"Because he loved you. Because he knew what was coming and wanted someone on your side when the walls came down."
Tears and rage and grief twisted together in my chest until I couldn't separate one from the other. "I came here for answers. You stole that from me."
"He would have told you the same things I already did. About whoever's pulling the strings. About the conspiracy using us both." Lorenzo's next words came quieter, almost gentle. "You'd have made him suffer, and he knew it. I gave him mercy."
I’d spent the entire flight to Rio imagining what I’d do to my father if it turned out he was involved in child trafficking, and Lorenzo was right. I would have tortured him. I’d have cut him once for every child he’d ever hurt, and once more for every time he’d ignored me to focus on his work with the Pantheon.
Lorenzo had stolen that from me by giving him a clean death.
I dug the blade in harder. Blood ran faster now, hot and slick against my fingers. "Give me one reason not to kill you."
"Because whoever set this up wants you to." Lorenzo's whisper barely reached me over the bass thumping through the walls. "They gave me the coin. Made sure I'd have to kill him. Made sure you'd find me here." He paused. "Killing me won't bring him back. Won't answer who did this to us. It just finishes what they started."
He was right.
God help me, he was right.
But that didn’t mean I was going to let him just walk away with my father’s blood on his hands.
Lorenzo suddenly twisted and wriggled free. I lunged after him, and we crashed into the booth's table together. Glass shattered under my back, cutting through my shirt. The Judas coin went skittering across the floor in a spray of liquor and shards that bit into my palms.
His knife sliced past my ribs, fabric parting, then skin. Fire bloomed along my side. I caught his jaw, knuckles connecting hard. We went down together, rolling across broken glass that bit into my back, my shoulders. When we crashed into the bar, bottles exploded around us, alcohol spraying across my face.
He came up bleeding, nose streaming red. "Fuck, Rafael. You really know how to hold a grudge."
"You killed my father!" I threw a punch at his face that he deflected easily. I was getting too angry, too sloppy.
"You think I wanted to kill the only father I ever knew?" Lorenzo barely dodged my next strike. "You think this was easy? That I wanted this? If I’d had any other choice…" His voice cracked and tears welled in his eyes. "He saved from a cage where I was kept like a dog.”
“He bought you like athing,” I pointed out.
“He did both. Dionysus was the first person who touched me without hurting me. Who taught me I could be something other than an animal. Who made me human again." Tears cut tracks through the blood on his face. "And I killed him because some bastard gave me a coin, and I was too stupid to see the trap until it was too late. Because I'm just a weapon someone pointed at the only person who ever loved me."
He gestured at Dionysus's body, and his whole arm shook. "So don't tell me this was easy. Don't tell me I'm not dying inside rightnow. Because I am. I'm already dead. You're just deciding whether to make it official."
Blood pooled on the stone floor between us, spreading slowly toward the booth where my father sat cooling.
I took a step toward him, but before I could say or do anything, the door slammed open and the same Judge from the courtyard in Rome entered, revolvers drawn. Rhadamanthys. He paused and glanced around with a frown. "It's done then."
Lorenzo stepped away from me. "Here to finish the job?"
"I gave you time to say goodbye. To complete the coin's demands in dignity." Rhadamanthys’ jaw tightened. "But you knew what came after. We both did."
"Like hell," I snarled, pointing my blade at Rhadamanthys. "He’s mine. He killed my father. You don't get to walk in here and execute him on some technicality."
The elevator chimed, and the doors opened, letting six Sacra Custodia pour in armed with assault rifles. Fuck. They’d found me already.
Rhadamanthys swung his guns toward them. "What the hell is this? This is a Pantheon matter. The Church has no authority here."
The Sacra Custodia fanned out without a response. Lorenzo shifted behind the bar, hand moving toward where Dionysus's pistol must be.
Rhadamanthys kept both revolvers trained on the Sacra Custodia, his entire body coiled tight. "I said stand down. You're violating an international treaty. Leave. Now."
The Sacra Custodia in front tilted his head, listening to something through his comm. Then he raised his rifle and opened fire on all of us.
Rounds cracked past my head. I dove behind the overturned table as wood exploded around me. Rhadamanthys spun and fired. Twooperatives dropped, masks cracking. He dove for cover as return fire chewed through the space he'd been standing.
"This is insane!" Lorenzo shouted from behind the bar. "How did they even know—"
