Raphael gaped at Andreas. It was impossible. It couldn’t be true. He knew his brother wasn’t a saint, very far from it, and that he had assaulted women in the past. But killing a child? An innocent little child? That wasn’t like him. Andreas had to be lying. That was the only explanation.

“You are lying,” Raphael argued.

“Who is his brother?” Zane asked Andreas after having been quiet for so long that Raphael had forgotten he was even there.

Raphael fixed a glare on Zane. “My brother is John Argeno. Your sister’s betrothed, and he would never kill a child.”

Andreas’ expression was darker than Raphael had ever seen. He was not playing games. “Don’t you dare tell me I am a liar! I saw him murder my brother with my very own eyes!”

“You were seeing things!”

“I wouldn’t put it past him… he did try to rape my sister,” Zane interjected, his tone also taking on a darker quality. “And she was only sixteen at the time. He doesn’t seem to mind what age someone is.”

Andreas turned to Zane and grabbed his collar. “If you tell me that you didn’t do anything to avenge your sister from that man, I will make you wish you have never been born.”

Unfazed, Zane pulled Andreas’ hand free. “She’s my sister of course I did something about it! I care about her a whole lot more than you do! I have had years of looking after her, you have known her for a mere couple of months!”

Andreas’ eyes narrowed on Zane. “Yet somehow she was taken to her death on your watch!”

Zane squared out his shoulders. “Yes, and what happened to her on your watch? Is she safe at home reading a book right now? Or is she, I don’t know, already on the stake? She was taken on your watch too, so what does that say about the great and powerful Andreas Grigoli?”

“Zane, I know you think you are brave, but right now is when you should back off if you still value your life. As much as I hate to admit it, you do not want to get Andreas angry,” Raphael said as he judged Andreas’ reaction. The dark cloud was swirling around Andreas with a greater intensity than it had when he had been in the Argeno home.

Andreas stared at Raphael, his gaze burning into Raphael’s soul. “You hate me with every fiber of your being and I don’t blame you. I haven’t done anything good in my life after my brother died, with the exception of saving Lana. But, I can admit I am a bad man. Your brother cannot. Nor can you admit that there is an evil within him that may even be worse than my own. I have lines I will not cross. Your brother, has none. You can either accept he has faults and do something about it, or you can continue to delude yourself into thinking he isn’t really that bad. You have the power to stop him. And if there is any part of you that cares about him at all, however misjudged that part may be, you will set him straight before I get my hands on him. Because I promise you, if I ever see him there will be nothing left of him to save.” The tone in Andreas’ words actually shook Raphael to the very core of his being. He had heard what it was like to experience the darkness taking hold of Andreas, but he had never witnessed just how chilling that could be. It was very different trying to take on someone evil when you have only heard about the things they had done without having actually seen them. Raphael was beginning to think he had been a little overconfident before. Andreas didn’t seem like someone to underestimate.

Raphael didn’t want to believe that his own flesh and blood was on the same level of darkness as Andreas. He didn’t want to think about an innocent child murdered for no reason, or any reason. But he couldn’t deny that Andreas’ words held truth to them. Why else would he just shrug Zane off after he had visibly started getting upset with him? Why else would he rather make sure that Raphael got the message about John rather than defend himself against Zane’s accusations?

Before Raphael could reply, Andreas turned his gaze toward Zane, the anger in them gone. It baffled Raphael to find great sadness in them instead. Everything he once thought he knew about the sorcerer was called into question. “You are right. She did get captured on my watch as well and it’s entirely my fault. But that does not mean that I won’t do everything in my power to correct that mistake. If she dies, I will never be able to forgive myself, so you can trust that I will spare no inch of effort in order to prevent her death.”

Zane’s eyes mimicked the shock Raphael was feeling. Neither of them had expected Andreas to admit he was at fault. They didn’t think he had that in him. But Raphael especially didn’t think that Andreas would ever feel guilty about anything. Was it possible that Lana had this effect on him? Raphael thought now more than ever that she had to be the girl in the prophecy. And that ‘undoing’ might have a very different meaning than he had hoped.

Maybe the best way to defeat the dark sorcerer was to bring him over to the side of light. Raphael had been blinded by rage, doing exactly what he accused Andreas of doing. How did that make him any better? Revenge fueled him. He thought that Andreas was only acting out of the joy he got at seeing people suffer, but what if there was more to it than that? If John had really killed Andreas’ little brother, it would explain a lot of things. Suddenly the world seemed less black and white to Raphael. He was discovering that that there was always a shade of grey.