Page 28 of Fastest Kill

"Your father would have said the same thing," he said, softly. "Almost exactly."

Dario swallowed hard. "Yeah. I know. He was good like that."

Frederica became aware that she had been staring at Dario for the past several minutes without looking at anyone else in the room, and that her parents had almost certainly noticed.

Shit. That can be an argument for another day.

Serapis reached for his wine again. "Rodrigo's cooperation won't come cheap. Leo will not come at all, at first. And Altun⁠—"

"Altun will be worse than Leo," Dario confirmed.

"And she has more than a right to be," Serapis replied, looking old and upset again. "After she drained my power, I thought a lot about what she said that night. Her sister and others in the Aurora abused her, and I didn't know the full extent of it. I kept my distance even when I was their leader, and I didn't watch them as I should have. The hurt they caused her is partially on me. It will be up to her to decide how I will make amends for that."

Dario nodded in agreement. "You two will work that out between yourselves. I think Kon will help eventually because he will see Agrippa as a threat. Athena goes where Kon goes, and once Altun sees that those two aren't burning this house down with you in it, she'll hear you out. She's too good a tactician to let personal feelings get in the way of strategy, and she won't like the idea of Agrippa walking about in the world. Give her everything. Make amends somehow, and she won't be able to resist the mystery of it all, not to mention the magic."

"She never could," Serapis said with a small smile. "She was never really interested in power. She just loves magic for itself."

"As for my brothers, they will need to be convinced the enemy isn't you," Dario continued. "But after that? They won't stop until they have eliminated Agrippa. When he is dead, you might still be fucked, to be honest."

"I can live with that, and if Altun asks for my head, I'm most likely going to agree to it," Serapis said with a tired sigh. "I just need Agrippa gone first."

Despina rose to her feet and patted Serapis's arm. "Good. We are in agreement. It's late, and we are all tired. You're staying the night."

Serapis blinked in surprise. "That's kind of you⁠—"

"I'm not being kind. It's too late to go anywhere, and you look like you haven't slept in weeks." Despina topped up his empty wine glass. "We have another guest room, and it's not a bother."

Serapis looked around the table. First, at Tore, steady and watchful. Then at Frederica, who kept her expression carefully blank, and finally at Dario, who was watching him like he still hadn't decided whether he wanted to hug him or shoot him.

"Thank you, Despina," Serapis said and meant it. "I would love to be a guest in your home."

Dario reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He turned it in his hand once, twice, looking at the screen without pressing anything.

"I'm going outside," he said to no one in particular. "I need five minutes before I call Rodrigo." He glanced at Frederica briefly. "Don't let anyone steal my wine."

He walked out of the room, and in a few seconds, she heard the back door open and shut. She smiled at Serapis, and it was all threat.

Now that we are alone, old man, it's my turn.

12

Frederica picked up the bottle of wine on the table and refilled her glass, staring at the files spread across the table. That morning, it was a puzzle; now it was the shape of a war started by the man on the other side of the room.

Frederica had a big mouthful of the wine and let the buzz calm some of her emotional turmoil. She would only have a certain amount of time to grill Serapis, but she had to make sure she didn't start yelling first.

Out in the dark garden, Dario was making a call he couldn't take back. She could see the pale glow of his phone screen through the glass of the back door, and she had the irrational urge to go and make sure he was okay.

Or to pick a fight. Or to kiss him. Do anything to make him not look like someone had rummaged around in the most hurtful parts of his mind and stabbed at them.

Something in her chest did a slow, unwilling squeeze that she didn't want to think about too hard. Maybe she would just have to give in and admit the big idiot was her friend.

"He reminds me very much of his father," Serapis said quietly, not to anyone in particular.

"Hmm, so you keep saying. You better not be doing that just to fucking manipulate him either," Frederica replied, leveling him with a look that usually had people reaching for their weapons or running.

"Frederica…" Despina said in a softly warning tone.

Frederica didn't look away from Serapis. His eyes glinted, showing a bit of fire still under the exhaustion. Yeah, fuck it. She wanted to poke at him because he had done the same thing to Dario, and it pissed her off.