Aimee's POV
As we walked through the forest in silence, the dawn casting its gentle glow on the path, I couldn't help but watch James carefully. Each step we took brought him a little further from the burden he had carried alone for so long, but I knew that some things don't fade easily. The curse may have been weakened, but the scars it left in its wake wouldn't simply disappear. I felt that if I were patient enough, if I just stayed beside him, perhaps he'd see that he didn't have to face those shadows on his own anymore.
He'd opened up to me, told me things I never imagined he would. And as he spoke, I saw the glimpses of who he was underneath it all, beneath the layers of guilt and the years of solitude he'd endured. James wasn't his curse; he wasn't the darkness. He was so much more. But I knew it would take time for him to believe that himself.
