Don't argue. Never deign to deny. Meet insults with laughter.

Why won’t you leave me alone?” I whispered one night as he hovered behind me while I tried to work at my desk.

Long minutes passed. I didn’t think he would answer. I even had time to hope he might have gone, until I felt his hand on my shoulder.

“Then I’d be alone, too," he said, and he stayed the whole night through, till the lamps burned down to nothing.

David looked at me, then, the regret plain on his face. No matter what I said, we both knew the hard truth. We do our best. We try. And usually, it makes no difference at all

I've seen what you truly are," said the Darkling, "and I've never turned away. I never will. Can he say the same?

Maybe love was superstition, a prayer we said to keep the truth of loneliness at bay.

I will strip away all that you know, all that you love, until you have no shelter but mine.