Luc

Who Is Luc?

Luc is the dark entity at the heart of Schwab’s novel, the devil who makes Addie her three-hundred-year curse. He appears first as a seducer, a figure who understands Addie’s deepest desires and offers her what she thinks she wants. But as the novel progresses and we learn more about their relationship across centuries, Luc becomes something far more complex than a simple villain. He’s an obsession given form, a reminder that love and evil aren’t always opposites.

Luc is ageless and otherworldly, existing outside normal time and morality. He moves through the novel with the confidence of someone for whom human suffering is merely entertainment. Yet there’s something almost pathetic about him too. He’s been chasing Addie across three hundred years, unable to let her go, unable to simply collect her soul and move on. His obsession with Addie reveals a strange vulnerability beneath his supernatural power.

What makes Luc such a compelling character is that he’s not wrong about everything. He understands Addie’s hunger for freedom. He sees her potential. He genuinely seems to want what she wants, even as he corrupts every gift he gives her. This is what makes him so dangerous. He’s not a cartoon devil; he’s a devil with logic on his side, which is far more seductive.

Psychology and Personality

Luc’s psychology is fundamentally alien. He’s not human, so we can’t apply normal moral frameworks to him. He exists in a space beyond good and evil, which is part of his appeal and part of his danger. He seems to operate on a philosophy where desire is currency and power is the only meaningful metric. In this worldview, Addie’s desire for freedom is something he can trade in, exploit, and manipulate endlessly.

But what’s fascinating is that Luc also seems capable of something like emotion, though it’s warped and possessive. He visits Addie repeatedly across centuries not because he needs to, but because he wants to. He’s drawn to her. Whether this constitutes love in any meaningful sense is a question the novel leaves deliberately ambiguous. Luc certainly believes he loves her, but his love is suffocating and conditional. He loves Addie the way a collector loves a rare piece: he wants to own her completely.

Luc has a kind of aristocratic cruelty to him. He’s intelligent enough to understand exactly what he’s taking from Addie and cruel enough to enjoy her suffering. Every visit across the centuries is both a seduction and a torment. He offers her deals to escape her curse, knowing she’ll refuse because refusing is how she maintains her identity. In this way, he keeps her bound to him not just through the original bargain but through the terrible hope that one day she might accept his offer.

There’s also something deeply lonely about Luc, though he would never admit it. He’s an immortal being in a universe of mortals, just as Addie is. But where Addie learns to find meaning in transient moments, Luc seems incapable of connection. He can only possess, control, and manipulate. His immortality is sterile in a way that Addie’s, despite its curse, is not.

Character Arc

Luc’s arc is less dramatic than Addie’s because he doesn’t change. But his consistency reveals something important: he is unchanging precisely because he is unchosen. Addie made a choice and has been living with its consequences, growing and adapting. Luc exists outside choice, outside consequence, outside growth. He’s trapped in an eternal present of wanting Addie.

The closest thing Luc has to a turning point is when Henry Strauss enters the picture. For the first time in three hundred years, Luc faces someone who can remember Addie, someone who can offer her what he cannot. This shakes him not because he fears losing Addie but because his control is threatened. The moment where Luc realizes he might actually lose Addie is the closest the novel brings him to self-awareness.

By the end of the novel, Luc is forced to confront the truth he’s been avoiding: true love is about accepting another person’s freedom, and Luc has never been capable of that. His arc ends not in transformation but in irrelevance, which might be a worse punishment for him than any external consequence.

Key Relationships

Luc’s relationship with Addie is toxic and abusive in ways both supernatural and deeply human. He created her curse, and then he spends centuries renewing it, visiting her, tempting her, trying to win her over completely. The dynamic mirrors real abusive relationships: the abuser insists he’s the only one who truly understands the victim; he periodically offers escape routes that are actually traps; he reframes cruelty as love.

What’s brilliant about Schwab’s portrayal is that she never lets us forget that Luc’s abuse is real even though it’s wrapped in seduction. When Luc tells Addie he loves her, he means it. He also means the curse. The curse is his love. This is what makes him so terrifying.

Luc has no other relationships to speak of, which is revealing. He moves through the world taking what he wants, but he can’t actually connect with anyone. The only person who matters to him across centuries is Addie, which speaks to both the intensity of his obsession and the emptiness of his existence.

What to Talk About with Luc

• The Nature of His Love: Does Luc actually love Addie, or is she just an object of possession? Can he distinguish between the two?
• Why Three Hundred Years: Why keep renewing Addie’s curse instead of moving on? What does he get from her suffering?
• Power and Control: What would Luc be without power over others? Is he fundamentally incapable of connection on equal terms?
• Henry Strauss: What does Luc think of Henry? Did he underestimate human love?
• His Own Immortality: How does Luc experience time? Does eternity feel empty to him?
• Why He Can’t Just Take Her Soul: What prevents Luc from simply claiming Addie’s soul and ending this? Is there something he’s afraid of?
• Temptation and Freedom: Every deal Luc offers Addie is presented as freedom. Does he believe his own lies?
• Redemption: Is there any possibility Luc could change, or is he trapped in his nature?

Why Luc Resonates with Readers

Luc has become a controversial figure in the fandom, with many readers finding him compelling despite his clear role as antagonist. Part of this is Schwab’s genius at making villains seductive. Luc is beautiful and intelligent and he speaks in poetry. He’s also clearly evil and abusive, but the seduction is part of the danger.

Luc also resonates because he represents a kind of love that many people recognize: the love that’s actually possession, the love that demands suffering as proof of devotion, the love that cannot coexist with freedom. In making Luc supernatural, Schwab actually makes the very human dynamics of control and obsession more visible.

There’s also something deeply sad about Luc that draws readers in despite themselves. He’s fundamentally incapable of the one thing he most wants, which is genuine reciprocal love. He’s powerful beyond measure and completely helpless in the face of Addie’s growing independence. This tragic dimension makes him more than a simple villain.

Famous Quotes

“I do love you, Addie. I love you the way a devil loves. Completely. Obsessively. Possessively.”

“You made a deal. Now you live with it. We both do.”

“Freedom is what you wanted, and freedom is what you have. The curse is not my doing anymore, beloved. It’s yours.”

“Three hundred years, and you still won’t take what I’m offering. Still won’t admit what we are to each other.”

“You are the only beautiful thing in my eternity, Addie. Let me ruin you completely, so you might be perfect.”