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"When I see how you look at Damon." There, it was said. He continued, painfully. "Before he came
home, you and I were together every day. My father and yours were pleased, and spoke of marriage
plans. But now the days grow shorter, summer is almost gone – and you spend as much time with
Damon as you do with me. The only reason Father allows him to stay here is that you asked it. But
why did you ask it, Katherine? I thought you cared for me."
Her blue eyes were dismayed. "I do care for you, Stefan. Oh, you know I do!"
"Then why intercede for Damon with my father? If not for you, he'd have thrown Damon out into the
street…"
"Which I'm sure would have pleased you, little brother." The voice at the door was smooth and
arrogant, but when Stefan turned he saw that Damon's eyes were smoldering.
"Oh, no, that isn't true," said Katherine. "Stefan would never wish to see you hurt."
Damon's lip quirked, and he threw Stefan a wry glance as he moved to Katherine's side. "Perhaps
not," he said to her, his voice softening slightly. "But my brother is right about one thing at least. The
days grow shorter, and soon your father will be leaving Florence. And he will take you with him –
unless you have a reason to stay."
Unless you have a husband to stay with. The words were unspoken, but they all heard them. The
baron was too fond of his daughter to force her to marry against her will. In the end it would have to
be Katherine's decision. Katherine's choice.
Now that the subject was broached, Stefan could not keep silent. "Katherine knows she must leave
her father sometime soon – " he began, flaunting his secret knowledge, but his brother interrupted.
"Ah, yes, before the old man grows suspicious," Damon said casually. "Even the most doting of
fathers must start to wonder when his daughter comes forth only at night."
Anger and hurt swept through Stefan. It was true, then; Damon knew. Katherine had shared her
secret with his brother.
"Why did you tell him, Katherine? Why? What can you see in him: a man who cares for nothing but
his own pleasure? How can he make you happy when he thinks only of himself?"
"And how can this boy make you happy when he knows nothing of the world?" Damon interposed,
his voice razor-sharp with contempt. "How will he protect you when he has never faced reality? He
has spent his life among books and paintings; let him stay there."
Katherine was shaking her head in distress, her jewel-blue eyes misted with tears.
"Neither of you understand," she said. "You are thinking that I can marry and settle here like any
other lady of Florence. But I cannot be like other ladies. How could I keep a household of servants
who will watch my every move? How could I live in one place where the people will see that the
years do not touch me? There will never be a normal life for me."
She drew a deep breath and looked at them each in turn. "Who chooses to be my husband must give
up the life of sunlight," she whispered. "He must choose to live under the moon and in the hours of
darkness."
"Then you must choose someone who is not afraid of shadows," Damon said, and Stefan was
surprised by the intensity of his voice. He had never heard Damon speak so earnestly or with so little
affectation. "Katherine, look at my brother: will he be able to renounce the sunlight? He is too
attached to ordinary things: his friends, his family, his duty to Florence. The darkness would destroy
him."
"Liar!" cried Stefan. He was seething now. "I am as strong as you are, brother, and I fear nothing in
the shadows or the sunlight either. And I love Katherine more than friends or family – "