Updated Mar 10, 2026 • ~7 min read
Three weeks after Isolde’s death.
The manor is changing.
Green returning to the forest. Gardens beginning to bloom. The oppressive magical weight lifting.
Sera and Damien work side by side.
Replanting. Rebuilding. Restoring what the curse destroyed.
It’s exhausting but hopeful.
Two full moons have passed since Scotland.
Neither resulted in transformation.
Damien remains human throughout.
The curse appears broken.
Completely.
“I still can’t believe it,” Damien says one morning.
They’re in the garden. Planting roses. Catherine’s favorite.
“Believe it. We won.”
“Did we though? It feels too easy. Too clean.”
“We destroyed Isolde’s artifacts. She died. The curse lifted. That’s not easy. That’s hard-won.”
Damien nods.
But something in his expression troubles Sera.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know. Just a feeling. Like something’s unfinished.”
“The curse is broken. Isolde is dead. What else could there be?”
Damien can’t answer.
But the unease remains.
That night, Damien has a nightmare.
Sera wakes to him thrashing. Screaming.
“Damien! Wake up!”
His eyes snap open.
Glowing.
Golden.
Inhuman.
Sera scrambles back.
“Damien?”
He blinks.
The glow fades.
Human eyes returning.
“I’m sorry. Did I hurt you?”
“No. Just scared me. Your eyes were glowing.”
“They were?”
He gets out of bed. Looks in the mirror.
Normal now. But the fear is there.
“The curse,” he whispers. “It’s not gone. It’s dormant.”
“How do you know?”
“I can feel it. Beneath the surface. Waiting.”
Sera joins him.
“Isolde is dead. The artifacts destroyed. How can the curse still exist?”
“Because I haven’t fully forgiven myself. Gideon said that was the key. True forgiveness. I thought I had. But maybe I haven’t. Not completely.”
“What do you still feel guilty about?”
Damien is quiet.
Then: “Catherine. Even with her forgiveness, I still feel responsible. Still see her body. Still remember what I did.”
“The beast did that. Not you.”
“The beast is me. That’s the problem. I keep separating them. Man and monster. But they’re the same. I am the beast. The beast is me. And until I accept that, forgive that, the curse will linger.”
Sera takes his hands.
“Then we work on that. True self-forgiveness. Real acceptance.”
“What if I can’t? What if the guilt is too deep?”
“Then we keep trying. For as long as it takes.”
The next few days are tense.
Damien experiences more symptoms.
Enhanced hearing. Heightened aggression. Low growls when startled.
The beast is waking up.
“The full moon is in one week,” Marcus says. “If the transformation happens—”
“It won’t,” Damien says. Too quickly. Too defensive.
“My lord, we should prepare. Just in case.”
“I said it won’t!”
He storms out.
Sera and Marcus exchange worried looks.
“He’s in denial,” Marcus says.
“He’s terrified. There’s a difference.”
“Either way, we should prepare.”
“Agreed.”
They begin reinforcing the tower.
Stronger chains. Better locks. More protections.
Hoping they won’t be needed.
Preparing in case they are.
Five days before the full moon.
Damien and Sera are in the library when he collapses.
Clutching his chest.
Screaming.
“Damien!”
Sera runs to him.
His skin is burning. Bones shifting beneath.
A partial transformation.
In the middle of the day.
Nowhere near the full moon.
“No no no—this isn’t supposed to happen—”
Marcus appears.
Helps drag Damien to the tower.
He’s fighting. Half-conscious. The beast trying to emerge.
They get him locked in just as the transformation completes.
The beast roars.
Throws itself against the walls.
Sera watches through the small window.
Heart breaking.
“I thought we broke it,” she whispers.
“So did I,” Marcus says grimly. “But perhaps Isolde’s death wasn’t enough. Perhaps the curse is more deeply rooted than we thought.”
“Then what do we do?”
“We wait. We watch. And we hope Damien can fight it from the inside.”
The transformation lasts six hours.
Longer than previous ones.
More violent.
When Damien finally reverts to human form, he’s covered in blood.
Not his own. An animal got into the tower somehow.
