CajunValkyrie
The Man Who Learned to Love
For more than a century, Silas Cole has been cursed to live forever.
Once a ruthless outlaw in the American Wild West, Silas committed a terrible act that brought him face-to-face with an angel who appeared to him as a Native American man. Rather than kill him, the angel cursed Silas with immortality and gave him a riddle:
"When another's life becomes more precious to you than your own, the curse will end."
Silas spends centuries searching for the meaning behind those words. Everyone he loves eventually dies, leaving him convinced that immortality is not a gift, but a punishment. He becomes a bounty hunter, soldier, bodyguard, and wanderer-always surviving, never truly living.
Then he meets Christmas, a young woman whose mother named her after the holiday because she wanted her daughter to represent faith, family, hope, and love. But Christmas has begun to lose faith in those very things after life repeatedly breaks her heart.
Despite their differences, Silas and Christmas slowly become each other's refuge. She teaches him that love isn't about avoiding loss, and he teaches her that even after suffering, life can still hold meaning.
When Christmas discovers Silas's secret, she learns that beneath the hardened outlaw is a man who has spent centuries grieving and longing for death.
But when the angel finally returns, Silas is faced with the true meaning of the riddle.
He must choose between his own life and the life of the woman he loves.
And for the first time in his existence, Silas chooses someone else.
In doing so, he finally learns the lesson the angel wanted him to understand:
Love is not about possessing someone, saving someone, or being loved in return.
Sometimes love means putting another person's life before your own.
And after centuries of searching for a way to die...
Silas finally learns how to live.