Hades' Cursed Luna novel Chapter 352

Chapter 352: Unlikely Antagonist

Hades

The funeral was over.

But the mourning had not ended.

Outside the greenhouse, the soil was soft, freshly turned, rich with the scent of earth and rain from the night before. A silver-dusted clearing had been chosen—quiet, shielded by weeping willows and whispering vines. The air was cooler here, but not cold. It was the kind of place Danielle would have loved—wild, half-forgotten, and full of promise.

The capsule had been lowered with reverence beneath the roots of an ancient moonbark tree. Now, the earth had been returned, gently packed, and smoothed over until only the subtle mound remained.

A single marble stone sat at the head, unmarked for now.

Instead of a name, a row of moon lilies had been laid around it in a crescent—Danielle’s favorite shape. The new soil seemed to breathe beneath them.

Montegue stepped forward first, his usually impassive face twisted with a quiet ache.

He knelt stiffly, pressed one hand into the dirt, then rose without a word.

Lucinda followed, pressing a single white rosebud into the earth and whispering something too soft to hear. Her veil fluttered like wings in the breeze.

One by one, they came.

Silas. Gallinti. The Eastern and Western Alphas. Kael.

Cain lingered longer than the others. He knelt, planted a deep violet orchid, and bowed his head, whispering something in an ancient tongue. Eve tilted her head, barely catching the words:

"Let her bloom where we failed to."

Then it was Elliot’s turn.

He held a tiny sprout in his hands—something he’d grown himself. A sun blossom. Yellow, bright, and stubborn like he was.

He knelt, dug with his bare hands, and placed it near the base of the tree.

Then he sat back and stared.

Eve came next.

She knelt beside him, brushing soil from his hands before tucking her own flower beside his—a pale blue chrysanthemum. She didn’t say a word, only brushed her fingers over the petals once before rising.

And then there was me.

I hesitated.

All I had was a seed.

Something Danielle had pressed into my hand long ago, on a day when the war felt far away and the future something we might survive.

"Plant it when we’re free," she’d said.

I never did.

I never believed we would be.

But I did now.

Not in the way she meant. But in a way that counted.

I dug my fingers into the soil and planted it.

Not for her return.

But for her rest.

As I rose, I looked back at the people she had shaped with her love, her absence, her memory.

And I realized this garden wouldn’t just be hers.

It was ours.

A place to return when the world became too much.

When the war came again.

When Elliot needed a place to speak to someone who would always listen.

Eve slipped her hand into mine.

And for a while, we just stood there, surrounded by the soft rustle of leaves, the scent of lilies and soil, and the quiet ache of parting. The last petals had been laid, the last words whispered into the earth. Even grief had begun to settle into silence.

Montegue gave a slow nod. "We’ll begin the closing rites."

He raised a ceremonial staff, tapping it gently into the earth three times as Lucinda chanted the first of the parting verses.

The garden fell into hushed reverence once more.

But then—

A voice broke through it all.

"—Lies! That’s all they’ve fed us!"

A sharp shout rang out from the far edge of the garden.

Everyone turned.

An Obsidian Alpha, one of the younger Western liaisons, stormed forward, eyes wide, his tablet still glowing in his hand.

"Alpha Bren," Kael barked, stepping in, brows furrowed. "This is sacred ground."

But the man didn’t bow. Didn’t still. He looked haunted. Furious.

He shoved the screen toward Kael. "You need to see this. Now."

Kael took it with a scowl—ready to reprimand him—until his gaze dropped.

Then everything about him stilled.

Color drained from his face.

Kael turned to me, the wind cutting through the quiet like a blade.

"Your Majesty," he said, voice tight. "You have to see this."

I stepped forward, heart already beginning to beat faster, and took the screen.

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