A rat maybe. Or a bird.
The beast killed and ate it.
Sera enters carefully.
Damien is huddled in the corner.
Sobbing.
“I killed again. I thought it was over. But I killed again.”
“Just an animal. Not a person.”
“This time. What about next time? What if the beast gets stronger? What if I can’t control it?”
Sera kneels beside him.
“We’ll figure this out. The curse is weaker than before. This proves it. The transformation happened out of cycle. That means it’s unstable. Breaking down.”
“Or evolving. Getting worse.”
“We don’t know that.”
Damien looks at her with haunted eyes.
“What if Scotland didn’t break the curse? What if it just changed it? Made it different? Unpredictable?”
Sera doesn’t have an answer.
Because she’s wondering the same thing.
Three days before the full moon.
Gideon visits.
Sera tells him everything.
“The transformation shouldn’t be happening,” Gideon says. “Not if the curse truly broke. Unless…”
“Unless what?”
“Unless Isolde had a failsafe. A way to ensure the curse continued even after her death.”
“How is that possible?”
“Curses can be layered. Primary and secondary. We destroyed the primary—her direct control. But the secondary might have been embedded in Damien himself. In his guilt. His self-hatred.”
“So even with Isolde dead, the curse persists because Damien can’t let go?”
“Exactly. The curse feeds on his psyche now. Not external magic. Internal demons.”
Damien, who’s been listening, speaks.
“So I’m cursing myself now? Great.”
“In a sense, yes. Your guilt is keeping the transformation active. Until you truly, completely forgive yourself, it will continue.”
“I’m trying!”
“Trying isn’t enough. You have to actually let go.”
“How? How do I forgive myself for killing my sister? For ten years of violence? For becoming exactly what Isolde wanted?”
Gideon is quiet.
Then: “You accept that you’re human. Flawed. Capable of both great good and terrible mistakes. You accept that the curse happened to you, not because of you. And you accept that Catherine’s death, while tragic, wasn’t murder. It was an accident caused by magic beyond your control.”
“It feels like murder.”
“I know. But feelings aren’t facts. The fact is: you were cursed. You transformed. Catherine died in a tragic accident. You are not a murderer. You are a victim.”
Damien’s hands shake.
“If I’m a victim, why does it still feel like guilt?”
“Because guilt is easier than grief. Guilt gives you control. Something to fix. Grief is just… loss. Accepting you couldn’t prevent it. Couldn’t change it. That’s harder.”
The words land.
Damien breaks down.
Years of guilt finally cracking.
Revealing the grief beneath.
The loss. The helplessness. The pure, overwhelming sorrow.
Sera holds him while he cries.
While he finally lets himself mourn instead of self-flagellate.
While he begins, finally, to heal.
Two days before the full moon.
Damien is quieter.
More introspective.
He visits Catherine’s grave.
A simple marker in the garden where she died.
Sera gives him privacy.
He kneels there for hours.
Talking to the sister he lost.
Apologizing. Grieving. Letting go.
When he returns, his eyes are red but clear.
“I told her everything. All the guilt. All the pain. And I let it go. Really let it go.”
“How do you feel?”
“Lighter. Like I’ve been carrying a boulder and finally set it down.”
“Do you think it’s enough? To stop the transformations?”
“I don’t know. But it’s progress. And right now, that’s all I can ask for.”
The night before the full moon.
They prepare one final time.
Tower reinforced. Protections in place.
But this time, Damien seems calmer.
“Whatever happens tomorrow, I can handle it. The beast isn’t my enemy. It’s a part of me. A damaged part. But still me.”
“That’s very evolved.”
“I’ve had a lot of therapy recently.” He smiles. “Courtesy of a very stubborn wife who refuses to let me wallow.”
“Someone has to keep you honest.”
They go to bed early.
Tomorrow will be the test.
The final full moon.
Either the curse is truly broken, or it persists.
Either Damien’s growth is enough, or the beast wins.
There’s no way to know until it happens.
So they sleep.
Holding each other.
Trusting that whatever comes, they’ll face it together.
And hoping—desperately hoping—that this time, finally, the curse is truly over.
Reader Reactions