Page 70 of Tragic Empire

Apollo gives me an assessing look, not saying a word.

“You wanted to speak with me?” I ask awkwardly.

“Next time you want to kill someone for saying something you don’t like, agree with them.”

“W-what?” I stutter, not sure I heard him correctly.

He continues to look at me in a way that I can’t decipher. “Agree with them,bondwith them, and then invite them to a private location. Once you’re secluded,thenyou kill them.”

“Oh.” I blink, processing the advice. “So, Dante isn’t mad at me, but you are?”

“I’m not mad,” he disagrees. “I’m taking care of you. What if she had a guard, hmm? What if someone shot you in retaliation? What if the wrong person caught you on camera?”

Guilt flushes up my neck and I frown. “I didn’t think that far ahead, I was just so furious…”

“Which is why you’re not being reprimanded. You think you’re the first Moretti to do something dangerous and illegal unplanned in public? You’re not. But now that you’ve done this, you’ll remember it. You’llthinkbefore you act again. If Nico can restrain himself, so can you.”

My stomach clenches and my reply is a broken whisper. “You think I’m like Nico?”

First I’m like Cole and now this?

“Similar,” Apollo tells me with a shrug. He doesn’t comment on the scared tone of my question, merely answers it as he would anything else. “But no, not the same.”

Tears well but none fall as I blink them away.

“Being like Nico isn’t a bad thing, Ana.”

He has to say that. Nico is his brother, and he loves him.

Looking at the apparent despair on my face, Apollo sighs and rolls his neck. “I’m going to tell you this because you appear vulnerable and unnecessarily disappointed and Idon’t like that.”

Swallowing, I meet his eye. “Tell me what?”

“Nico… Nico is my favorite brother.”

I did not expect that. In fact, I couldn’t have guessed he was going to say that if there were a million dollars on the line.

“He is?”

“Do you understand how special it is to kill without remorse? The vast majority of human beings have to be trained in order to take a life at all, and they tend to be riddled with guilt and regret following the act. Literal soldiers freeze on the battlefield before pulling the trigger and they’re actively under attack.”

Tilting his head, he pauses like he’s watching the information sink in through my eyes. “People like to think that the world is overflowing with evil, and it is, but they forget just how drastically normal almost everyone is. That’s why it’s called normal. Nico, like you, like me… we are not normal.”

I breathe out shakily, listening as Apollo continues to speak.

“Nico enjoys the kill. He thrives in a torture session, and he’s methodical even in his enjoyment of it. You don’t hesitate to kill, and you don’t feel guilty, but you worry about what that says about you.”

“And you?” I ask, voice wavering.

“I care about this family and nothing else,” he replies without blinking. “Nothing. Else.”

I don’t understand how, but Apollo seems to be making me feel better. Perhaps he’s right. Why should I feel shame for something that isn’t shameful in this family? I don’t live in the normal world, so maybe expecting myself to be normal is silly.

“Shouldn’t you not have favorites?” I blurt out suddenly. “How can you choose between so many brothers?”

Apollo laughs dryly. “Nico is my favorite brother because he’s somehow got a piece of all of us in him. He’s quiet like Remo, determined like Leon, brooding like Elio, charming like Emilio—even if he’s acting while he does it. He’s picky with his clothing like Armani, he’s calculating like Cassio, and despite his typically dark demeanor, he’s as sarcastic as Matteo. And like me, he doesn’t give a singular fuck about anyone outside of this family.”

So… Nico is his favorite, because he’s actually all of them?