Chapter 6

It was warm.

Not that bone-chilling cold anymore. The fever had broken.

"Three months..." Oliver's throat bobbed hard, his voice so rough it was almost cracking. "Three whole months. I went through every doctor, priest, and witch in Harmony City. Not one of them could bring her fever down. You..."

He turned to look at Lucas.

A godfather of Harmony City, kneeling in front of an eighteen-year-old boy. Not a trace of awkwardness about it.

"What do you want?"

Oliver's eyes locked onto Lucas and didn't let go.

"Starting today, you're an honored guest of the Colombo family."

"The estate, the businesses, the connections — take your pick."

Lucas didn't respond. He leaned against the broken bedpost, caught his breath for a few seconds, then reached into his backpack and pulled out the brown kraft paper envelope.

His hand trembled slightly, and two things slipped into his palm. The silver cross clinked softly against his knuckle. The bronze badge flipped between his fingers, the goat skull design catching the dim light with a cold gleam.

He held the badge out toward Oliver.

"You recognize this?"

Oliver was still half-kneeling beside the cracked floorboards. The moment he glanced up and saw the badge, he went completely still.

He pushed himself to his feet, grabbed Lucas's wrist, and held the badge up to the light. He turned it over and over, rubbing his thumb along the grooves, stopping where the horns curved.

"This thing... where did you get it?"

Oliver's throat was dry and tight. His Adam's apple moved twice before the words came out.

Lucas noticed his reaction. A godfather who'd ruled Harmony City's underworld for forty years — he'd been calmer on his knees just a moment ago than he was right now.

"Tell me why you're reacting like that first."

Oliver didn't answer. He turned and walked to the corner of the room, pulled open the bottom drawer of a hidden cabinet, and dug out a black velvet box. Snapped it open.

Inside, lying perfectly still, was an identical bronze badge.

The same goat skull. The same twisted, curling horns. The same ancient symbols carved all over it.

Lucas felt his heart lurch.

"This is the Colombo family's sacred relic." Oliver placed both badges side by side in his palm. "There are only three in the world. One is mine. One is in Sophia's room. The third one..."

He stopped.

He looked up, eyes fixed hard on Lucas.

"The third one went missing twenty years ago. It disappeared along with a child I lost."

The room went quiet. Only Sophia's steady breathing remained, rising and falling.

Lucas's mind exploded into chaos. A child lost twenty years ago? Three family relics? The horns hidden beneath his hair, the Pan bloodline stirring inside him, the words the Evil Spirits had spoken — "royalty"... Every piece was falling together, pointing toward a direction he had never once considered.

"This badge was left to me by my grandfather." Lucas thought for a moment, then spoke.

"Your grandfather?" Oliver pressed. "What was his name?"

"Alfredo."

Oliver's lips moved slightly, silently repeating the name twice. Then he shook his head.

"Don't know him." He stared at Lucas's face, scanning his features three times over. "How old are you?"

"Eighteen."

Lucas was quiet for three seconds, then kept going.

"I was abandoned on the doorstep of the Moretti Estate. They said I was born with horns, so they sent me off to the countryside for my grandfather to raise."

"You said you were left at the Moretti Estate... Victor took you in?" Oliver's brow furrowed as he looked at Lucas.

"Took me in?" Lucas let out a cold laugh. "Dumping me in the countryside for eighteen years without a single word — you call that taking me in?"

Oliver was silent for a moment. The agitation faded, and something deeper rose in its place.

"Then how did this badge end up with your grandfather?"

"That's exactly what I'm trying to find out." Lucas slipped the badge back into the envelope and pushed it into his backpack. "My grandfather came to Harmony City to find a doctor for me. Victor gave him some address just to get rid of him. The next day, he was dead out in the outskirts."

Oliver's face darkened, inch by inch.

"An address Victor gave him?"

"Yes."

"Your grandfather came to Harmony City carrying the Colombo family's sacred relic. Victor sent him out to the outskirts. And then he died." Oliver laid out the whole thing again, and with each word he said "died," the weight around him grew heavier.

The two guards in the hallway took half a step back without thinking.

"One more thing." Lucas added calmly. "The Moretti family sent me here to take Marco's place. It was Marco who hurt Sophia, not me. They want to trade my life for his."

Oliver didn't explode.

He went quieter than before.

That kind of quiet was ten times more frightening than rage.

He stood at the window with his back to Lucas, shoulders perfectly still. The air in the entire hallway turned solid.

At the far end of the corridor, Anthony quietly edged two steps toward the staircase, wishing he could press himself into the wall.

"How long?" Oliver said.

Lucas didn't follow. "How long what?"

"How long have I been asking the Moretti family to hand someone over?"

The guard beside him could barely get the words out. "Th... three days, sir."

"Three days." Oliver turned around. Every muscle in his face was pulled tight to its limit, a vein standing out at his temple. "I gave them three days to hand over the person who hurt my daughter. They spent three days finding a scapegoat to send over, and they expect me to kill him and call it done?"

No one dared say a word.

Oliver picked up the phone from the nightstand and dialed a number. It connected after two rings.

"Get everyone together at..."

After he hung up, he turned to face Lucas. This time, there was no suspicion on that face that had seen forty years of blood and violence. No testing. Only something burning hot enough to scorch.

"Come with me."

"Where?"

Oliver pushed the door open. His shoes crushed the scattered talisman papers on the floor as he walked toward the stairs, one step at a time.

"To the Moretti Estate. To drag out the person who actually hurt my daughter —"

"— with my own hands."