The Heart of Judas

Faith can survive any lie. But can it survive the truth?Rome, 1517. As Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses send a shockwave through the Christian world, the Vatican moves to protect itself. Father Luca Moretti-a brilliant, cynical priest who trusts in parchment and logic over prayer-is ordered to scour the secret archives for any inconvenient truths that could fuel the Reformation fire. For Luca, it is a duty that affirms his deepest belief: that the Church is a magnificent, necessary lie, held together by secrets he is sworn to protect.
His search leads him to a place that doesn't exist: a sealed vault, erased from all records. Inside, he finds no dusty manuscript, but a horror of theology and biology-a supernatural relic that defies all reason. Suspended in a crystalline prison is the scarred, ancient, and still-beating heart of Judas Iscariot. The heart is not just alive; it is a source of forbidden knowledge, whispering the secret sins of saints and the crimes of popes directly into Luca's mind.
This discovery throws him into the path of Inquisitor Domingo de Valdes, a relentless and fanatical heresy hunter from the Spanish Inquisition who senses a dark power at work in Rome. Valdes believes the heart is a demonic plague to be eradicated, and he will burn the entire history of the Church to see it destroyed. Caught between a holy artifact that speaks of the corruption of faith and a holy warrior who embodies its most terrifying certainty, Luca is forced into a desperate game of wits and conspiracy.
To survive, he must confront his own crisis of faith and decide whether to embrace the power of the heart or be consumed by the Inquisitor's purifying fire. How can a man who believes in nothing become the guardian of the most damning and sacred object in existence?