It was a cruel curse.
And he had been powerless to stop it.

She was sixteen when he dared to knock on her window.
She opened the window, book in hand, and knocked him off the still. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?"
"I'm sorry."
"I defeated you! I won! You have no power over me! Toby is-wait, what?"
"I'm sorry. So sorry. It took me so long to say it. I'm sorry."
She stood there silently, book held in midair.

He sat staring at the golden cage.
"A gilded cage is still a cage," he whispered softly, sticking his fingers through the bars to stroke the soft feathers. The owl watched him with golden eyes. She fluffed herself lightly.
"I'm sorry. Again."

On her eighteenth birthday, he sent her small crystal balls made into earrings. She hesitantly wore them at first until she realized that he couldn't watch her through them.
He promised.
He told the truth.

Every night, the raven haired beauty descended the staircase of the crystal ballroom to dance. She whirled about the floor, dance partner to dance partner, a ghost of herself.
He remembered everything, of course, even if she didn't.
She was the belle of the ball. But she was always looking for something.
Him.

He began to visit her occasionally, tagging along with Hoggle and Sir Didymus but often leaving before they did.
They were on good terms, all of them, but he didn't want to press his luck with her.

Every inch of his being longed to leap from his place in the shadows and dance with her. But he had tried that before.
He had found that wolves could not dance. She had known him though. She had not been afraid.
Those who did not know of the curse avoided him, casting wary glances at his fangs and dark fur.
Those who did know also avoided him. There was nothing they could do.

He should have known there would be those that would not take kindly to his courting of a mortal, those that had forgotten they'd all been mortal once too...
He should have never burned those bridges...
He should never have let down his guard...

There was that one, torturous moment between night and day. The instant before sunlight covered them, she knew who she was, who he was.
And they were human, and together.
But there was only time for one word, one single word, and then she would be bound, trapped as an owl in a gilded cage.
And the moment before nightlight released her and bound him was the same.

They were sitting along on a quiet park bench Aboveground when one of his enemies appeared.
"You want to defy everything?" shrieked the angry immortal. "Be my guest! But you shall do so alone!"
And he cursed them.
Always together. Always apart.

There was no moon in the Undergound. And the moon, an old symbol of irrationality (and thus, in a way, love), was one way to break the curse, said one old scholar. Moonlight should change her into human, since it was a nightlight, and should change him human, since it was also a reflection of the sun.
Another claimed that they must find a place where the shadows are just right, so he can become human while she is and proclaim his everlasting love to her.
He knew that she held the key to breaking the curse. It was given it to her that day in the Labyrinth when she refused him.
Refuse one immortal, break one's power, and then none have power over you.
But like everything in his Kingdom, one has to say the right words.

If only she could remember the words...

A cage formed itself around her every day. Otherwise, they would've flown to Aboveground and waited for moonlight a long time ago.
"At least this way," he mused to himself one day as she preened, "she has become immortal."