Hades' Cursed Luna novel Chapter 118

118 /334

Eve

"It was Eve!" I screamed, tearing myself away from him. "She did this to me!" Bile burned the back of my throat, tears prickling my eyes as I prepared for the horrible things I was going to say... against myself.

I wrapped my arms around myself, fighting the chill of self-hatred. "She cursed me—she cursed us all!"

Hades stilled, his gaze sharpening with predatory interest as I broke. "What did you say?" he demanded, his voice low, dangerous.

I sucked in a shuddering breath, tears prickling my eyes as I forced myself to continue, every word slashing deeper into my own heart. "She cursed me right before she died—right before they executed her. She screamed it for all to hear. They thought she was mad, but she wasn’t. She was vindictive." I lifted my gaze to his, my expression trembling and hollow. "And the curse took root. Everything went to hell after that."

Hades’ stare bore into me, searching for cracks in my story. I pressed on, desperation clawing at me as I spun the web tighter.

"After she died, the pack fell apart. At first, no one wanted to believe it was because of her. But I knew. I felt it." My voice broke, my hands trembling as I gripped my arms tighter. "The threat of war grew worse. Your pack, the Obsidian Pack started tearing into us, pressuring us with every passing month. We couldn’t fight back. We couldn’t!"

Hades tilted his head, his suspicion laced with a flicker of intrigue. "Why not?"

"The economy crumbled," I whispered. "Our trade routes failed, and our embassadors got greedy. There was so much corruption. You saw the slums. It was like the pack itself turned its back on itself. The curse was everywhere, like rot spreading through everything we touched."

My voice shook as I pushed through the memories I was twisting into a believable lie. "And me…" I laughed bitterly, the sound hollow. "I wasn’t spared either. I lost everything. The man I loved—he was torn away from me. Because of her. I was forced to marry you." I spat the last words like they tasted of ash, though my eyes betrayed the grief I couldn’t fully fake. "To the king of the very pack destroying mine. It’s the curse, Hades. The curse she left behind—and I’ve carried it with me ever since."

A silence as heavy as stone fell between us. Hades watched me, his dark eyes glinting with thought, his expression unreadable. "So what you’re saying," he began slowly, his voice smooth and dangerous, "is that you believe you brought the curse with you… to me."

I froze, my heart skipping a beat. This was the edge of the cliff, the moment where the lie could shatter or solidify.

"You don’t know what you’re doing to me," I echoed his words back to him. "You said it when the black veins twisted through your body and turned your into something wrong. Something cursed."

I swallowed hard, lowering my gaze as if in shame. "Yes," I whispered, my voice barely audible. "So I… I think I did. I think I brought it to you. I didn’t mean to. But every step I take seems to leave ruin behind. I don’t know how to stop it."

Hades moved then, sudden and swift, and I flinched as his fingers caught my chin, forcing me to look up into his searing gaze. His eyes burned with fury, but deeper than that, something darker—something almost vulnerable.

"You think you did this to me," he said, his tone a razor’s edge. "You think your curse touched me?"

Tears welled in my eyes as I nodded, my voice trembling. "You were fine before I came. Weren’t you? Before me, you were strong, untouchable. But now…" My throat tightened as I thought of his violent transformations, the black veins spreading like cracks across him. "Now you’re suffering. You’re breaking, just like everything else around me. Just like I did. It’s her. It’s the curse she left behind."

Hades stared at me, his expression a storm of rage and uncertainty. His fingers loosened on my chin, sliding to the side of my face, the touch as infuriatingly tender as it was possessive.

"Is that what you think?" he whispered, his voice a low growl. "That you’ve ruined me?"

I swallowed thickly, tears finally spilling down my cheeks. "I don’t want to believe it. But it’s the only thing that makes sense. I thought I could run from her, from what she did to me. But curses don’t die with the dead, Hades. They cling to the living."

His thumb brushed away a tear, his touch almost gentle, and for a moment, I thought I saw the cracks in him. The beast who had tormented me now looked at me with something raw, something I didn’t want to name.

"You thought you were the one hurting me?" He asked.

I nodded feebly.

Hades stared at me for what felt like an eternity, his dark gaze unrelenting, as though he were peeling back every layer of my soul to find the truth. Then, abruptly, he laughed—a deep, sharp sound that sent shivers crawling over my skin.

"That," he said, his voice dripping with amusement, "is ridiculous, Red."

My heart stuttered, and my breath caught as I watched him. He leaned in closer, his hands sliding from my face to my jaw, his grip deceptively soft as his eyes glittered with a mix of amusement and condescension.

"You truly believe that?" he continued, his lips curling into a smirk. "You, bringing ruin to me? You, cursing me? You’re so far in over your head, my darling." Hades’ thumb lingered on my cheek, his touch disarmingly gentle despite the sharpness of his words. "You’re so far in over your head, my darling," he murmured, shaking his head with mock disbelief. "You truly think this curse nonsense holds weight?"

I opened my mouth to speak, but he cut me off with a chuckle—soft, almost teasing—as if the very idea amused him to no end. "You?" he repeated, his voice dipping into something far smoother, almost coaxing. "The storm that brought me to my knees?" He leaned closer, his lips hovering just inches from mine, his dark gaze still locked onto me. "Darling, I’ve fought wars, killed kings, and tamed beasts far worse than curses whispered by dead girls."

My lips trembled, but before I could say anything, he brushed a stray tear from my cheek with his knuckle, the motion careful, as if afraid I might break. "Red, listen to me," he said softly, his voice losing that edge of mockery, replaced by something quieter. Something almost sympathetic. "I don’t know what twisted stories you’ve convinced yourself of, but this… this curse you’re carrying like a cross? It’s not real."

"You don’t understand," I whispered, forcing my voice to break, hoping he would hear the rawness as sincerity. "This is why I didn’t tell you. This is why I couldn’t tell you. You think I’m crazy—"

"You’re not crazy," Hades interrupted, his voice gentle now, a stark contrast to the storm that had roared in him just moments ago. His grip on my jaw softened, his thumb tracing an idle path along my skin as though soothing me. "You’re tired. You’re hurting. And you’re too damn stubborn to let anyone shoulder it for you."

His words struck somewhere deep, where my lies blended too easily with truths I didn’t want to confront. I pulled away slightly, wrapping my arms around myself again as I looked at him, frustration etched across my features.