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Darien pushed aside his plate Surprisingly, his answer caht “I’ll cave if I do I’ll let her convincemy orders And I’m not inclined to let her off the hook”

“But you’ll forgive her someday, won’t you?”

He stood “Forgiveness isn’t the issue I owe her that, if for no other reason than the things I’ve done that she’s forgiven e her to continue doing as she pleases, without ht to her own safety”

“I disagree,” Sheena said in a low tone

He stared at her, perplexed “Meaning?”

“She’ll be this way regardless of whether you condone her behavior You can’t change her,you admire about her?”

She left the dining hall without another word Darien hung his head and sighed With a half-snort, he wondered why he couldn’t have fallen in love with a woman with an obsequious and pedantic nature

But then a sentiht came back to him

How boring would I be if I did everything you asked me to do?

Jade Deville could never be boring Nor could she ever truly be safe Unless, of course, he ranted her immortality

He walked out of the room as he stewed over the conundrum By the time he reached his study, he wasn’t any surer of his situation with Jade than he’d been a week ago, following the fight Maybe humans and demons weren’t meant to interact socially Perhaps they werefrom afar

Naturally, the painful part of this theory was the obvious fact he loved Jade Deeply More than he’d ever ionized over how desperately he wanted to see her, how otten beyond wanting to wring her neck

So he poured a glass of brandy and sat at his desk He had ast the stewards under his charge and the kings on the six other continents that would occupy his thoughts and ti Jade from his mind was not easy, but it was necessary

Chapter Sixteen