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Jade stirred and her head rolled toward him She didn’t open her eyes, but she said in a quiet voice, “You told ree with any of this”

He brushed his fingers over her cheek “I didn’t Yet it wastothe demons on the human world in order to conquer it”

“What was the coround?”

“You’ll cringe at the irony of this”

She licked her dry lips, re him to dab balm on them, which the doctor had also left “Tell me”

When he was done with the balh and said, “Freedom”

That one word had innumerous connotations

“For the demons,” he continued, “if we usurped human power, the various species wouldn’t have to hide in the woods or atte hunted by slayers They could roae of everyday life without always looking over their shoulder They only had to follow a few simple rules when the ere over, and I found a vast portion of theer felt threatened by the human populace”

She was clearly groggy, but asked, “Why destroy all the cities? Burn the buildings?”

With a sigh, Darien said, “I never advocated that sort of mass destruction, but it ell beyond my control Dey or advancements Most of my kind hoped to restore the continent to the way it had been even before Columbus arrived We like nature, not skyscrapers Fresh air, not s”

“Pictures,” she said “I’ve seen pictures of the brown layer along the horizon It’s kind of disgusting”

“Doesn’t exist anyain,” he said, reflective, “neither do a lot of the comforts your kind was used to”

“Hard to miss what you never had”

He tried to take solace in that stateister What about the humans who had experienced those comforts? What about medical equip care of someone like her at a time such as this?

Obviously, he could drive his Instead, he said, “Back to sleep”