Felix.”I freeze at the sound of the distant voice and look up to find my mother’s apparition standing by the window in my bedroom. Agonizing heartache mingles with deep-rooted hatred, rendering me speechless.“Felix,” she repeats, her eyes filled with sorrow. “With the curse broken, my time here is limited. My magic has fused with the palace, but my soul must move on, at last.”She approaches me with such tenderness in her gaze that I find myself standing motionless, uncertain how to respond. Her hand rises to my face, and I let my eyes close for a moment.noveldrama“My beautiful boy,” she whispers. “Throughout the years, I’ve watched you grow up, Felix. I’ve always been by your side. I was there when your father whispered lies into your ears, turning you against me even after I passed. I was there when you fought against the curse that was never meant for anyone but your father. Watching you suffer the consequences of the hatred I felt toward your father was the ultimate punishment. I’ve always been told that a price must be paid for a curse as cruel as mine, but I never thought it’d be one so high. Watching the only person I have ever truly loved suffer decade after decade, powerless… it tore me apart. I’m so proud of you, my son. I know how heavy the burdens you carried were, yet you never wavered, you never stumbled.”I stare at her in disbelief. “You didn’t curse me?”She shakes her head as a tear drops down her face. “Never, my darling. I swear it. It was your father I cursed—I cursed him to live a life without love, one in which he’d never experience any kind of warmth, not even in the moment he took his last breath. Unbeknownst to me, my curse extended to his entire bloodline… to my own son. The moment I first laid eyes on you, I felt love so intense that every emotion before it paled in comparison. There is nothing I wouldn’t have done for you, Felix. Even then. The second I felt the curse latch on to you, I used my last breath and every remaining drop of life-force to reverse it, but it was too late. I couldn’t protect you, and I’ve spent the last two hundred years atoning for it.“My attempt to reverse the curse instead merely kept it from killing you, like it did your father. Even worse, it allowed the curse to take on a form I never intended it to take, and it became sentient. A curse of this magnitude has to be cast with clear intentions, and mine changed the second I realized what I’d done. I tried my best to protect you throughout the years, Felix, but you still suffered so much, and words will never be able to convey the depth of my regret.”“I…” I’m uncertain what to say to her. If she’s been here all along, she must have heard me curse her, hate her. She would have seen me rip apart every single one of her belongings, removing every trace of her from my life.She smiles reassuringly, as though my thoughts are written all over my face. “All that matters to me is that you’re happy, Felix. Now that you are, I can be at peace. But I couldn’t move on without asking you for forgiveness. Everything you’ve been through… the pain you suffered… perhaps this curse was not meant for you, but you were the one that bore the consequences, and for that, I am eternally regretful.”“If I don’t forgive you, will you stay?”Her expression shifts into one that is a blend of sorrow and love. “My sweet son, if I could, I would never leave you. However, I must. The Fates are calling me, and I cannot resist them.”Her body shimmers, as though she struggles to stay corporeal. I reach for her, my hand going straight through her.“I love you, Felix.”She smiles at me, and heartbreak unlike anything I’ve ever known rushes through me, tearing my very soul apart. “I forgive you,” I whisper.My mother fades from view, and the energy in the palace changes, almost as though it’s mourning her loss. I sink down to my knees and inhale shakily, my mind reeling. Could it be true? Was my hatred for her misguided all along? I never heard her words myself, I’ve only ever heard them repeated back to me as a child… by my father.“Forgive me,” I whisper into the empty room, knowing deep in my heart that her words ring true. I knew it the moment she appeared and protected me from Pythia.“Felix, my love?” I inhale deeply and rise to my feet, vowing to honor my mother’s memory the way I always should have. I turn toward my wife, meeting her concerned gaze. “Arabella,” I murmur, my voice breaking. “Shall we have a portrait painted of my mother?”She smiles at me then, her whole face transformed with pure joy. “I would love that.”I walk up to her and take her into my arms, my lips coming down on hers. Happiness… we found it at last.