The story curse is a motif throughout the novel and one of the most powerful and well-known spells in the Magnificent North. As revealed in A Curse for True Love, the story curse was cast by the Valors centuries ago to protect Castor. After Castor died, the Valors brought him back to life, which turned him into a vampire. Not wanting people to fear him or discover what they’d done, initially the Valors cast the curse to affect only stories about vampires. However, the inherent magic of the North expanded the curse, and it now affects all written tales. The story curse connects to The Foundations of Power, highlighting how whoever controls a narrative has the power to shape it. 

Yet the story curse also subverts this notion by giving the power to shape the story to the curse itself. In A Curse for True Love, the story curse first appears when it sets fire to a scroll Apollo tries to read, as well as when it tries to tell the truth of Evangeline’s love with Jacks, rather than Apollo. In the latter case, the curse fundamentally changes Evangeline’s history depending on which version of the story it shows.