“Your anger is justified, lad. It’s evidence of a good heart.” Achilles knows better than to argue or explain or rationalize in the face of Scout’s emotion. The boy is right, after all. “War turns men into beasts. I was not immune.”

He slips the stone back into a belt pouch and looks to Gavroche. “I killed the man responsible. His brother—the man who started the war by abducting the king’s wife—killed me in turn. Such is the cycle of vengeance.”

His hand returns to Pyrrhus’ bracelet, where he pensively thumbs each shell. “I never went home to Lamb and he resents me for it. As he should. He needed a father more than my fallen lover needed revenge.”