---
They filed out in groups under rough order, heading back toward the hidden lower routes with the kind of dangerous energy that made ordinary morning workers instinctively clear space and not ask questions.
The first lesser vampire from the night before fell into line naturally.
Raka looked back once before leaving fully.
Not at Mira.
Not at Bat Bat.
At Sekhmet.
No bow.
No dramatic line.
Only one sharp nod.
The kind men like him gave when a bond had moved beyond words and become structured.
Then he was gone.
His men with him.
The hall quieted.
The front chamber of the Dawn auction house returned, on the surface, to looking like a place where ledgers and objects mattered more than blood.
That surface was a lie now.
A stronger one than before.
Mira stood with her hands at her sides and watched the emptying room.
Her decision did not weaken just because the noise had gone.
If anything, it sharpened.
She had waited long enough.
She would tell him.
All of it.
