Chapter 230: Into the Hidden Dark
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Mira was there first, standing straight but with her hands held tighter than usual. Auri stood near her, shoulders set, eyes sharp, trying to look composed and failing just enough to prove she was worried.
The twins were beside them, silent in that way only twins could be when both were thinking the same thought and neither wanted to say it first.
Behind them stood the maids, three women who were clearly trying to decide whether to bow, panic, or start cleaning the blood off everything before anyone officially asked.
Then they saw Sekhmet.
Then Elena.
Then the two strange women walked like elegant disasters.
Then Lady Seraphiel.
Confusion moved across the group in a wave.
Mira blinked first. Auri blinked second. One of the maids made the tiny sound people made when they saw something so above their pay grade that even screaming felt unprofessional.
Elena stepped forward before the questions could burst all at once.
"She is a guest of the house," Elena said calmly, indicating Seraphiel.
No one interrupted.
No one dared.
Then Elena’s gaze shifted toward Sofia and Natasha.
"And these two," she continued, "are enemies and prisoners."
That landed.
The twins straightened.
Auri’s eyes narrowed.
Mira looked from the sealed women to Sekhmet, then back again, probably trying to count how many different disasters had happened in her absence and whether any of them could be solved with common sense. Her expression suggested the answer was no.
Lady Seraphiel stood there with effortless poise, pale and unreadable under the lantern light, giving nothing away except an aura of controlled danger so refined it made the night feel less like air and more like a drawing room with very sharp furniture.
None of them knew her.
That much was obvious.
Then the silence shattered.
"SEKHMEET!"
Bat Bat came shooting across the courtyard like a tiny black complaint given wings and legal immunity.
She flew straight at him, swerved once around his head, then landed on his shoulder with the force of offended affection.
"Why did you not take me?" she demanded instantly. "You always leave when something fun happens. This is discrimination. This is bat oppression. This is—"
She stopped.
Her tiny nose twitched.
Her eyes narrowed.
Then narrowed more.
She leaned toward his neck and sniffed again with the seriousness of a tiny detective discovering government corruption.
"You smell different," she said.
The whole courtyard went quiet again.
Bat Bat sniffed a third time, then gasped dramatically.
"Stronger!" she announced. "You smell stronger! And bloodier. And richer. And ruder. You ate without me."
Sekhmet closed his eyes for one second.
Only one.
Bat Bat turned and spotted Sofia and Natasha.
Her ears perked. Her tiny chest puffed up.
"Oh," she said, voice brightening with immediate malice. "Who are these two sad decorative sticks? Why do they look like someone stole their favorite grave?"
Natasha looked at her with pure disbelief.
Sofia actually stared.
Bat Bat pointed one tiny wing dramatically. "Silver one looks like she lost an argument to a chandelier. Dark one looks like she has never laughed once in her life. Did both of them get dropped in mud as children?"
The maids froze.
Auri looked down very quickly, which was suspicious because people only looked down that fast when they were hiding reactions.
One of the twins coughed. The other one magically needed to examine a nearby stone.
Sekhmet reached up, took Bat Bat gently off his shoulder, and held her in front of his face.
"Enough," he said.
Bat Bat blinked. "But I just started."
"They are half-gods."
That changed everything.
Her ears slowly lowered.
Her tiny face lost all its theatrical courage in one very honest instant.
She turned her head and looked at Sofia and Natasha again, this time not as targets for mockery but as creatures whose titles had abruptly become much larger than their current shape.
"Oh," she said in a much smaller voice.
Then, because Bat Bat was still Bat Bat, she floated upright, cleared her throat, and gave the prisoners a little nod.
"Very unpleasant to meet you," she said politely.
Sofia’s mouth twitched.
Natasha looked offended by the entire species of bats.
Sekhmet put Bat Bat back onto his shoulder and looked at the others.
"I am putting them in a safe place where nobody can find them," he said.
That drew everyone’s full attention.
Even Seraphiel’s gaze sharpened with interest.
Sekhmet stepped a little away from the main courtyard path and lifted one hand. Void energy stirred at once, black and silent, folding the air inward. Darkness peeled open in front of them like the world had been cut with a hidden blade. A doorway of deep void formed, its edges rippling without sound.
The maids recoiled.
Not with screams. With pure, respectful terror.
One of them clutched her chest. Another took one involuntary step behind Mira. The third stared like she had just seen a tax collector emerge from the mouth of the moon.
The twins did not react much. Auri did not either. Bat Bat only puffed herself up proudly.
They had seen it before.
Elena also remained calm. She had already seen Sekhmet use it.
But Lady Seraphiel’s brows lifted.
"Well," she murmured. "You really do collect strange things."
Sekhmet glanced at her. "It is from a Void God ruins. I got lucky."
Seraphiel looked at the opening again, this time more carefully. "Lucky," she repeated in a tone that clearly meant that is one word for it.
Sekhmet continued, "Only I can access it."
That earned another look from her. This one longer.
Sofia and Natasha stared at the void entrance without hiding their shock now. The earlier arrogance in both of them had cracked again. Half-gods recognized rare things quickly. Their silence said enough.
Sekhmet stepped forward first.
The darkness did not resist him. It welcomed him.
"Come," he said.
Auri moved immediately. The twins followed. Bat Bat fluttered off his shoulder and zipped through the void doorway with the excitement of someone entering forbidden storage.
Mira hesitated only one breath before stepping after them, and the maids followed because Elena moved, and when Elena moved with that level of certainty, wise people imitated her.
Lady Seraphiel went in as well.