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The doctor spared one ress, if you wouldn’t hness And tend to her burns as soon as it’s safe to move her”

“I’d prefer that, in fact But she does see periods when she’s injured”

“I’ll leave my visits to your discretion, then”

Davian experienced a moment of hesitancy as his concern for Jade’s condition caused hi her back to health this ti than with the broken hand and wrist

But as her breathing turned steadier with sleep, not as labored as it had been previously, he said, “Please coive her some time to heal more—you’ll likely be able to remove the stitches at that point”

“Very good”

Davian saw Schaeffer out of the cottage and then noticed the bottle of wine on the accent table in the living roolasses in her tiny kitchen and poured a hearty ae Jade’s improvements

The laceration on her chest still appeared angry and red, despite being laced up He couldn’t see if she’d ainst the pillows From the way she occasionally squirmed on the bed, he deduced not

He sipped the wine and tried to get his anxiety under control When he felt he could speak calmly and rationally—without his deepest fears of whether she’d live or die edging his tone—he leaned close to her and spoke It was a ga to help her recover, like every other chance he’d taken along that vein But perhaps his voice …

“I told you I’ve regretted the result of the war,” he quietly said “But I didn’t tell you why”

He pulled in a full breath Held it in his lungs for a spell Then exhaled on a long strea himself for another confession

“My great-grandfather atteainst the hun, however, eventually passed without any success toward his randfather felt he was in the position to take up the quest, when settlers came to North America and the territory wasn’t so heavily populated with humans Sometime thereafter, my father followed suit with his plans for war All three failed in h force to accooals Or persuade others of military influence and importance to rise up and join the movement across the continents”

Davian sipped before continuing

“Transporting demons from landing an effort to undertake The vampires couldn’t resist the human blood on the ships that crossed the ocean The shifters couldn’t survive the captivity And other preternatural beings had difficulty going undetected There werethose ti priests on board to perform exorcisms”

Sailing the Atlantic from Europe to America in the mid-1800s had proved difficult for Davian as well, mostly because he’d abhorred the isolation and lack of physical space