Chapter 340

Chapter 340

I have met vampires, witches, sorceresses, sorcerers, elves and fairies. I thought I had a decent understanding of what “powerful beings” looked like.

Giants were not on that list.

And neither were foxes the size of five-storey buildings.

Now I am standing in front of them, I realise how laughable my assumptions were.

The red nine-tailed fox and the white one are exactly as Scarlette described. Massive, elegant, terrifying in a way that doesn’t need effort. Their presence alone bends the air. The pressure is heavy enough to press against my bones, but there’s still something controlled about it, like they are restraining what they could truly do if they wanted to.

But neither of them is the real problem.

The one in the centre is.

A three-eyed sun fox.

It has golden fur that doesn’t look like colour so much as actual molten metal shaped into a body. Not yellow. Not gold-toned. Real gold. The eye in the middle of its forehead remains closed, while the two open ones glow an unsettling ultraviolet that doesn’t belong in nature. It has only three tails, but each one is enormous, thick with power, moving with a weight that disturbs the air around it.

It is beautiful.

Scarlette drops to her knees without hesitation and bows so deeply that her forehead touches the floor.

The gesture suddenly makes perfect sense.

The pressure filling the room is not merely power—it is authority. An ancient, overwhelming presence that presses against every instinct I possess and demands submission. The red fox and the white fox are terrifying in their own right, but the being seated between them exists on an entirely different level. Standing before him feels like standing before a force of nature, something so far beyond ordinary understanding that resistance should be impossible.

And yet I don't bow.

Not out of courage.

Not out of defiance.

I simply cannot.

Something deep within me rejects the very idea. Every time the pressure pushes down, something else rises to meet it, refusing to bend. Zinnia feels it too. Or perhaps she is the reason for it. At this point, I honestly can't tell where her instincts end and mine begin.

For a long moment, the vast chamber remains silent.

Then the Sun Fox laughs.

The sound is not a voice. It is closer to a thunderstorm breaking over a mountain range, deep and rolling and alive.

“A truly magnificent being you are,” it says. “She who lives within.”

A chill runs through me. My arms tighten around myself without thinking.

“Let me take this, Sapphire,” Zinnia’s voice slides into my mind.

Before I can argue, she takes over. My vision steadies, my body straightens, and then she laughs.

“I’m glad you are not like the arrogant elves who do not know their place,” she says. “You have good eyes. I thought you’d be blind, even with three of them.”

Panic spikes through me.

“Are you insane?” I snap internally. “Why are you provoking them?”

Zinnia doesn’t even bother answering properly. She just rolls her eyes in our shared space like I’m the unreasonable one.

“Can you hold back your aura?” she adds aloud, tone casual. “It feels like a challenge.”

The red fox shifts slightly, its tails sweeping to the side.

“You should watch your mouth, young one,” it says. “For her sake.”

Zinnia stares at it for a long moment, completely silent, as though genuinely deciding whether to break its face or its leg first.

I do not like where this is going.

Thankfully, the white fox speaks before anything escalates further.

“You did not come here to fight, did you?” Her voice is soft—dangerously so. Smooth like silk laid over something sharp. “Scarlette, child, do stand up.”

Scarlette obeys, though she settles into a cross-legged position instead of fully rising, keeping her head lowered.

“We already know why you are here,” the white fox continues. “We have been expecting you. If you would be kind enough to return the human, we would be grateful.”

The White Fox smiles warmly, the kind of smile that makes it easy to forget she is an ancient deity large enough to crush buildings beneath a single paw.

To my surprise, Zinnia seems to like her.

“Good,” White Fox says as Zinnia relinquishes control and returns me to my body. “I’ll do the talking. Those two scare you.”

Of course they do.

The Red Fox sounds like an erupting volcano every time he opens his mouth, and the Sun Fox looks as though he could accidentally end civilisation by sneezing.

My knees don’t shake, but only because sheer terror has locked them in place.

“Can you tell us about the curse?” Scarlette asks.

I stare at her.

I honestly have no idea how she manages to sound so calm.

My heart is trying to batter its way out of my chest, and every instinct I possess is screaming at me to remember that I am standing before three ancient beings who could probably erase me from existence without the slightest effort.

Yet Scarlette sounds as though she’s asking for directions.

“Unfortunately, no,” the white fox replies.

Scarlette doesn’t flinch. “What about Hiems Zales?”

The white fox shakes its head gently.

“I am sorry. I cannot help you with that. However, you should seek the temple of Selene in Greece. There, you will find the Book of Her Children.”

I blink.

“That’s not possible,” I say before I can stop myself. “Selene doesn’t have a temple.”

Scarlette glances at me briefly. “She does now. It’s not exactly a temple like you’re thinking. More like a repository—knowledge, history, records. It’s newer.”

I stare at her.

“Wow,” I mouth. “Do you know where it is, Scarlette?” I ask.

“I do. I found it while hunting a target.”

The White Fox nods enthusiastically.

Unfortunately, enthusiasm from a deity her size comes with consequences.