Hades' Cursed Luna novel Chapter 247

Eve

My eyes snapped open in an instant and all I saw was...

Black.

Pitch black that seemed to seep into my skin, fueling my panic and utter confusion. I got on my feet, feeling light despite the dread that was weighing my gut down.

I surveyed my environment blindly, unable to make sense of where I now found myself. I walked around, sensing a presence in the void that I instinctively began to run away from.

As I kept moving, ensuring I stayed alert, I found myself trying to recall how I could have ended up here.

Where was Hades...

Then it dawned on me, hitting harder than the anvil in my gut—what exactly had happened.

"You should have kept running."

His voice was like a drop of ink in clear water—corrupting and spreading until it tainted everything.

"You should have kept running."

Hades' voice echoed through the void again, laced with betrayal, venom, and something worse—finality.

I clutched my head as the weight of it bore down on me. Images flickered behind my closed eyelids—Amelia's convulsing body, the guards storming in, the syringe, the sting in my neck, his arms... the warmth that turned to ice.

"No," I whispered, backing away from nothing and everything. "No—he wouldn't—he wouldn't do that to me."

But he had.

And suddenly, the darkness wasn't empty anymore.

It trembled.

It breathed.

A low growl rippled through the void, like thunder pulled through teeth. A shape moved—massive, burning with spectral fire beneath its skin. Not terrifying.

Familiar.

"Rhea?" I choked out, taking a step toward her.

From the darkness, she emerged—not as a shadow behind my mind, but fully formed. Towering. Trembling. Her fur shimmered with stardust, but her eyes were dim, as though she had been fighting something... and losing.

"You're not supposed to be here," she rasped. Her voice was hoarse, like she'd been screaming for hours. "This isn't your domain."

I stepped closer. "Where am I?"

She turned her head, ears flicking as though listening for something I couldn't hear. "You're in mine. The plane between body and spirit. You were pulled here after the injection. This is where I reside."

"Nerexylin," I breathed, understanding dawning. "It was supposed to drag me into my worst memories—"

"And it tried," she snapped, her canines bared—not at me, but at the air itself. "It tried to devour you. Tear open every scar. Every scream. Every death."

I looked around again. "Then why am I not seeing anything?"

Rhea's massive shoulders rose and fell with every breath, her muscles twitching beneath the shimmering veil of her coat. She was fighting—constantly. I hadn't realized it until now, how much tension coiled through her posture, how violently the shadows around us buckled and strained with every second she held them back.

"Because I'm holding them," she growled, her voice tight with effort. "Barely."

I took another step forward, and that's when it happened.

The blackness around us cracked.

Just a sliver. Like glass fracturing under pressure.

And through it—

The crack vanished. _{freeweɓnovel.cѳm}

I stared at her, tears threatening. "I don't want to leave you alone in this."

Her eyes softened then. For the first time, her voice wavered—not from exhaustion, but from love. "I will be fine. I am centuries old. This is nothing." She tried to assure me. "You have to go now before it is too late. The narrative has already been tainted against you, and with more manipulation and lies, there will be no going back to the way you were."

Hades.

She was speaking about Hades.

"He loves me. He will... listen," but then I felt the prickle again, and conviction leaked out of my voice.

"You were betrayed by your blood, my dear. You should learn by now that treachery birthed from distrust and anger by those that you love the most is as common as rain in the storm season—unpredictable, relentless, and always soaking deepest where you thought you were safe."

Another crack. Another pulse of red.

But this time, Rhea didn't flinch.

She stood tall and turned her head toward me, her voice quieter now—firm, resolute. "But we have each other. And the goddess forbid I let you suffer again."

I choked on my breath as the shadows pulsed again, pushing harder.

Rhea lowered her head until our eyes met. "Go and speak. He is waiting."

"Will he listen?"

Her silence was answer enough.

But she nuzzled my shoulder anyway, like a farewell. "Speak anyway."

The void cracked again—

And light swallowed me whole.