"Oh," Gray said. "Okay, so, it's kind of...complicated. We were all in different situations until we were eight. Um. Some of them weren't good. But I was with my dad, my dad raised me, so I knew all along! And my dad was great! He was also totally evil and he still wants to conquer the world and subjugate humanity, but he was a great dad. And then the angels found out about this prophecy about us, and they sent Lazarus to go get us. By which I mean kidnap us, mostly? I know Bell came willingly, and Daman was basically feral in a forest so I don't think that counts as a kidnapping." You know. Technically.

"Anyway, he raised us until we were eighteen. It was like. You could think of it like boot camp." You know. Boot camp for eight-year-olds that you kidnapped. "I don't think he was used to kids. He was one of the earliest angels and that whole generation was made, not born. And we were, you know...he never really knew how to deal with our sins. So it was, um. It was not great. And some of my brothers' sins didn't really kick in until puberty, so that was...yeah.

"But if they'd stayed with humans that would have been really bad, too, so I get what you mean about it being better than the alternative."