning to their cage before dawn. The walls swallowed them. The streets grew quieter. The lanterns thinned.
Sekhmet did not look back. Vera and Vela followed, hunger calmer now, discipline stronger. Bat Bat kept glancing at the rooftops like she expected Elena to be sitting there with a homework book and vengeance.
The night air felt cold on Sekhmet's throat where the earlier bites had left faint marks. They were heading toward Dawn House, keeping to the darker routes, counting time by instinct.
Because if they returned too late, servants would notice. And servants noticing was how secrets died…
A few streets away, in a different part of Slik City, the world was still awake.
Not the streets.
Not the market.
The mansion.
